Campion's Choice

Hanston School echoed to the sound of aliens learning. Every window revealed some new alien behaviour. In one lesson children made the sounds of all the instruments in an orchestra. In another room Jack watched as three young boys concentrated hard on a single seed until it grew into a small tree. In a third room a girl made a mug spin around in a circle until it became a blur. It moved so fast it whined like a fighter plane.

The school’s outdoor swimming pool was behind the main building. To reach it you had to walk through the whole school. After peering into a variety of classrooms Jack came across an argument between four tall senior girls and Michael Evans, Petra’s brother. Michael was darker skinned than his sister but he still had the same jet black, twisted hair

‘You cheated, Niamh,’ Michael said angrily.

‘No way.’ Niamh laughed. She held up her arm and let a bracelet slip and slide around on her wrist.

‘Liar. You knew that I’d be the only one to lose. It was all decided by you and George. You lied. I would never have risked my Kharis.’

Niamh tauntingly dangled the bangle in front of the boy.

‘I like the way the lapis lazuli matches my eyes,’ she sneered.

‘You’re a liar and a thief,’ Michael snapped.

‘Yes, I am proud to say I am a liar and a thief. A liar and a thief who has your Kharis. And anyway, you should be thanking me. You learnt a valuable lesson today about lying and winning. We all did, thanks to Liam. Or maybe you didn’t learn a thing today. I mean, let’s face it, you’re Crow and Crow are ...’ Niamh stopped talking when she saw Jack. A look of distaste spread across the girls face. Silently, she and the three other girls turned their backs and marched away.

‘Hi Michael,’ Jack said. He held up a hand for a high five.

‘I hate you.’

The boy spat out the words angrily and then raced away after the girls shouting something that sounded like, ‘We’re not Spartans any more.’

The unsettling incident made Jack take a wrong turn and he found himself at a dead end, facing a large grey plaque that looked like a slab of stone covered in curly writing.

There were two words at the top of the piece of slate and they simply said, ‘Night Wood’.

‘What’s this?’ Jack asked, stopping a boy who came out of a nearby classroom.

‘Night Wood.’

The boy was about to move on but Jack caught his arm.

‘Er … I’m new here and I don’t know what that means,’ he said politely.

The boy became nervous. Presumably news of Jack’s rampage in the Saloon had spread around the village. The poor teenager looked goggle eyed and nearly burst with effort as he tried to make himself understood.

‘It’s a tradition. Night Wood is one of the tests. The oldest one. If you spend a night in the wood you get the stone ring. But nobody does it any more,’ the boy said nervously.

‘Stone ring?’ Jack prompted. The kid began to sweat.

‘The stone ring holds the three stones. Huras don’t bother with it. They have their own tests. Gamelin and Crow are too scared. So no one ever actually goes to Night Wood, even though the notice appears once a year, every year.’

‘Where is Night Wood?’ Jack asked.

Backing over to the nearest window the young boy pointed out a sweep of yellow cornfields in the distance. Behind that was a green patch, a mass of trees surrounded, by a river.

‘That’s Night Wood. It’s like an island,’ he said.

’Okay. If someone decided to do the ‘test’, how would they sign up? You can’t write on there with a pen.’

Jack brought his nose close to the grey tablet.

‘Oh … er … you just make your name.’

When Jack looked puzzled the boy added quickly, ‘I’ll show you.’

Hunting around the boy found a chair and then he tipped it upside down.

‘I shouldn’t really do this, but we’ve been told to help you, so ..’ he said and gently hovered a hand about an inch above the underside of the chair until suddenly his name, Eric Bowden, appeared as if it had been engraved.

‘Hmmm. Thanks,’ Jack said. His brain began to whirr.

One whole night of peace, alone in a wood away from everything, that sounded like a good idea. Jack stood in silence before the ‘Night Wood’ notice.

As the nervy kid scuttled away he concentrated hard and ran a hand over the smooth, strange, stone plaque. Gradually, and very clumsily, his name appeared on the notice.

