Playing Dead: Book One of The Whitechapel Chronicles

Chapter 24

Droplets of fetid water dripped down my forehead, mixing together with the beads of sweat that peppered my skin and fell onto my lips. I wiped it away quickly, not wanting to digest any more of those foul waters than I already had.

I let Harper's words sink in, feeling the cold touch of them tainting my mind as I tried to make sense of what had just happened. He kept watch still, his eyes never leaving the line of trees, his body tense and alert.

"But those things...." I stammered. "I mean, Brandon...."

"Yes," he nodded solemnly, not looking at me. "Yes, Brandon."

"And his friends?"

"Yes," he said again. "All of them." This time he did turn to look at me, his emerald eyes flashing darkly. "Every single one."

My eyes widened and I shook my head. "Okay, now I know you're crazy. Clara is not one of them things."

"Varúlfur," reminded Harper.

"Alright, Varúlfur. But she's not one of them, she can't be."

Harper raised an eyebrow. "So you are willing to believe your husband could be one of the Varúlfur but not your supposed best friend?"

"Of course not!" I snapped, flinching when I heard my voice echo around the clearing. "I just can't take it all in, surely I would have known?"

"Oh," he said, feigning surprise. "Do you know ways of detecting the Varúlfur that no other human has yet managed to achieve? Do tell, Megan."

I glowered at him and bit my lip hard. "I didn't know such things existed."

"And just a few weeks ago you did not know that such things as us existed either, so is it any wonder that you did not know about them?"

"But I lived with him. And she was my best friend, we worked together...." I trailed off, lost for words as they tumbled around in my head, crushed by the thoughts that threatened to overpower them. Finally, I looked over towards the trees, feeling a shiver snake up my spine as I thought about Brandon out there somewhere, transformed, mutated into something from my nightmares.

"He was there wasn't he? Chasing us?" I whispered.

"Yes. How do you know?"

"Because underneath their smell, I could smell him. It was only a vague sense of him and I thought maybe I was just imagining it, but it was there, a thin wisp of his cologne in the air. But I couldn't smell her."

"Really? Oh well that's no surprise considering."

I glanced at him sharply. "What do you mean?"

"She wears the same perfume. That same awful sickly one that he made you wear."

Jealousy stabbed in my chest and I looked down at my feet, feeling tears prick my eyes and not wanting him to see.

"Come on," he said. "They are not pursuing us, but that's not to say that they are gone for long. They may decide it is worth the chase after all."

With that he turned and walked away, leaving me standing at the edge of the clearing with my arms wrapped around my freezing cold body, staring into the shadows amongst the trees. A tear slipped down my cheek and I wiped it away angrily, feeling the rage bristle inside me as I thought about my former life. Harper had been right about everything. It had all been nothing but a lie. A nasty bitter lie and I was devastated by it all. 

*********

We finally made it back to the house, having had to take a massive diversion so we could avoid the area near my old home, skirting the edges of town and staying off the roads as much as possible. My ankle had throbbed all the way and I had desperately tried to keep up with Harper's pace, glowering at him every time he sighed or tutted when he saw me lagging behind. I understood his impatience though. When the first signs of dawn began creeping into the night sky, turning black into indigo and indigo into mauve, I felt the danger prickling down my neck and suddenly I knew right then that there was no greater enemy than the sun rising to take dominion over the coming day. My burnt skin felt tight and tingly; a constant reminder of the sun's power and forcing me to speed up despite the raging pain in my swollen foot.