Shadow Waters by Baker Chris

Author:Baker, Chris
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Huia (NZ) Ltd

9

It Was All a Blank

When Hoheria woke in the morning she lay on her mattress trying to remember the events of the previous night. But there was a big blank. The last thing she could recall was holding Eric’s head out of the water. Had the lavender bath worked? Where was the Ponaturi? Something wasn’t right. She looked across at Cheryl and Eric, lying with Paki on the other side of the room. Paki’s face looked battered. And where was Kevin? Where was his warm, familiar shape, his fresh-cut hay smell? Maybe he’d already arisen and was getting breakfast, or wood for the fire. Worried, she turned her head and looked around the room. To her relief, there was Kevin. She could see his straw-coloured hair poking out from his blanket. But why wasn’t he beside her? Why didn’t he have his arms around her, his face snuggled into her neck?

While she lay there wondering, Kevin woke. She watched as he twitched back the blanket and turned towards her. She gasped. Someone had given him a terrible beating. His nose and eyes were swollen, leaking blood. He tried to stretch and winced instead. Who had done that to him? Why was he looking away? Why wouldn’t he meet her gaze? What was going on?

‘What happened to your poor face?’ she called.

Kevin looked disbelieving at her. ‘Don’t you know?’

‘No, I don’t,’ she said. ‘And what’s up with Paki?’ Kevin sat up carefully. He pulled his blanket around his shoulders.

The movement made dust motes dance in a beam of sunlight shining through the still-shattered kitchen window.

‘It’s you,’ he said. ‘The monster’s in you. It made you beat us up.’

Hoheria’s jaw dropped. ‘You’re kidding!’

‘I’m not. And you’re too strong for us. Even Paki couldn’t hold you.’ Hoheria was shocked into silence. She continued to gaze at Kevin as the questions flooded, but in the end he answered the question burning in the front of her mind. ‘Don’t worry. We won’t give up on you.’

The conversation woke Cheryl. Immediately, she looked across at Hoheria and recoiled, her arms tight around Eric. Paki snored on. ‘Are you okay?’ Hoheria called. Cheryl didn’t reply. Her mouth tightened. She pulled the blanket snug around her family.

‘Don’t tell me,’ said Hoheria. ‘I hurt Paki.’

Kevin answered her. ‘You sure did. He tried to stop you. You broke his arm and some of his ribs. You knocked him out.’ Silence followed. Cheryl glared, a mixture of fear and hatred.

Hoheria looked horrified. ‘What can I say? I’m so sorry…’ She wanted to move to Paki, but she didn’t want to alarm anyone further.

Cheryl spoke, for the first time. ‘We know it wasn’t you. We know that thing’s inside you now. But we can’t let it happen again. No way. You might kill somebody.’

Hoheria burst into tears. ‘I knew Eric felt bad, but not this bad,’ she sobbed. ‘I love you all. How could I do this to you?’ Awake now, Paki struggled to sit up. Hoheria looked in horror at his strapped chest, his arm in a sling.

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