Bitter Chocolate by Sally Grindley

Author:Sally Grindley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Hewer Text UK Ltd
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2010-05-27T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Shouts. Mr Camara smoking his cigarette, repairing the fence. Flames licking at the bamboo edges. Kamil flicking playing cards across the table for Pascal to catch, but he misses every time. Laughter. Bright white lights distorting through cut-diamond faces. Flames licking at pounding feet. Angeline throwing Bijou up in the air, over and over, until Bijou doesn’t come down again. Screams. Mrs Camara rocking in a chair, worrying. Mr Camara running away when Pascal tries to speak to him, running away when Pascal tries to speak to him, running away . . . Shouts. Loud, urgent.

‘Wake up, Pascal! Quick! There’s someone coming.’

Olivier was shaking him. Pascal didn’t know where he was. He sat up abruptly and looked around. Kamil was standing close by, staring into the distance.

‘We’ve gotta get out of here – now,’ Olivier hissed. ‘Come on, Kamil, don’t just stand there.’ He pulled Pascal to his feet. ‘Let’s go.’ He began to run, beckoning them to follow.

‘Come on, Kamil,’ Pascal urged.

He tugged at Kamil’s hand. A burst of gunfire made them both jump and, to Pascal’s relief, Kamil began to run with him, soon overtaking him. There were shouts and more gunfire. Pascal felt himself ducking automatically every time the shots rang out, though he had no idea if they were aimed at him. His legs and lungs were soon protesting. A small part of him wanted to give up and take whatever was coming, anything rather than go through the agony of trying to keep up with Olivier. Even Kamil had fallen behind him again now.

And then Pascal noticed that it had gone quiet. Deadly quiet. Ahead of them, Olivier kept running, but more slowly, and turned every so often to look around. At last, he stopped.

‘I think we’ve lost them,’ he puffed. ‘I can’t hear anything any more.’

‘How do you know it was us they were after? How do you know they weren’t on our side?’ Pascal asked.

‘It won’t be us they were after,’ Olivier replied. ‘But we don’t want to risk being caught, do we?’

‘But what if it was someone coming to find us?’

‘Pascal, nobody’s looking for us. Not now. Not yet.’

Pascal knew he was right, but he struggled to cope with the thought that they were all alone.

‘They’re all dead.’ Kamil spoke for the first time. ‘All of them. Dead.’

‘Shut up, Kamil,’ Olivier hissed. ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘Bang, bang, you’re dead!’ Kamil snorted.

A bullet smacked into a tree in front of them. Two men broke through a distant cover of bushes and headed towards them, shouting at them to stay where they were.

‘Run!’ Olivier shouted.

Pascal froze for a moment, then began to run for his life. Kamil didn’t move. Olivier yelled at him to follow but, as the men drew closer to him, Kamil fell to his knees and started to sob and plead and beg them to spare him. Pascal faltered, but his cousin spurred him on.

‘We’ll have to leave him. We’ve got no choice,’ Olivier insisted.

Pascal’s last view

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