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  There was a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder. The weather seemed quite appropriate for what had happened to him. Monstrous and terrifying. There was so much rain, so much water around. The road was just a river now, flowing back into the town. Had the thing inside him come with the flood? Maybe this was the end of the world. Maybe this was what happened when you went to hell. He coughed, though he hadn’t meant to. Perhaps the thing had made him cough for some reason. Maybe it was still breaking in its new suit.

  A noise came over the public address system. It sounded like someone had their hand over the microphone, but then it cleared and the headmaster’s voice took its place.

  ’To all pupils and members of staff. I have been informed by the police that not only is the main bridge over the river Teme out of service, but the roads leading in and out of town are flooded in several places. There have also been a number of accidents because of the weather, and it is very dangerous for anyone now travelling in a vehicle… or on foot for that matter. If you already have someone coming to pick you up, then please wait inside until they arrive. If, however, you normally walk home, then you will have to wait here until we have confirmation that it is safe for you to leave. The school buses left the depot but we don’t know whether they will come here as normal. It’s possible they may have to turn back, in which case some of you may have to stay the night here – or with friends who live nearby. Please don’t panic, this is just a precaution. With the exception of those who are being picked up now, would all pupils, members of staff and visitors please go to the main hall.’

  ‘What should we do?’ Sean asked.

  ‘I think we should wait here to see if Mr Phoenix turns up,’ Morrow said.

  ‘But he could go anywhere, couldn’t he?’ James said.

  ‘Well, yes, but… what else can we do? Waiting here is our only real option. And if he does come back we need to determine if he has the specimen inside him – although I’m not quite sure how we do that.’

  ‘Yeah, but what if he doesn’t turn up? I don’t want to be stuck here all night. We should drive home while we still can… if we still can.’ James still had his car keys in his hand, and looked like he was ready to leave.

  ‘What if he does though?’ Sean said. ‘What if he does and that thing is inside him? There are hundreds of kids here. What if he goes mad and starts attacking them?’

  ‘But if he isn’t infected, then we’ve wasted our time and that thing could be anywhere,’ James argued.

  ‘God, there are too many "ifs",’ Sean said. ‘We’re going round in circles.’

  ‘Yes, that’s right,’ Morrow agreed. ‘Let’s just see if he does come here and deal with the situation then.’ He sounded worried. Sean wondered then what he intended to do if he did decide Mr Phoenix was infected. How would he get the thing out when he knew so little about it? He also wondered how dangerous Mr Phoenix might be: the creature had killed several people at the study centre.

  ‘You three will need to go to the main hall if you’re not leaving now,’ Mrs Evans said from behind the glass window of the reception desk. ‘Before you do, though, could you sign the book?’ She looked at Morrow. ‘Sorry, it’s procedure, especially at a time like this.’

  Once Morrow had signed in he turned back to them. ‘We should go to the hall then. That’s where Phoenix will go when he gets here, I assume.’

  They walked down the sloping corridor connecting the new annexe to the older building. Just then they heard muffled, tinny music, and James retrieved his mobile phone from his jacket pocket. He looked at the lit-up display.

  ‘It’s Mum,’ he said.

  ‘She probably wants to know where I am,’ Sean said.

  James answered the phone and began explaining the situation as best he could, trying to leave out as many of the bizarre details as possible.

  ‘Yeah,’ he said, trying to wind up the conversation as the three of them went into the hall. ‘Yeah, Sean’s fine, honestly. We should be home soon once we’ve seen his teacher. Mr Morrow needs to be sure he isn’t sick. This parasite thing isn’t contagious but it can do harm to whoever’s carrying it… Sorry?… No, we’re perfectly safe – don’t worry. It’s, er… not the sort of parasite that can go from person to person through the air, it’s… a bit more complicated than that. I’ll explain when we get back… Yeah, I’m looking after him – he was just going crazy stuck indoors, he didn’t realize the weather was so bad… I know, I know, he’s really sorry, but… No, neither of us knew it would get this bad. I think we should be able to find a back road home once we’ve checked out Mr Phoenix, but I’ll give you a ring in a while to let you know what’s going on… I will, honest… OK, bye.’

