David answered on the second ring.
"Hello?" He heard Elle's panting breath, the frantic pounding of her running feet, and his tone became immediately intense and urgent. "Elle, what is it? What's wrong?"
"It's Russell," she gasped down the phone. She was careering madly down the path through the woods, scattering frightened birds into the air and sending startled squirrels darting up trees. "Oh god, David, it's Russell!"
"You mean - he's the next one?" he said.
"Yes! Yes he's next, David!"
"But which story?"
"Red Riding Hood."
There was a moment of deathly silence on the other end of the phone. Both of them were thinking the same thing. They both knew just how that story went.
"I saw him walking off into the woods," Elle said, "He had this old red hoodie on - I can't explain it, David -"
"You don't need to." She could hear him moving about frantically at the other end of the phone, doors opening and closing, footsteps padding heavily downstairs. "You're doing what Mr Luzlic told you to. You're seeing the signs, Elle." He paused a moment. "I'm coming to you, Elle. I'm coming now, do you hear me? Where am I going?"
"I'm heading to Russell's grandma's. That's where he's going. She lives on Elm Road - it's past the school. You won't get here in time -"
"I'm coming, Elle. I'll be there any minute. Just be careful."
He hung up the phone.
Elle stuffed her phone back into her pocket and kept running. She had no idea why she'd called David. He didn't know where he was going, and he'd never get there in time, anyway. But she had to tell someone. She had to say it out loud, to make it more real than this insane concept inside her head.
The problem was, now she'd said it out loud it felt more real than anything she'd ever felt before. She was running flat out but her whole body was suddenly freezing cold, prickling with dread. She doubled her efforts and plunged on wildly down the path.
A minute later she burst out of the woods, sunlight glaring in her eyes. She swerved to the right and raced up School Lane. Russell was nowhere in sight, and she felt another surge of panic. She'd hoped to catch up with him here, but evidently he'd been walking quicker than she'd anticipated.
But if he was already there, and if what she thought was going to happen was already happening...
She felt as if she was going to be sick.
A squeal of tires and brakes behind her suddenly caught her attention. She whipped her head back just as David came tearing out of the woods on his sleek black bike. He shot up the street and fell in line beside Elle as she continued to run.
"Elle!" he gasped. "Thank god I caught you! Where is it? Is it far?"
"Up ahead," Elle panted back, pointing. Her whole body screamed in pain and exhaustion after her manic flight through the woods, but she didn't slow down for a second. Her feet thundered on the tarmac and her breath came in short spasmodic jerks.
About two minutes past the school Elle took the curving street that veered left along the perimeter of the school field. Short residential streets branched off on each side here, like streams branching off from a river. Elle had come this way dozens of times, accompanying Russell on his visits to his grandma. She'd never been so panicked taking this route before.
"That one," she said. "Right at the end."
The main street ended by petering out into a long row of narrow terraced cottages. The woods began at the very end of this row, the first trees coming practically up to the last of the houses. Most people thought it looked quaint here, but Elle always felt like it was bleak and secluded. If she were Russell's grandma she wouldn't want to live out here, all on her own. It was much too quiet and remote. And she'd never felt it was more quiet than she did just then.
The more she noticed it, the weirder it was. The whole row of houses seemed deserted, not a single person in sight anywhere. Weird, since all over town the front gardens of every house she passed were full of weekend gardeners and chatting neighbours, the pavements crammed with dog-walkers and playing children. It was as if everyone on Elm Lane had decided to go out for the day, or perhaps, for some reason, they'd all decided to go inside and close their doors and windows for no reason at all.
Maybe not no reason at all, though. Maybe they had to do that. Maybe something in Farway was making them do that. No inconvenient witnesses to whatever was about to happen.
"Which one?" David called out. His voice boomed down the silent street.
Elle screeched to a halt in front of the last house on the street. Russell's grandma lived at the very edge of the woods - the branches of the first trees actually overhung her garden. The brakes of David's bike screamed as he came to a sudden stop beside her.
For a second they both just stared up at the house. It was very still and quiet, not a hint of activity to be seen. It looked very charming, with its garden full of flowers and its low front fence. The sun was making each of its windows little gleaming squares of gold.
And then the air was split with a bloodcurdling scream.
In two seconds Elle was down the garden path; David was screaming behind her:
"Elle! Stop!"
But she couldn't stop - her hand was already on the door handle, throwing the door wide.
The first thing she saw was Russell. He was lying in the middle of the hall rug, head toward the front door and legs splayed out the other way. The rug was rucked under his desperate scrambling feet as he kicked his way backwards toward the door.
Elle's eyes lifted from his figure on the floor to the thing he was scrambling away from, and a choked scream of her own left her throat as her eyes met those of the big, bad wolf.
*
It was one of the most hideous and terrifying things Elle had ever seen. It wasn't like a real wolf at all. It was more like some ghastly hell-hound straight out of the pages of a gothic horror novel. Nearly six foot tall just standing on all fours, it filled the entire frame of the door as it edged slowly forward from the kitchen. Its colossal shoulders and high arched back pulsated with a hundred strained muscles, all surging and pulsing with the barely-concealed strength of its colossal frame.
