Dark of the Moon

‘Should we start getting ready?’ the Flea says. ‘So we can leave as soon as the sun comes up?’

Cruz nods and he and Dan get to their feet and head over to the boat. After giving Belle a quick hug, the Flea jumps up and goes to pack his things.

‘I’ll sit with you, Belle,’ I say, noticing that she’s starting to look freaked out again. I shuffle up and put my arm round her. Her shoulder blades feel bony beneath her T-shirt. I think back to the digs Jenna and Cariss made about her being overweight before we left and it makes me feel sick.

‘Why did you run off just now?’ Belle whispers to me.

I try to think of an answer that won’t make me sound like a fruit loop, and won’t totally freak Belle out. ‘I don’t know. Frustration, I guess. I just wanted to find the person who’s behind all the weird stuff that’s happened here.’

Belle looks at me, but her eyes are blank. ‘The person who took me?’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘Do you know who it is?’

My face instantly flushes. ‘No, of course not.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Sure I’m sure.’

Belle looks so stressed. Maybe I ought to tell her what I know – or at least, what I think I know about Hortense. But then I see Belle’s mom’s broken necklace glinting in her hand. And I remember what the Flea told us about her mom being diagnosed with cancer right before we left. I can’t tell her anything. It’ll just make her even more upset.

‘We don’t know any more than you,’ I tell her. ‘When we found you in the volcano whoever had taken you there had gone.’

Belle frowns. She doesn’t look all that convinced.

‘I’m just going down to the water to wash the sand out of my trainers,’ the Flea says, coming over to us. ‘You okay, Beau-Belle?’

Belle nods.

‘Cool. I won’t be long and then I’ll help you get your stuff together, ’kay?’

‘Okay.’ As soon as he’s gone, Belle turns back to me. ‘Hold my hand, Grace,’ she whispers.

Still keeping my arm round her, I take hold of her hand and squeeze it tightly. Despite the humidity it’s as cold as ice. ‘You’re gonna be okay,’ I tell her, softly.

She closes her eyes and leans into me.‘Thank you,’ she sighs.

I glance over at Cruz. He and Dan are engrossed in checking out the sail on the boat.

I’m about to tell Belle what they’re doing when I see the Flea racing back toward us, a look of horror on his face.

‘What is it? What’s wrong?’ I call out to him.

‘What’s happening?’ Belle says, gripping my hand tightly.

‘It’s okay, it’s the Flea,’ I tell her as he gets back to us, gasping for breath. ‘What’s the matter?’

The Flea just stands there, his mouth hanging open, but no words coming out.

‘Hey, what’s up?’ Dan says, coming over with Cruz right behind him.

‘Th-the boat,’ the Flea stammers.

‘It’s okay, Dan and I just checked it again,’ Cruz says.

‘No, not that boat. The boat. Our boat. Your boat – the one the others took,’ the Flea says, looking straight at Cruz.

Cruz instantly looks alarmed. ‘What about it?’

The Flea gulps. ‘It – it’s been washed up on the beach. It’s totally trashed.’

As we run down the beach all I can think of is Jenna. And all I can hear is her voice, soft and scared, when we were trapped in the hold during the storm when this nightmare all began.

‘Grace, what’s happening? Are we going to die? ’

I can see a dark shape at the water’s edge. It looks like a beached whale. But as I get closer I see it’s the hull of the boat. There’s a huge jagged hole in the side, like something took a great bite out of it.

‘Oh no!’ My knees give way and I sink down on to the wet sand. My mind flashes back to the moment when I was left alone on the deck and I thought the waves were going to sweep me away. The idea of that actually happening to the others is so unbearable I can barely breathe.

The Flea starts pacing up and down.‘I don’t get it. I just don’t get it. There hasn’t been a storm. There hasn’t been a storm!’ he yells up at the sky, like he’s hollering at the weather gods.

‘Can someone please help me?’ Belle calls.

I wipe the tears from my eyes and clamber to my feet. We’d told Belle to wait by the trees but she’s stumbling blindly down the beach toward us.

‘I’ll go get her,’ the Flea says.

I nod. Dan and Cruz begin inspecting what’s left of the boat. For a second, fear has me frozen to the spot. I don’t know if I want to see any more. I force myself to walk over to them. The sea water feels icy against my warm feet and sends an instant chill through my body.