  Although many pupils had already left, the main hall was still busy. Despite the situation the mood was generally upbeat. All around the room groups of people were deep in conversation: the flooding was generating more excitement than concern among the pupils, though the members of staff seemed genuinely worried. Sean saw some of his friends on the other side of the hall.

  ‘I guess we just wait then,’ he said, watching his brother and Morrow scan the room.

  ‘Yeah,’ James said, sounding almost bored. ‘We could be in for a—’

  He was interrupted by the loud voice of a teacher behind him: ‘Nigel! You’re drenched. Come on up to the staff room.’

  Sean, James and Morrow turned and saw a woman – Mrs Rees, Sean thought her name was, though he couldn’t remember what she taught – taking a bedraggled man by the elbow and escorting him back out of the room. He looked absolutely soaked, his hair plastered down, his clothes filthy, and his eyes somehow hollow and lustreless – but it was definitely Phoenix.

  ‘God,’ Sean said. ‘He looks terrible.’

  ‘The rain could have done that though,’ James said.

  ‘Perhaps,’ said Morrow, moving through the crowd after the departing teachers. ‘But we need to be sure.’

  CHAPTER 11

  They could have waited for Phoenix to get changed and return to the hall – but what if he was infected, and attacked someone? They had to check him before he had a chance to do any harm. As they left the hall, two teachers seated nearby stopped them and asked what they were doing.

  ‘I have my car,’ James said. ‘I was waiting for my dad to text me to tell me the road home was clear, so we’re going now.’

  ‘Oh, right,’ one of them said, eyeing Morrow strangely as the trio walked past.

  They hurried back to the annexe. Morrow was humming a tune as if trying to calm himself down – and with good reason, Sean thought. He had already seen some terrible things at the study centre; perhaps he was preparing himself for more. Sean still had questions, but he’d have to wait for a more convenient time to ask them.

  At the top of the ramp they waited for Mrs Evans to turn her back before continuing past the reception desk towards the stairs that led up to the staff room.

  ‘What now?’ Sean asked.

  ‘I must go up and talk to him,’ Morrow said. ‘Try to ascertain if he’s infected or not.’

  ‘But how will you tell?’ James looked up the stairs as if expecting to see an inquisitive face at any second.

  ‘Well, I don’t know… There might be a way… ‘ Morrow took off his glasses and rubbed the lenses thoughtfully. ‘There could be physical signs. Sean, you said that Holland’s skin was in a bad state, didn’t you?’

  ‘Yeah, but he’d had that thing in him for a while, hadn’t he? If Phoenix has been infected it won’t have been in him for long.’

  ‘No, but still… There may be signs. Perhaps his behaviour will give him away. I saw and heard what Holland did when he was infected. I might recognize some of that behaviour in Mr Phoenix, and perhaps I can stop him before he does anything terrible.’

  ‘What sort of things did Holland do?’

  ‘He seemed odd – it wasn’t like he was under the influence of something, but as if he was… someone completely different.’

&n
bsp; ‘What do you mean?’ James asked.

  ‘Well, I think the creature takes control of the mind of its host. Don’t ask me how.’ Morrow stopped as his eyes were drawn to the figure at the top of the stairs. It was the woman who had escorted Phoenix from the main hall, Mrs Rees. She took a few steps down, then stopped, a curious expression on her face.

  ‘Can I help you?’ she asked, looking at them in turn, her eyes questioning, suspicious.

  ‘Yes,’ Morrow answered, before either of the brothers could. ‘I need to speak with Mr Phoenix immediately.’

  ‘I’m sorry, but he can’t really see visitors right now. He needs to dry off and get warm. He got caught in the flood, and—’

  ‘Yes, I know, that’s why I’m here. I’m Dr Morrow, Mr Phoenix’s GP as well as a good friend of his. He called me because he fell in the river earlier and was worried that he might be ill. I live nearby so I said I’d come and see him. He may well be fine, but it’s probably best that I check, just to be on the safe side.’

  ‘Oh, I see. Right, well, you’d better come up then, Doctor. I’m Mrs Rees, by the way. I teach English.’ She turned and went back up the stairs.

  Morrow told the boys to wait there for him; then followed her up to the staff room.

