Toxic

Chapter 6

I hear him talking to Dom in the hall.

I take the stairs two at a time and find the pair of them deep in discussion.

"Have you seen Andre, Thorn? He was supposed to be home from school hours ago, and he's not answering his phone."

"No, I've not seen him."

"Let me know if you hear from him."

Dad puts an arm around Dom's shoulder and leads him into the back living room.

I wander back upstairs and dial Andre's mobile, but it goes straight to voice-mail.

I'm just about to call Carly when a message from her flashes up on the screen.

'Andre is being taken care of. Come to the Albert Dock at eleven."

She was going to kill him.

Over my dead body was that going to happen.

I run into Lola's room.

"What's up?" Her warm eyes blink at me.

"Sh...she's going to, ki..kill Andre." I sob.

Ruby appears, as I'm crying into Lola's shoulder.

"Oh my god, what's the matter?" she demands a little impatiently.

Lola huffs and thrusts my phone at her.

Ruby's eyes flash in contempt. "Right, then, I suggest we practice our powers. We are all meeting her at the docks."

"We've only got three hours." Lola panics.

"Then let's make it count," I wipe the tears away on my hoodie sleeve and stand tall.

"What did you say to Mum and Dad?" Lola's in the back with me, glancing out of the window.

"That we were going to a party at Yasmin's. It's a Friday night, they won't be bothered." I assure her.

Ruby's driving, and she speeds down the dock road in five minutes flat, pulling up down a side street by the heritage market.

She checks her iPhone under a street light. "It's almost eleven."

We set off towards the bridge on Regent Road, on one side of which is a dock yard, on the other, a section of the River Mersey, surrounded by derelict warehouses. The windows that have not been bricked up are stripped of their glass, leaving gaping holes in the buildings.

Rusting doorframes are covered in graffiti 'Jack woz ere 2k3' is the only one we can make out - the rest are endless swirls of green and red.

Ruby hurries us on, forever checking over her shoulder.

A chip paper blows across the road which is full of potholes, great ugly cracks in the tarmac.

Did she really have to suggest meeting us here? It was creepy enough in the daylight.

A gate clangs open near the bridge and a soft, mellow voice calls out. "Thorn?"

Carly steps out onto the pavement, hesitating when she claps eyes on Ruby and Lola.

"They're my sisters." I introduce them all quickly. 

"I'm keeping Andre in one of the old warehouses. It took everything I had just to bind him," she tells us, and leads us along the dock into an abandoned storage room.

A rotten, musty odour fills the air, and I look at the damp ceiling, which looks as if it will cave in at any minute.

There are some crates piled up against the corner of the bleak little room, and my ears pick up a faint clanking.

"He is behind them. After I got him tied up, he built a fort out of the boxes, trying to barricade himself from me." Carly divulged.

Ruby and Lola tug the crates out of the way, and I only just stop myself from screaming.

Andre is slumped against the wall, a heavy iron collar embedded into his neck, and blood seeps down the chains onto the concrete.

"How much blood has he lost?" I am so freaked out now.

"A little. Listen, I have an idea on how to release him from this form."

"Go on." I say fearfully.

Carly bows her head, golden locks swinging. "His soul is tainted, it is too much for him. I think we should-"

"For Christ's sake, he's not some sick dog that needs putting out of his misery!" Ruby snapped.

Lola backs her up "You can't, Thorn loves him".

Carly meets all of our eyes, looking defiant. "I know that. I'm in love with him too."