‘How – how bad is it?’ I ask them from the other side of the boat.

‘It’s bad,’ Dan replies. I’ve never heard him so serious.

I look at Cruz and he shakes his head.

Bile burns at the back of my throat and I fight the urge to retch. As I walk round the battered hull, water sloshes up to my knees.

The inside of the boat is an empty shell. The deck has been ripped out and only the floorboards of the hold remain. I look at Cruz frantically. ‘How did this happen? Is it storm damage? I don’t understand.’

Cruz frowns. ‘I do not know. They could have been caught in a storm but I don’t see how we wouldn’t have known about it. They would not have got that far from here with no engine. And for the boat to be so badly damaged . . .’ He crouches down and examines the hole in the hull. ‘It looks like it is caused by rocks. But how?’

We all look at each other blankly.

‘Well, the life jackets are gone so they must be wearing them, right?’ I look at Dan hopefully, like he’ll know exactly what’s happened.

But Dan’s looking past me, at the sea. ‘Uh-oh.’

‘What?’ I turn and follow his gaze.

Something square and white is bobbing towards us. We watch as a wave rolls in and deposits it on the sand, as if to say, You think the boat’s bad, look what I got for you this time.

My heart plummets. It’s a case – a vanity case. Jenna’s vanity case. I stride back out of the water and grab the handle. Then I collapse down on to the ground, hugging the case to me as if it’s Jenna herself.

‘Why did you have to leave?’ I cry. ‘Why?’

In a flash Cruz, Dan, the Flea and Belle are surrounding me.

‘It’s okay,’ Cruz says gently. ‘You’re right, there are no life jackets. They could have been rescued.’

‘Yeah,’ Dan says, ‘for all we know they could have been picked up from the boat before it even got wrecked.’

‘There’s no way Jenna would go anywhere without her vanity case,’ I sniff.

‘True,’ the Flea says.‘But hey, they might have been rescued in a hurry. She might not have had time to get it.’

I nod, desperately hoping that he’s right.

‘So, what do we do now?’ the Flea says.

‘What do you mean?’ Belle asks nervously.

‘Well, do we really want to go anywhere in a boat after this? I mean, hello, we don’t even have any life jackets.’

We all look at Cruz. He frowns. ‘The boat we found is in much better condition than this one though . . .’

‘No kidding,’ Dan says, looking at the wreck.

‘No, I mean, even before they left, this boat was not truly seaworthy,’ Cruz says. ‘Why do you think I didn’t already take you guys in it? There was a lot of structural damage after the storm. But the boat we have now,’ he nods, ‘it is in great condition.’

‘But what if we get hit by a storm too?’ the Flea says.

‘We can’t stay here!’ Belle yells, making us all jump.

The Flea looks at her, concerned. ‘We have to be careful, honey.’

‘We can’t stay here! ’ Belle’s practically screaming now.

We all look at each other.

‘It’s okay,’ I say. ‘We’re going to leave as soon as sun’s up, right?’ I call over to the others.

‘Right,’ Dan and Cruz say, followed by a slightly reluctant Flea.

I look at the silhouette of the volcano looming above the rainforest. The sky behind it is turning purple. ‘It won’t be long now,’ I say, taking hold of Belle’s hands. They’re still cold as ice. ‘Come on, you’re freezing, let’s get back to the fire.’

Picking up Jenna’s case, I lead Belle back to the fire and put some fresh sticks on it. The flames leap up hungrily.

‘I have to get out of here, Grace,’ Belle whispers. ‘I have to get back to my mom.’

‘I know. And you will.’ I sit down next to her and put my arm around her. Then I look up the beach to the shadowy outline of the rainforest. My skin feels prickly with fear. Are you there? I say to Hortense in my head, but the only reply I get is the sudden squawk of a parrot.

‘Cruz will get us all out of here,’ I say firmly, trying to convince myself just as much as Belle. ‘Listen, the birds are waking up. It’ll soon be sunrise.’

‘Come on, Beau-Belle, let’s go get your stuff together,’ the Flea says, coming over and helping her up.

Dan and Cruz start pulling the wreck of the boat further up the beach. I look down at Jenna’s case and feel the sudden urge to open it. As I undo the zip, water trickles out on to my fingers. Inside is surprisingly messy for Jenna, but then I realise that she must have had to pack in a hurry once they decided to leave without us. Hurt crushes my heart. I guess years of friendship don’t just disappear over night, no matter how bad things had become between us.