  ‘What now?’ Sean asked his brother.

  ‘We’ll just have to wait and hope Dr Morrow can determine whether Phoenix is infected or not. God I really hope he isn’t… Not just for his sake, but because it means that creature is somewhere else then, and somebody else’s problem.’

  * * *

  Upstairs, Dr Morrow was shown into the staff room. Phoenix was slumped in an armchair, his face averted, a mug of tea in one hand. He was drenched but didn’t appear to be shivering.

  ‘We should get him dry, shouldn’t we?’ Mrs Rees asked. ‘He’ll catch a cold.’

  He could have caught something a lot worse than that, Morrow thought.

  ‘Could I see him alone for a few minutes?’ he asked, looking across at her.

  ‘Well, yes, of course. I need to go back to the hall anyway. I’ll come back as soon as I can.’

  ‘Thank you, this won’t take long. And he’ll be fine.’

  Mrs Rees nodded and turned to leave the room.

  ‘Now then,’ Dr Morrow said, approaching the seated man and already noticing a strange reddening of the man’s forehead. ‘Tell me how you feel.’

  Without warning, the mug of tea dropped from Phoenix’s hand and hit the floor with a thud, spilling its contents on the carpet. Then he turned his head to face the doctor.

  CHAPTER 12

  ‘Come on, boys,’ Mrs Rees said to Sean and James. ‘You’d better come back to the hall with me. The headmaster wants everyone together. Mr Phoenix will be all right – I’ll check back on him in a while.’

  ‘But we’re looking after Dr Morrow. He doesn’t know his way around the school,’ Sean insisted.

  ‘Yeah, and he said he wouldn’t be long,’ James added before Mrs Rees could get a word in. ‘Just a quick look, that’s all, then we’ll bring him back to the hall.’

  Mrs Rees thought it over. ‘All right, but be sure you do. This storm isn’t getting any better and we can’t have people roaming around the school on their own. What exactly are you two doing here anyway? James, you left school three years ago, and you, Sean, you’re supposed to be off sick.’

  ‘I am, miss. I mean, I was, but I, well… It’s a long story. We were on our way home when we got caught in the storm and we stopped to give Dr Morrow a lift. He works with James at the study centre.’

  ‘Study centre? I thought he was Mr Phoenix’s GP.’

  ‘He is,’ James said quickly. ‘But he’s also a marine biologist and runs courses.’

  ‘He must be a busy man.’

  ‘Yes, very busy.’

  ‘All right, well, you may as well go on up to the staff room then. But don’t let the headmaster know I let you up there. I’m trusting you two. Understood?’

  ‘Yes, miss,’ they replied in unison.

  Mrs Rees still looked sceptical, but she left them to it.

  ‘I can’t believe this,’ James said. ‘It’s like I never left school.’

  ‘Never mind that,’ Sean said, leading the way up the stairs. ‘We can’t leave Dr Morrow on his own with Phoenix if he has that thing in him.’ They ran up the stairs to the staff room, and were surprised when they went in to find no one there.

  ‘That’s strange,’ Sean said, scanning the large room with its sofas and coffee tables. On the floor a mug appeared to have been knocked over, its contents saturating a large section of the carpet. All was quiet.

  ‘I don’t like this.’ James walked slowly towards the middle of the room. ‘What’s through there?’ he asked, pointing to an open door on the far side of the room.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Sean said, ‘but I’d guess it’s their toilets. That must be where Phoenix and Morrow have gone.’

  ‘Yeah,’ James replied, clearly reluctant to go and find out. ‘I really don’t like this.’

  ‘Come on,’ Sean said. ‘It’s probably fine.’

  Above the sound of the storm outside, they suddenly heard a thud, a tinkle of breaking glass, and what could have been a cry. They both froze, then looked again at the open doorway, knowing that they had to go through it – even though it was the last thing on earth they wanted to do.

  James went first, a step ahead of Sean, who was similarly terrified and readying himself to turn and run for his life at the slightest hint of danger. Ahead of them was a corridor and they saw doors to the ladies’ and then the men’s toilets, where James took a firm grip on the handle and slowly twisted.