‘One night of freedom,’ he whispered.

Glowing with satisfaction Jack turned on his heels and began to retrace his steps in an attempt to find a way that led back to the school’s pool.

It was his intention to sit under a grand old elm tree, by the swimming pool, and read the note from Grampus and Nance. He was sure that his grandparents had given him a note but the trouble was he still felt watched.

No problem, he thought. When I spend my night alone in the Night Wood I will have plenty of privacy. I can read it then. Happy with that plan he unrolled a striped towel and laid it on the ground before strolling back along the water’s edge to the foot of a diving board. He climbed the steps, stood on the board and bent his knees. After taking one deep breath and closing his eyes his body arced neatly into the swimming pool.

It felt amazing to be under the water, like flying, like being free. With a powerful kick his body shot up and he gulped in more air. His lungs were full of oxygen so Jack sank back through the water, relaxing and letting himself drift down to the bottom like a stone.

With legs crossed he was happy and comfortable and determined to enjoy the under water silence. The ban liang, on its silver chain, floated around his chin. A wave of calmness rolled through his body. All the bad stuff - being kidnapped, weird dreams, Anax, Criel taking pot shots – all of that seemed on a different planet. A different planet! Very funny.

He opened his mouth to laugh. Big mistake. Water surged down his throat.

But, strangely he felt calm. He felt it would be easy to just let go. To breath in the water and drift away.

It was a shock when arms wrapped around his body and pulled him back up through the water.

‘Get off!’

Jack started to fight. Someone was trying to drown him. He imagined Anax, laughing in the shade of that elm tree, watching one of his bodyguards doing the dirty work. Struggling, gagging and coughing, Jack spluttered before opening his eyes to the blinding sunlight.

‘What are you doing!’ a voice yelled. Hands pushed and pulled to haul Jack up onto the dry land.

‘Help! Help!’ someone shouted.

It was Tia’s high, worried, piping voice.

Jack blinked and realised that Liam was standing over him, fully clothed and wearing a Hanston School uniform. Liam was soaked to the skin.

‘Are you okay?’ Liam asked.

Jack could only nod. Tia’s face was a picture of anxiety.

‘I didn’t mean to make you jealous,’ Tia said.

‘Jealous?’ Jack coughed. Pool water dribbled out of his nose.

‘Yeah. I mean, I’m not surprised you’re jealous. It was really stupid of me. With all that stuff about Gidean. I’m going to sign up right now and be with you. It will be so romantic.’

Tia bent towards him and her face loomed close. Jack closed his eyes. He felt a hot, soft kiss placed upon his cheek. When he opened his eyes the girl was gone.

‘Tia, wait,’ Liam shouted and then added, ‘Stupid girl!’

Jack finally found the energy to lift himself up onto his elbows. Liam was crouched nearby wringing out water from his school tie.

‘What are you doing here?’ Jack asked sulkily.

‘I got back from Redemere School and I wanted to tell you about my little trip. Hanston School actually won a competition for the first time ever in their history. They have this thing about always losing because they think then no one will pay them any attention. I said that was wrong. Schools win some times and lose some times. It was time they started winning. They won everything, the javelin, pole vault, one hundred meters, you name it, all except for one event. The kid who lost had to hand over his Kharis to one of the Seniors.’

‘What’s a Kharis?’

‘Never mind that now. I was going to tell you about it but then I saw the notice. Do you know what happens in Night Wood?’

‘Yeah. It’s twenty-four hours of peace. And I can’t wait to get away from this place even if it’s only for one day.’

Jack sat up and felt dizzy.

‘So you know that you have no food and ..’

‘Yeah, yeah. I don’t care!’ Jack tried to interrupt but Liam talked on.

‘… you have no food and no shelter and you spend the time there, naked as the day you were born. Clothes are forbidden.’

‘What?’

‘When I got back from Redemere and saw the sign and saw your signature, I came looking for you. I asked Tia where you were. It was her idea to check out the pool. That’s when we found you drowning.’