I think back to the last time I saw Jenna, looking down at me from the boat while I pleaded with her to stay. Will that be the last time I ever see her? I shove the thought from my mind and take her hair straighteners from the case. Just the very notion of hair straighteners seems crazy now. What does any of that stuff matter – hair straighteners, make-up, the latest look – when, at any moment, life can hurl you face to face with death?

I rummage further and feel the cover of a small, hardback book. I pull it out and open it. The first page is covered in Jenna’s handwriting but the water has caused the ink to run so the words are just one long bumpy line. Is it her journal? I feel a weird mixture of guilt and longing. I know it’s wrong to read another person’s private thoughts but it might be the only way I get to hear Jenna’s voice again. I carefully turn to an inside page. Once again most of the words have bled together, but one line remains unspoilt:

I can’t believe I almost told G I slept with Todd, especially now we’re stuck on this

What the hell? I hold the writing up to the firelight. But my eyes aren’t playing tricks on me. It’s there in black and white. Jenna slept with my boyfriend. But when did she sleep with him? My mind starts rewinding furiously. Was it here on the island? Or back at home? It can’t have been here – it would have been physically impossible for them to sneak off without being noticed. So that means . . .

I feel sick as I think of how she questioned me over and over in the couple of weeks before we left about whether I was going to sleep with Todd on the cruise. My hands start shaking so hard I have to put the notebook down. I remember huddling next to Jenna in the hold of the boat after the storm hit. ‘I have to tell you something, Grace,’ she’d said, right after she asked me if we were going to die. Was that what she was going to tell me? Did she want to clear her conscience? I hug my knees to my chest and take a couple of slow, deep breaths. Even though Todd and I have broken up, it’s like Jenna’s reached out of her journal and socked me right in the stomach. I pick up the notebook and stumble to my feet. All that time I spent stressing about what I’d done to make her act so weird, and it was because she’d slept with my boyfriend. It was bad enough when I figured out she liked Todd, but this is the ultimate betrayal. So what if Todd and I weren’t right for each other. She was supposed to be my best friend.

I start pacing round the fire. She can’t have cared about me at all. She lied to me. She made me think she was the only person I could count on, and all the time . . . But she could be dead. The enormity of that realisation snuffs out my angry thoughts in an instant. I take one last look at the notebook then drop it on to the fire. A cloud of steam hisses up from it.

‘Grace, honey, are you okay?’ the Flea calls over from the cluster of trees where he’s helping Belle to pack.

‘I’m fine,’ I mumble, sitting back down. I glance back into the case and notice a glint of silver. I look closer. ‘Oh, no!’

‘What is it?’ The Flea starts walking over to me.

A silver chain is draped across Jenna’s nail polish remover. I take it out and hold it up to the firelight. A pendant sways on the end. A pendant engraved with a snake above the letter H – for Hortense.

‘The pendant!’ The Flea exclaims.

I nod numbly.

The Flea frowns and scratches his head. ‘How the heck did it get there? Where did you put it after we found it?’

I think back to when the pendant last appeared, by the HELP sign we’d made on the beach. Right after I’d seen someone trashing the sign. I’d taken it on to the boat – and flung it out to sea. So how had it ended up in Jenna’s case? I remember Hortense whispering to me in the forest and telling me that every time Jenna had hurt me she’d done something to hurt her back. Was this her way of letting me know that she’d wrecked the boat? Had she killed Jenna for me? Then I think of how that one single line in the journal had remained legible. Had Hortense somehow managed to preserve it from water damage – so that I would see it? So that I would discover the truth?

‘Where’s Cruz?’ I say, looking around frantically.

‘He’s right there, by the boat, honey.’The Flea takes hold of my arm. ‘What’s up?’

‘Is everything okay, Grace?’ Belle calls over from the trees.

‘Yes, I’m fine,’ I call back, but my voice is shrill. I turn to the Flea. ‘How’d the necklace get in her case?’ I whisper. ‘I threw it into the sea.’

The Flea frowns. ‘Why’d you do that?’

I start scuffing at the sand with my toe. ‘I – it was making me uneasy, the way it kept turning up all the time.’

The Flea raises his eyebrows. ‘Well, I guess it was washed up on the shore and Jenna took it. You know how mad she got when it went missing the first time.’

