✅ End of the Rainbow

Part 38. In the Pinch

"What's wrong, Amber?" Mom stopped a couple of steps down the road, not noticing right away that Amber had actually stopped. "There's more interesting things to–" She stopped when she saw the scenes on the TV news, and she silently moved back to somewhere she could easily take in the pictures of a mountain villa, smashed open like a sandcastle. Shaky phone-camera footage of holidaymakers crying in panic as policemen in strange uniforms shepherded them into busses set aside for the evacuation. Scrolling text at the bottom of the screen counted off the dead, missing, and injured, but the numbers were too high to give any of them a name.

Mom was saying something else, but Amber didn't hear her. She could only think about what those people must be going through. She wished she could be there, even if there was probably nothing she could have done. Last time had been different, she hadn't even heard the news until people were being more thoughtful about it, the news trying to guess what might have happened, and talking about reconstruction and aid efforts. Now this was breaking news, something happening right now on the other side of the world, and Amber felt sick as she watched the images of the devastated buildings and people screaming.

Mom was tugging at her hand, but she barely noticed. She was in a bubble with the silent broadcast, and everything else was just a dream. She watched people running across a cobbled square, tears in their eyes, and she could almost hear the screaming. Suddenly there was silence. Amber reeled back, and staggered into the crystal wall behind her.

"Pull yourself together!" Jack yelled, his face only a few inches away.

"There's a monster..." Amber stammered.

"There's at least six, in different parts of the world. The Enemy's trying to confuse us with decoys."

"Decoys?" Amber didn't quite get it, her head was still spinning from being dragged here while she was awake, "Distract us from what?"

"From the one that's attacking us right now," Arnie filled in, "Violet and Alex didn't sense it because of all of the others, I was lucky I saw." She turned to Mel as he suddenly appeared, looking around in surprise.

"Mel, you're in the Churchill Arcade? I saw a monster but it's moving away from me. I guess it's homing in on one of you."

"Both of us," Mel nodded, "Monica suggested we..."

"Less talking, more action," Jack barked, "Meet up, and get out of that thing's path."

Amber was falling to the pavement, didn't know where she was for a moment. She'd been in Violet's dream for a short conversation, but it had been less than a second for her body. Mom was diving down to catch her, but there probably hadn't been time to realise her heart had stopped for a single beat.

"Amber!" Mom was screaming. The cheerful expression she'd been trying to hold together cracked as soon as everything went wrong. Amber did her best to get an arm under herself before she hit the ground, but she landed heavily and she knew she'd have a bruise for weeks.

"Sorry, Mom," she muttered, but there was no way she'd be heard over all the other people yelling. Some of them were running, but in opposite directions. The televisions in front of them were now showing a big splash that said "Breaking News!", and reporters talking a lot more urgently about the current situation. The ticker at the bottom of the screen now mentioned an explosion at the Westburton Street markets, and possible structural damage to the Churchill Arcade. They were right in the middle of the chaos now, but there was no mention of an attacking demon. Of course there wasn't.

Mom grabbed Amber in both arms and carried her away, not waiting to see if she was hurt. Tears were streaming down her face, and the only thing she could think about now was getting away. A lot of the people around them seemed to have the same idea, but nobody could tell quite where the sounds of explosions and shrieking metal were coming from. There were people running in all directions, or stopping to check their phones in the hope of more news.