The 13th Horseman - By Barry Hutchison Page 0,18
for him. He’d thought at first that the horsemen had sent them, but now he knew differently. But someone had been trying to kill him, and if it hadn’t been the horsemen, then who had it been? And why?
These thoughts were still occupying him an hour later, when he stood at the front gates, waiting.
“Hey, Chief. Where you been?”
“Oh, um, hi,” he said, giving Mel a self-conscious wave. “Didn’t expect to see you here.”
Mel heaved her bag higher on her shoulder. “What, exiting the school gates at bell time?” she asked. “Yeah, what are the chances?”
Drake’s face suddenly felt very hot. “Yeah,” he muttered. “Yeah, of course.”
“No one’s ever waited for me before,” she said, matter-of-factly.
For some reason, Drake felt glad about that. “Really?” he asked, doing his best not to grin like an idiot.
“Most people think I’m strange.” She looked at him intently. “Do you think I’m strange?”
“A bit,” Drake admitted.
Mel brightened. “Excellent. I looked for you at break,” she said. She started to walk away from the school and Drake fell into step beside her. “Where were you?”
For a moment, Drake thought about telling her the truth. But he didn’t. The truth was too weird.
“I, uh, left early,” he told her. “Doctor’s appointment.”
“Anything serious? You’re not dying, are you?”
“Nah, just a check-up.”
Mel whistled. “Must’ve been a long check-up. Break until now… that’s, what, five hours?”
“Yeah. He was very... thorough.”
“You missed some excitement,” Mel said.
Drake’s ears pricked up. “Oh?”
“There was a big accident in the car park. They’re saying the school minibus crashed into the wall. Knocked a hole right through it.”
“Who’s saying?”
“You know... they,” Mel explained. “Just they in general.”
“Right,” Drake said. “Wow.”
“It’s by far the coolest thing to ever happen in that school. Which is tragic, really, when you think about it. Balloon ! ”
Mel pointed excitedly up towards the sky. Drake followed her finger and saw a yellow balloon being carried on a breeze above the rooftops. “What’s your stance on loose balloons?” Mel asked him.
Drake frowned. “Loose balloons?”
“As in balloons that have got loose. Like that one. What do you feel about it?”
“Um... not much.”
Mel looked disappointed. “I’m in two minds,” she said. “On the one hand, I think they’re terrible, because it means that someone somewhere has lost their balloon, and that’s got to sting, right?”
She looked at Drake expectantly.
“Right,” he agreed.
“Right. But on the other hand, it’s a balloon, so you’ve got to love it.” She sighed. “I just don’t know what to think.”
Drake nodded. “It’s difficult.”
“That it is,” she agreed. “That it is.”
They watched the balloon until it disappeared into the fluffy white clouds. It looked, to Drake, impossibly high, and he tried not to think about the fact he’d been racing through those very clouds – or ones quite like them, anyway – just a few hours ago.
“So, this accident,” he said, as they continued walking, “what did you say caused it?”
“Well...” began Mel. She took a deep breath, and Drake got the feeling she was about to launch into a detailed account of what had happened. “They don’t know,” she said, proving him completely wrong.
“I thought you said it was the minibus?”
“No, they think the minibus crashed into the wall, but loads of other cars were damaged too, and the minibus couldn’t have caused all of it.”
“Oh, right.”
“They even found horse droppings!” Mel said. “Can you imagine? Horse crap in the school car park? Picture it, Chief, a horse doing a great big poo right there on school grounds! Just picture it.”
“I’d rather not.”
Mel shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
“So no one saw anything... strange?”
“What, apart from the horse crap? No, don’t think so.”
So, no one had witnessed Drake’s involvement in the destruction of the car park, or seen the flying spheres. That was a good thing, he decided. Probably.
“Why do you ask?”
“Um, no reason. Those boys turn up?” he asked, changing the subject.
“What? Oh, no, not yet. They will, though.”
“How do you know?”
Mel puffed out her cheeks. “This is them all over. They’ll have run away, but they’ll come back when it starts raining or they run out of food or whatever. Everyone knows it, that’s why no one’s all that bothered about it.” Her brow furrowed. “There was something else I was going to tell you.”
“What?”
She looked up and to the left and right, as if she’d find the answer written there somewhere. “Nope, can’t remember,” she said at last. She stopped walking. “This is me.”
Drake found himself looking up the long gravel drive of a grand detached house. Two cars