I nod and take a deep breath. I want to believe him. I really do. But fear keeps on clawing at my mind.

‘Okay, guys, are you ready?’ Cruz calls as he starts walking over from the boat.

I turn back to the fire and drop the pendant into the flames. I don’t care what Jenna did with Todd! I yell at Hortense inside my head. Just leave me alone. Leave us all alone! I wait for her reply, for her soft sinister voice to echo back at me, but again there’s nothing. All I hear are footsteps on the sand behind me. I turn and see Belle feeling around for my hand. I take hold of hers and grip it tight. Then I take a deep breath and look over at Cruz.

‘Let’s go,’ I say. I don’t care what kind of storms might be lurking out at sea. I have to get off this island. I have to get away from Hortense before she drives me insane.

As the boat pulls away from the shore I start shivering uncontrollably. This is it. If Hortense is going to pull a stunt to get us to stay she’s going to have to do it now. My throat feels so tight I can barely breathe. I close my eyes and think of Mom. Before Dad left and Mom’s life collapsed in on itself like a burst balloon, she was a total yoga nut. One time, when I was freaking out about my mid-term math paper, she taught me how focusing on my breathing could help me stay calm. I imagine her thick southern drawl now, reminding me what to do: ‘In through the nose, honey, out through the mouth. In through the nose, and out through the mouth .’

I keep on doing this as Dan and Cruz hoist the sail. A sudden breeze causes the faded fabric to billow and the boat picks up speed. It’s not until we’ve been going for a few minutes that I allow myself to look back. The sunrise is making the peak of the volcano glow so red it looks like it’s about to erupt. I look down at the beach. The pale sand is scarred with the scorched remains of our fires and, right in the middle, our HELP sign made of sticks. I think back to when we first arrived, and how beautiful and inviting the island had seemed after the terror of the storm. If only we’d known. I turn away and look out to sea. My heart is thumping like a bass drum. Please, please let us get away, I silently pray. At the other end of the boat, Cruz looks at me and smiles. But his eyes look anxious and I can tell he’s thinking the same as me – is it really going to be this simple?

A sudden breeze spins the sail round and we all duck as it narrowly misses our heads.

‘Shit!’ Cruz grabs hold of the sail and tries to steer the boat back on course, but the wind is too strong.

‘What is it? What’s happening?’ Belle asks.

‘It’s just getting a little breezy. No need to worry,’ the Flea says, but his voice is tight.

‘Help me,’ Cruz calls.

All of us, apart from Belle, grab hold of the sail, but even four of us aren’t strong enough to beat the force of the wind.

I look up at the sky, expecting to see storm clouds building, but it’s vivid blue.

‘At least we’re not being blown back to the island,’ the

Flea says.

Cruz frowns as he continues to battle with the sail. ‘We’re not getting away from it either, though.’

We’re speeding parallel to the island now, past the beach and the cove and on past a craggy wall of rainforest. It goes on and on. The island is way bigger than I’d imagined.

We all lean our weight into the sail, but it’s no good. The wind is like a force field locking it into place. Then it suddenly changes direction. The sail swings round until the boat is facing the island.

‘Oh no,’ the Flea says.

‘What is it?’ Belle asks.

‘Nothing,’ the Flea and I chorus, exchanging worried glances.

‘Come on!’ Cruz yells and once again we try shifting the sail.

‘Why’s it so windy? Is there a storm coming?’ Belle looks around blindly.

‘No, honey, it’s just a bit breezy now we’re further out,’ the Flea says. He turns to me and mouths the words, ‘What the hell?’

I shrug. Fear takes root in the pit of my stomach.

The boat is cutting across the water like a speedboat now as it’s sucked back in toward the island. But this time, there’s no wide beach to land on. All I can see is a forbidding wall of rainforest.

‘Shit. You think there’s gonna be rocks up ahead?’ Dan asks Cruz.

‘I don’t know,’ Cruz replies.

‘What are we going to do?’ the Flea says.

‘Will someone please tell me what’s going on?’ Belle sounds close to tears. I go sit down next to her.

‘The wind is blowing us back inland,’ I tell her.

‘Back to the beach?’ Belle’s eyes dart from side to side. She looks terrified.

‘No, we’ve come round to the other side of the island.’

‘Hey, take a look at that,’ Dan shouts, pointing straight ahead. He’s pointing to a small chink in the wall of green. As we get closer, the chink gets a little bigger.