‘I wasn’t ..’ Jack began but stopped. He felt sick and lightheaded. He had been drifting away under water. He had wanted to stay in that pool and not come back up again. He shivered. Liam shook his head as he spoke.

‘If I’m not mistaken, your girlfriend has just rushed off to add her name to the notice so that she can join you on a romantic date in the forest.’

Trembling like a leaf Jack ran over to his towel. He wrapped himself in its thick folds, flapped his arms and slapped his sides to try and stop the shakes.

‘I’ll just go and take my name off,’ he chattered, his teeth knocking together.

‘You can’t. Once you make your mark it can’t be erased.’

‘No way.’

Even in his woozy state Jack saw a mocking gleam in the older boy’s eyes.

‘Oh, and the weather forecast is bad. Rain. Storms. Lightning.’

Liam stood up and pulled off his soaking shirt.

‘You’re kidding?’

‘Do I look like a weather forecaster? Good luck. I’m going home to change. I suggest you go home and go to bed. You look terrible and you have a very early start in the morning. The twenty-four hours is dawn to dawn. Oh…. and no need to thank me for saving your life. I’ll always be looking out for you.’

Liam squelched around the pool and disappeared into the Hanston School buildings leaving a trail of rapidly drying wet footprints along a narrow strip of concrete paving stones.

In the middle of Hanston there is a hill called Castle Hill. Two thousand years ago it was a small hill. Then along came the Romans and the Danes and then the Normans and they all built forts that collapsed or were attacked and knocked down until gradually the small hill became a big hill.

Jack walked alongside the mound.

He was on his way back, from the swimming pool, to the Evans’ house and he was fingering the note in his pocket from his grandparents. He had been trying to come up with somewhere private to read the note. Night Wood was now out of the question. But where could he escape Anax’s spies? The church had seemed like a good place before this morning. But he wasn’t going back there. He was not going to read a note with half the remains of dead people hanging around and watching him.

He needed to disappear completely from view. Great idea. But how? He didn’t have an invisibility cloak. The only other time people disappeared around here was when they walked through walls.

An idea stopped Jack in his tracks. He turned off the pavement and walked into the field where Castle Hill loomed above him. His brain buzzed. He knew he could walk through walls. Maybe he could walk through Castle Hill?

At the foot of the slope he hesitated and then closed his eyes. He imagined himself beginning to walk underneath the mound. If he was twenty feet underground no one could spy on him and he could read the message from his grandparents in peace.

‘Here goes,’ he murmured. He took a few steps and stopped. Looking down he saw that half his body had disappeared. Tuft of grass grew around the top of his shorts.

Ok, I’ll walk to the middle of the hill, and then I can read the note.

Closing his eyes he walked forward. One step, two steps, five steps, ten steps. He opened his eyes and it was pitch black. Fear kicked in. When he’d walked through walls there had been the strange, rainy curtainy, tugging feeling. But now he felt completely wrapped up like a mummified Egyptian. He touched the note. How stupid was he to think you could read anything in here.

The weight of the hill pressed down on his shoulders. Soil scratched at his eyes. His breathing became hard, his lungs heaved, his heart raced. It flashed through his mind that he had actually buried himself alive.

What should he do? He’d lost all sense of direction. Which way was out? Which way was up? What if he started walking and went down! He’d end up miles beneath the Earth’s surface! How far was it before he hit the Earth’s molten core? Alarm ran through every vein in his body.

In the darkness someone took his hand and he heard a voice. His dad’s voice.

‘One step at a time,’ the Dadster said and Jack felt his hand being squeezed.

‘Dad?’ Jack said out loud, his voice muffled by earth and stone.

‘Yes?’

‘What’s going on?’

‘I have no idea.’

‘This is weird.’

‘So weird.’

Jack squeezed his dad’s hand

‘This isn’t the first time you’ve just appeared out of nowhere, is it?’

‘No. My theory is I appear when you’re in danger.’

‘That makes sense.’

