Isolated. M. A. Hunter

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СКАЧАТЬ beasts like that were things of lame horror movies and books.

      Right?

      More snapping – this time only yards from Natalie’s feet – had her breath puffing out like a steam engine, and she clamped her eyes shut, covering her face with her hands, hoping that whatever bloodthirsty beast it was would simply pass her by.

      ‘I’ve found her.’ Louise’s voice carried on the wind, and a moment later, woollen gloves were tearing at Natalie’s hands as she screamed and kicked out in desperate survival. ‘Natalie, stop, it’s us.’

      Natalie didn’t dare to believe it, and squinting up at the torchlight, she’d never felt so relieved to see Louise and a panting Jane crouching beside her.

      ‘What happened to you?’ Louise asked, deliberately shining the torchlight into Natalie’s eyes, until she batted it away. ‘One minute you were there and the next you were gone.’

      Natalie really couldn’t explain exactly why she’d started to run, at least not in any coherent manner, so she bit her tongue instead, recognising the warm feeling between her legs and hoping the darkness would hide the patch that had to be forming in the crotch of her black jeans.

      ‘I fell,’ Natalie said, pointing her palms towards the torchlight and seeing the grazes, which were far milder than she first feared. They certainly stung more than the dull redness would suggest.

      ‘Yes, well, what did you expect when you raced off without the torch? God knows how far into the forest we are now. Your inner compass was way off, mate. Come on, let’s get you up, and then the three of us can go home.’

      Louise nodded at Jane, who promptly grabbed one of Natalie’s hands, ignoring the grimace as she squashed Natalie’s palm and tugged her to her feet. It was only now she was up that Natalie noticed the pain in her right leg, and as her two friends tried to pull her back into the thorn-like branches, she screeched with the pain.

      ‘What is it now?’ Louise huffed, stopping and pointing the light into Natalie’s eyes; a single tear rolled the length of Natalie’s cheek, before dropping from her chin.

      Natalie snatched the torch and pointed it down towards her foot. Jane gasped as the beam highlighted the thin stake protruding from Natalie’s calf, the tip of it red as blood.

      ‘Oh, Jesus!’ the normally silent Jane exclaimed.

      ‘Oh, bloody brilliant!’ Louise echoed. ‘Look what you’ve gone and done to yourself now, Natalie. Well done!’

      Natalie didn’t take well to the sarcastic tone, but was in too much pain and panic to retort. ‘I think I should go to the doctor.’

      ‘No,’ Louise snapped. ‘If you do that, you’ll have to explain how it happened, and then they’ll want to know exactly what we were all doing here in the woods when everybody else is in bed. No, Natalie. Just pull it out, and clean it up when you get home.’

      ‘I can barely walk, Louise.’

      ‘That’s because it’s still in there so your leg can’t begin to heal. Pull it out and everything will be better.’

      ‘But there might be splinters left inside. It could get infected.’

      ‘Don’t be such a wet blouse, Natalie. It’ll be fine. Come on, we don’t have long. You don’t want your parents to find out you snuck out after they’d gone to bed, do you?’

      Natalie could easily imagine how angry her dad would get if he even suspected she’d snuck out. ‘No, of course I don’t.’

      ‘Well then, what are you going to do?’ Louise sighed, and her tone was more empathetic when she spoke next. ‘Listen, I’m sure it does hurt, but we can’t stay here and wait until it gets light. Why don’t you pull it out now, then me and Jane can help you get back to the fence, and we can all sneak back through and into our homes. Then, in the morning when we’re walking to school, we can pretend like you’ve done it then and get the nurse at school to look at it.’ She paused and checked her watch. ‘It’s nearly 2am, which means we’ll be at school in less than seven hours. Right? Surely it won’t get infected in seven hours?’

      Natalie had to admit there was some logic in Louise’s argument, and she knew that if she didn’t agree there was a chance Louise and Jane would just leave her here in the woods to hobble home alone.

      ‘Okay, okay,’ she puffed, the winding she’d sustained finally easing. ‘Shine the torch at it, will you?’

      Louise obliged, and as Natalie reached down to the jagged shard, the second she touched it a burning sensation shot up the length of her leg.

      ‘I can’t do it,’ Natalie admitted in defeat. ‘One of you is going to have to pull it out. Please?’

      Louise leaned down and studied the bloody branch before declaring, ‘Jane, you pull it out.’

      ‘What?’ Jane pleaded. ‘Why me?’

      ‘Because I’m holding the torch, obviously,’ Louise argued, though it was clear to both of her friends that Louise was as freaked out about the blood as the rest of them.

      Not one to cause a fuss, Jane crouched down, coiled her hand around the shard and yanked it out without even warning Natalie.

      Natalie yelped in agony, unable to hold back her tears any longer as Jane lifted up the shard of wood, no longer than a cigarette. Up close it didn’t look like it could have caused so much pain.

      Looping Natalie’s arms over their shoulders, the two girls supported their friend back to the main path and ten minutes later they emerged from the all-enveloping forest, back at the perimeter fence through which they’d crawled an hour earlier.

      ‘We’ll have to be quick,’ Louise warned. ‘The security guards will be due to complete their hourly perimeter check soon. Jane, you go through first. Then it’s back to our homes, into bed, and then we never speak of this night again.’

      ‘Wait,’ Natalie challenged, propping herself against the fence to take the weight off her bloody limb. ‘What about Sally?’

      Louise’s eyes grew dark as she lashed out and slapped Natalie hard across the face, almost sending her tumbling back to the ground. ‘Sally was never here. Is that clear? We must all swear a pact – here and now – that we were never in these woods tonight. So long as we sneak back into our homes, nobody will be any the wiser.’

      ‘But Sal—’ Natalie began to say, before Louise’s raised hand cut her off.

      ‘She was never here.’

      Chapter Two

      Now

       Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire

      Jack races around to his side of the car and jumps in, with me following suit. ‘If we’re lucky we can be in Staffordshire before visiting hours finish at half four. I’ve got your name down on the list and Turgood knows you’re coming… Are you sure you want to meet him?’

      Ordinarily, nothing would appal СКАЧАТЬ