‘It’s an inlet,’ Cruz cries.‘Okay, we have to try and steer the boat toward it.’

But we don’t have to steer at all. The boat is drawn to the narrow gap like a pea being sucked up by a straw. We all sigh with relief as we sail past jagged outcrops of rocks and into the opening.

‘Holy moley!’ the Flea exclaims. The inlet is so narrow the trees on either side meet overhead, forming a tunnel of green. A noisy chorus of squawks and screeches rings out around us, like a drunken band trumpeting our arrival. I look up and see two blood-red parrots watching us with beady black eyes. Their gnarled beaks are huge.

‘What’s happening now?’ Belle whispers.

‘We’re going down the inlet,’ I say.

Belle sighs and closes her eyes.

Dan takes his baseball cap off and gazes around. The Flea looks equally awestruck. Cruz stands at the prow of the boat, his shoulders broad and his back arrow-straight, as if he’s preparing for battle.

My stomach churns as I wonder what might be waiting for us at the other end of the tunnel. I think of Hortense and how she looked when we came across her in the forest – her wizened skin and claw-like fingers, and the horrific rasping noise she’d made when she chased us.

‘Look,’ Cruz says, pointing ahead.

In the distance I can see a glimmer of light. The boat carries on sailing toward it. I look around at the others and a terrible thought enters my mind. What if we’re sailing towards our death?

When we finally reach the end of the tunnel the inlet spills out into a huge lagoon. The water is bright turquoise, surrounded by a high wall of rainforest. It’s like floating inside a huge green bowl and it’s so breathtakingly beautiful that for a second I forget to be scared. I figure the others must be feeling the same, as they’re all gazing around, open-mouthed. Only Belle still looks tense.

‘Where are we?’ she asks.

‘I don’t know, but it looks uncannily like paradise!’ the Flea exclaims.

‘We’re in some kind of lagoon,’ I tell Belle. I start looking round for signs of anything sinister. As the boat drifts toward the far side of the lagoon I notice something moving on the rocks at the water’s edge.

‘Look, there’s someone there,’ I whisper.

‘Who is it?’ Belle hisses.

‘I’m not sure,’ the Flea says, squinting toward the shore.

We all sit in silence as the boat glides closer and closer to the land. Whoever it is they are sitting cross-legged on the rocks, facing away from us. All I can make out is that they’ve got cropped white-blond hair and deeply tanned skin.

Dan looks at us. ‘Should we call out to them?’

We all shrug, unsure what to do.

‘Well, they’re gonna see us soon enough,’ the Flea says, ‘so I guess it makes no difference.’ He carefully gets to his feet. ‘Hello!’

The figure jumps up and turns to face us. It’s a girl. She’s wearing a bright coral sundress.

The girl shields her eyes with a tanned hand and looks straight at us.

‘Oh my freakin’ God! I can’t believe there’s someone here!’ the Flea exclaims, looking back at us.

‘Yeah, and someone who doesn’t look like they’ve just escaped from the set of Dawn of the Dead,’ Dan says with a wry chuckle.

The girl starts running across the rocks toward us.

‘Who do you think she is?’ the Flea whispers.

‘How the hell should we know?’ Dan says, raising his eyebrows.

I look at Cruz. He shrugs.

‘Hello!’ the girl calls out as she reaches the water’s edge.

‘Hey!’ the Flea cries excitedly. He turns back to us, his eyes wide. ‘She speaks English!’

‘Who are you?’ the girl says in a clipped British accent. Then she starts to laugh. ‘I’m sorry – that sounds really rude. But – where have you come from?’

‘She doesn’t just speak English – she is English!’ the Flea whispers excitedly.

The girl starts wading through the water toward us. Her face is a perfect heart shape and she has the kind of welcoming eyes and wide smile that make you instantly feel at ease. As she gets closer I see a tiny silver nose stud glinting against her golden brown skin and a bright-blue butterfly tattooed on her wrist.

‘Are you okay?’ she asks, her eyes widening with concern as she gets closer to the boat.

‘Yes, we’re fine, thank you. Positively brilliant. Well, we are now we’ve found you!’ the Flea exclaims in his best British accent. ‘I’m Jimmy Patterson, but you can call me the Flea – everyone else does – and it is very nice to meet you!’ He extends his thin arm over the side of the boat to shake her hand.