Crawlers

11:52pm

Voices. A dull ache at the back of his neck; a terrible sticky taste in his mouth. Then: pain. Ben's face was throbbing. His skin felt tight from swelling: every pulse of his blood made him feel like his head was going to split. But his ears worked fine, so for a while he just lay there and listened. 

'Get up,' said one of the voices. 

'I can't...' sobbed the other. 

'Can't or won't? Come on, Josh, he only hit you once.' 

'What do you want from me? Just leave me alone!' 

'If all you're going to do is roll around on the floor crying, maybe I should.' Then, more kindly, Robert's voice added: 'Please, Josh. I can't do this on my own.' 

Coughing, gasping, Ben rolled onto his back and sat up. He was still on the stairs. A couple of metres away he saw Robert kneeling next to Josh, who was curled up in a foetal position on the Barbican carpet. 

Now Robert and Josh were staring at him. And that was when Ben remembered what had happened. His hands tingled with the memory of being clamped around Robert's throat. 

'He's getting up again!' Josh gibbered, sitting up and pointing at him. 'He's coming back! He's going to get us! He's... he's... keep him away from me!' 

'Pull yourself together, Josh,' said Robert mildly. 'Ben doesn't mean us any harm, not any more. Do you?' 

Ben felt sick. 'Robert,' he said, 'I... I don't know what to say. I nearly...' 

'I know,' said Robert, touching the livid marks on his neck and giving Ben a rueful look. 'I was there, remember?' 

'You nearly took my head off!' said Josh. 'If I've got whiplash because of you, I swear I'll-' 

'Shut up, Josh,' said Robert. Then, to Ben: 'The point is, you resisted. I saw it in your eyes.' 

Unable to meet Robert's, Ben looked down. 

There was a short silence. 

'All right,' said Robert, getting to his feet. 'Let's go.' 

'Go where?' asked Josh. 

'The Pit,' said Robert, pointing at the theatre doors. 'You saw where they went, on the monitors.' 

'And why should we follow them?' asked Josh, not moving. 

Following Robert's example Ben stood up, trying to ignore the way his muscles grated and shrieked as he did so. 

'Because we've got to help Jasmine,' he said. 

'We've got to find out what's going on here and stop it,' said Robert. 

'We're going to find the Queen,' said Ben. Robert looked at him enquiringly, but Ben just nodded to himself. 'And when I find her,' he added, 'I'm going to kick her arse.' 

'Splendid,' said Josh, from the floor. 'You two go ahead and do whatever you like.' 

'Get up, Josh,' said Ben. 'You're coming too.' 

'Or what? You're going to hit me again?' 

'No,' said Ben, cracking another smile that hurt like hell but was worth it. 'But if you don't get up and by any chance we do get out of this, then we'll be sure to tell the whole school what a snivelling little weasel you really are.' Ben looked at Robert. 'Right?' 

Robert smiled back.