All The Lonely People - David Owen Page 0,55

I’m sure we promised to stay friends, but you know what happens.’

Wesley looked to the others for help, but they appeared just as uncertain how to continue. They had all seen how Aaron’s family reacted to being confronted with a truth the fade had worked to scour clean. Still, Lukundo seemed different, pleased to be reminded of a friend he had lost.

‘You seem to remember him really well,’ said Wesley.

Lukundo frowned. ‘It’s strange. It wasn’t that long ago he was my best friend, but until you said his name I don’t think I had thought about him in a while.’

Aoife leaned forward. ‘Do you know what happened to him?’ she said delicately.

‘I know something happened,’ he said, eyes flicking quickly between them. ‘I know he’s . . . gone.’

The fade seemed to erase its victims from the world, do everything it could to omit them from the annals of reality, until even their loved ones learned not to question their uncanny absence unless compelled. The simple act of reminding them felt like bestowing a gift.

‘Look, we spoke to his brother and he told us you were hanging around his house around the time Aaron disappeared,’ said Robbie. ‘We want to know why.’

‘I think he visited me,’ said Lukundo, unflustered by this sudden frankness.

‘You saw him?’

‘No, I felt him. It’s hard to explain. At first I thought he had died and come to say goodbye before he moved on.’

The boy cupped a hand to his chest, as if covering a hole there.

‘He was right here. Aaron was inside my body.’

Kat’s fingers hovered inches from the boy. What would it take for her to become like him? Surely she was well past the point of no return. Mum gone; Suzy refusing to answer her messages; Dad holding conversations with her bedroom door; her empty online life destroyed. This crowd would never be her people. Somehow, she would always be separate.

There was hardly anything of her left. Why shouldn’t she just . . .?

The boy glanced behind him, and Kat lunged. In that moment she was empty, unravelling like thread caught on a nail, and this time no barrier stood in her way. Her hand was on his skin. The yearning beckoned harder, and her hand was inside his body. In one swift movement, she pulled the boy around her like a shroud.

21

Internal Landscapes

The purpose of the fade was to allow somebody to choose a Cradle, a host person to reside in before their own body ceased to exist. That’s what the Lonely People had told him. Wesley grabbed Lukundo’s broad shoulders and peered into his eyes, trying to see if anybody else lurked behind them.

‘What are you doing?’ he said, as the others leaned closer and gaped.

‘Can you speak to him?’ asked Robbie eagerly. ‘Can he hear us?’

Lukundo shook himself free and held up his hands. ‘You don’t understand. It was only for a moment.’

The Lonely People looked at each other, shell-shocked, as they struggled to realise what this might mean.

‘I’m sorry if this is a surprise,’ said Lukundo. ‘I remember feeling strange, and I think by the time I knew what had happened he was already gone. It was like he was inside my mind, trying to talk to me. Asking for help. It felt . . . like he needed to cling onto something. He wanted something to live for.’

Wesley laughed before he could help it. ‘Try before you buy.’ It made sense, inasmuch as any of this did. If the fade offered the power to slip inside the bodies of others, why shouldn’t it allow them to do it temporarily before they had to make a choice that would decide the rest of their life?

‘We had no idea,’ said Aoife.

It wasn’t like anybody who faded was ever able to report back.

‘When I realised he wasn’t dead, I kept it to myself. I suppose I stopped thinking about it. It didn’t seem so strange until now.’ Lukundo smiled uncertainly. ‘You believe me?’

‘It’s a bit mind-blowing,’ said Jae.

‘But we believe you,’ finished Wesley.

A jolt, the sensation of being dragged across a great distance. Kat buckled with something like vertigo. She had split in half: one seeing the ongoing march through eyes not her own, moving with feet not her own, participating at a remove in the world as she knew it.

The other was pushing through a rainforest, skin slick in the humid air, nudging aside the rope-like vines that hung from trees filled with flowers of red and yellow and blue.