And its face - Elle had never seen a more appalling face her entire life. A long maw dripping with globules of thick saliva, mouth full of jagged teeth, the whole thing rough with thick grey fur that stood out all over its body like wire wool.
Two eyes, coal black and burning hot, thirsty for blood.
The whole world seemed to have gone deathly quiet. All Elle could hear was the low rumbling snarl from the wolf - a primal, wild noise, full of menace - and the frenzied catch of her own breathing.
In a desperate whisper she said:
"Russell."
His head whipped toward her, and she had never seen such a look of relief on someone's face before. Up until that exact moment he had been consumed with a crippling dread - a certainty that no one could save him, that there wasn't a shred of hope left. Her name left his throat almost without him realising he was even speaking: "Elle..."
But in the flash that he'd looked away the wolf took its chance - in one almighty leap it was suddenly halfway down the hall, its colossal frame crashing hard against the walls on each side, dislodging photographs of Russell as a pudgy baby that fell to the ground in a shattering tinkle of broken frames. Its paws crashed down on the edge of the rug, shaking the whole house from top to bottom. A revolting stench came wafting down the hall as it bounded forward - a damp, rotten smell, the reek of its filthy breath, the foetid stink of wet matted fur.
The wolf's front paws were now a matter of inches from Russell's feet, its face practically overhanging his. A thin glob of saliva fell from its lips and splattered to the ground between Russell's legs.
Russell, staring up into those coal-black eyes, gave a desperate whimper, and the wolf returned a low growl. But it was not a growl of menace; it was more like a noise of satisfaction. It almost sounded amused.
Oh god - it's playing with him, Elle thought. Like a dog with a new toy, just waiting to tear it to pieces.
She wouldn't know afterwards just why it was, but this realisation managed to suddenly banish every trace of panic and fear from her mind. Her paralysed fear melted into something far more cool and controlled. From that moment her muscles kicked into action even without her brain telling them to. She wasn't afraid anymore. She was angry.
Angry at this monstrous animal that had appeared out of nowhere and threatened her best friend's life. Angry that Russell had been dragged into all this. And angry more than anything that this was happening to her.
She wasn't going to sit back passively from now on, moaning and whining at the things that were happening in Farway. She just wasn't going to take it anymore.
It was a time for action. And she took it.
Just beside her in the corner of the hall was an umbrella stand. Without taking her eyes off the wolf she felt her hand wrap around the handle of a long umbrella, as her face crumpled and tightened into a vicious scowl, jaw set and quivering with a mad restrained energy.
She watched as the wolf's head slowly lowered. Watched its jaws slowly spread open. Any moment it would strike, those teeth clamping down around Russell's neck.
Elle wasn't about to let that happen.
In a surge of wild energy she wouldn't have thought she had in her she leapt forward, throwing all her strength into a thunderously hard swing. The umbrella tore through the air, whistling over Russell's blank staring eyes, missing his head by inches.
It didn't miss its target, though. The end of the umbrella rammed hard into the side of the wolf's head with a sickening thunk.
The force of the impact was so intense it shot backwards up the umbrella, sending a spasm of searing pain through both of Elle's arms and throwing her backwards against the door. The umbrella clattered to the ground and her hands hung in the air, empty but shaking with aftershock. It was as if she'd double-punched a brick wall with all her might.
The pain didn't bother her, though. The mad rush of adrenaline had her feeling more elated than she ever had before. A wild noise bubbled up and screeched out of her throat: something like a strangled laugh of hysteria.
The wolf had fared much worse than she had, anyway. The blow had not only startled it, it had actually thrown its colossal head sideways, ramming it hard into the wall. A revolting spray of blood spurted out across the chintzy wallpaper and something small and hard bounced off into the corner of the hall. It was a jagged tooth, dislodged from its mouth by the force of the blow.
For just a second the world hung suspended. Elle wondered if it would take its attention off Russell and come after her instead. She almost didn't care. She was so full of intense nervous energy that she felt as if she could tackle it with her bare hands.
But then a noise came from it like the sad whimper of a stunned puppy. It scrabbled round on its paws, crashing into the walls and stairs, desperately forcing its way back through the kitchen door. Its thick tail smacked into the kitchen table as it careened around the corner - and then it was gone. The minute it was out of sight it just seemed to disappear without a trace.
David had pushed his way into the hall by now. He hauled Russell to his feet, reaching out a spare hand to help Elle pull herself off the wall. For a second all three of them stood staring at one another. Russell was dazed, shaking all over. His teeth chattered madly in his jaw as he mumbled:
"I'd only just come in. I just came through the door and I heard a noise - and then that thing came in from the kitchen. I thought I was... I thought it was going to..."
He stopped. His face went dead white.
They all heard it at the same time - the sound of the TV dimly blaring from the next room. And the same thought occurred to all three of them at the exact same second.
If Russell had come into the house and immediately seen the wolf, then who knew how long it had been in the house before that?
Russell sprang across the hall and burst through the living room door. Elle and David raced in after him.
Russell's grandma was sitting on the sofa, cheerfully watching the Antiques Roadshow. She raised her face with a smile as they all clattered into the room.
"Oh, hullo Russell, dear. You've come to see me, have you? And Elle, too! How lovely. Come and sit down. You won't believe what they've just said this vase is worth."