  It was an odd feeling – the kind of feeling, Sean guessed, that firemen must experience before opening the door to a burning room, or policemen entering a building where a criminal is lying in wait. It was something in the gut. As the door widened to reveal the broken window, the glass and the blood, they knew that something terrible had occurred.

  They remained on the threshold, ready to turn and bolt, waiting for the inevitable shock. But if Phoenix was there, he was clearly in no hurry to move. He had to be out of sight in one of the cubicles. Either that or he’d jumped out of the window, but that would surely be suicidal. Sean wondered if anyone could survive the plunge.

  ‘What do we do?’ he whispered, hearing in his own voice that he was shaking.

  James tried to reply, but nothing came out. He couldn’t think of a good enough response anyway. And then the matter was resolved for them. There was a loud sigh, then a shuffling sound, and Phoenix came out of the last cubicle.

  The three of them stood there, just looking at each other; rain blew in through the broken window and soaked the floor around them. Phoenix seemed to be grinning, but at the same time was clearly in some discomfort. Welts covered his face, red sores that certainly hadn’t been there when he’d met Sean by the park. The man’s eyes were bloodshot and looked like they’d receded, sunk back into his head. He shuffled awkwardly forward; a series of strange sounds issued from his throat before he managed to form words.

  ‘You came with the doctor,’ he said matter-of-factly.

  Sean recognized the voice but it sounded strained. He and James exchanged glances and waited to see what Phoenix would do next: he scratched one of the angry sores on his right cheek, drawing blood, which trickled down to his chin. All three of them winced.

  ‘Mr Phoenix?’ James asked, wanting this confrontation to end quickly. ‘What happened to Mr Morrow?’

  ‘What?’ Phoenix noticed the blood on his fingers and rubbed it around. He looked up, first at the boys and then over his shoulder towards the window. ‘Oh… he’s outside.’ He seemed to be in some kind of daze, or perhaps hypnotized. ‘He’s outside,’ he repeated.

  Sean swallowed, feeling the cold more and more. He looked at his brother for guidance.

  ‘OK,’ James said. ‘You stay here for a moment, Mr Phoenix. Sean and I are just going out there
to see if Mr Morrow is OK – we’ll be back in a second.’

  Phoenix just stared at them blankly, and they turned to leave, but then he said something that changed everything: ‘He’s got it now.’

  The boys stopped and looked at him.

  ‘What?’ James asked.

  ‘That thing… It’s in him now. I’m… It needed someone fresh. I’m already finished. No use any more. I think the water did for me…’ He coughed, turned and spat into the toilet behind him, then coughed again, violently.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Sean asked.

  ‘It kept me going but I was ill, I think… From being under the water so long. I… God, I’m so tired. I need to sit down.’

  ‘Why did it go through the window?’ James asked.

  ‘I pushed it,’ Phoenix said. ‘But it wasn’t enough. That thing, it gives you strength… It seemed to make more use of my body than I could.’ He coughed again. ‘Except the head… I still feel dizzy.’

  ‘Dizzy?’

  ‘When it got me by the river I was staggering all over the place. I banged my head on a branch and blacked out. I didn’t hit it that hard, but the creature went mad. I think while it was in my head it was extra sensitive to any pressure or trauma there. Any other part of the body doesn’t seem to matter so much.’

  ‘What does it want?’ Sean asked.

  ‘I’m not sure. It was looking for something but I didn’t understand what. It has no consideration for life. It’s cold. That’s why I pushed it out of the window. You have to stop it… I really need to rest.’

  ‘Did it communicate with you?’ James asked.

  Phoenix wiped his forehead, drawing more blood from the sores there. When he looked back at the boys he could see horror in their eyes at his appearance. ‘When it was in me I could hear random, jumbled thoughts. I don’t know what it is, but I sensed it was intelligent… And very, very tired of being lonely. Things are different now. Whatever it is after, it won’t stop until it gets it.’ His stare bored into each of the brothers in turn. ‘There are more than three hundred children here right now. They are all in serious danger.’ He coughed again, this time spitting a dark red liquid onto the floor. ‘That thing has made me very ill. I think if it had been in me any longer I might have… Please, I really do need to sit down.’ Phoenix pushed past Sean and went into the staff room, where he collapsed into a chair.