‘I’m glad it makes sense to you because it is a complete mystery to me. One minute I’m walking around, like a zombie, the inside of my head feeling like curdled milk and the next thing, I’m with you in some very strange situations.’

Jack thought for a moment and then said, ‘So, are you okay now? I mean are you better?’

‘No. That’s what I mean about the zombie thing. I’m still the same old, brain dead Dadster most of the time. Occasionally things clear up a bit. I knew that you were kidnapped. I tried to warn Grampus and Nance but I don’t think I made much sense. Then this happens. I get a sense of you being scared and it goes all whooshy and the next ting I know I’m floating around next to you like some kind of ghost.’

Jack felt the handhold begin to weaken, to fade away like melting snow.

‘Dad! I need to ask you about the night of the accident.’

‘I’ll be back,’ the Dadster said just as, with another step, Jack burst into the daylight.

One look around told him all he needed to know. He had managed, with the help of the Dadster, to walk clean through Castle Hill.

‘Ben! Come back. George, close the gate,’ someone shouted.

From where he stood, on the side of Castle Hill, Jack looked across the field and saw a small boy, maybe four or five, running around, being chased by a group of older boys and girls. He recognised Niamh, the nasty girl who earlier had been sneering at Michael. She seemed to be in charge.

‘Payton. Zoe. Grab him.’

As the little kid ran about his head seemed to spin around on his shoulders. Right round. Through three hundred and sixty degrees. Like an owl. And his left arm went up and down like a piston. And, every now and then, his right leg would stick out sideways like a signpost. When that happened the boy fell down but almost immediately bounced up again.

‘George, grab him,’ Niamh shouted. George, a tall, thin boy, with curls and a large head, rushed forward to snatch the child but slipped and missed.

‘Ben! Ben!’ one of the other boys shouted, arms outstretched as if he were trying to pen a sheep. Three of the others circled the crazy little kid.

With an unexpected burst of speed the kid, Ben, darted forward, stopped and shot up in the air. He waved both legs out sideways, turned a half somersault and crashed down headfirst, his limp body lying on the ground like an abandoned pillow. George grabbed the lifeless boy.

Some of the group began to notice Jack.

’What are you looking at, you stupid Chem,’ Niamh said unpleasantly.

‘Yeah, a stupid, soon to be dead, Chem,’ another girl joined in.

‘The only good Chem is a dead Chem,’ George added as he hauled the limp figure of Ben up off the ground. There was something about these Seniors that made Jack’s blood run hot. He wanted to fight them. They all wore rings so he guessed they had to be Huras.

‘Night Wood will finish him off.’ Niamh laughed.

She held up a hand and, using her finger and thumb to make the shape of a gun, she mimed pulling a trigger to shoot him dead. As she did that a bracelet rolled around her wrist and flashed blue in the sun. Jack guessed that it must be the Kharis thing she tricked Michael into losing.

It was all Jack could do to stop himself from using the ban liang to make the bangle shrink and tighten enough to cut off Niamh’s arm. But no. They were bullies. He would show them. He would teach them a lesson.

‘Don’t you worry, I’ll come back from Night Wood. It’s just a bunch of trees. I’ve been camping before.’

‘You’ll come back from Night Wood in a coffin.’

‘What if I do come out alive? Don’t you think I deserve a prize?’

’A prize? You name it and you can have it, because there is no way you’ll walk back over the bridge

‘Okay. How about that flashy bracelet? My life against that?’

Niamh spoke hotly and held the trinket close to Jack’s face.

‘If you come back from Night Wood I’ll cut off my hair and come crawling to you on my belly and hand over this stupid piece of junk!’

‘Yeah, we’ll all cut off our hair and come crawling,’ George said. The other Seniors all nodded in agreement before walking off towards the main gate. They were laughing loudly and made sure that Jack could hear them exchanging yet more insults along the way.

Talk about crazy people. Did they seriously think they could scare him? How dangerous could a bunch of trees be?

Jack looked around. He was alone in a field next to Castle Hill. What was a Chem? That was another word to add to his list of questions.