At three o'clock the next morning, I got a text from Ataraxy telling me that her 'insider' had told her that the first gift had been a success. I was still wondering if we could trust this 'insider'.
The letter we'd put through the Cartwrights' door had been, quite simply, a forgery of an expulsion letter from the school. In it, Ataraxy had listed five of Jamie's offences that she knew he wouldn't have told his parents about. So by the time they would have phoned the school office and found out it was all a lie, no doubt Jamie would have confessed to it all.
All in all, I was quite pleased with our work.
I unpaused the movie I'd been watching and lost myself once more in a good old classic James Bond.
***
By the time morning rolls around, I'm only on the fifth chapter, and that's not even a twentieth of the full book. If I have to finish this thing, it's going to take me a long while. And even then it probably won't be what I want it to be- a clue.
Dejectedly, I consider this. Ataraxy wouldn't leave me a thick book to get through- she knows the only sort of books I like are generally short, non-fiction, or action-packed. Or comics. So I'm probably just wasting my time.
Sighing, I set the book down on my bedside table and head downstairs to make myself some toast.
***
Ataraxy and I met up at the library again. She was practically glowing with excitement. "I can't believe it was so effective!" she kept saying. "I didn't know things would go so well from day one!"
"Yeah, yeah." Despite my constant eye rolling, I was actually quite pleased with our work. It's scary how easy it is to bring someone down. "So what's up for today?"
Ataraxy booted up a computer and plugged in her memory stick. "We print out another copy of the carol. Then we're done here."
I nodded. "Wouldn't it be smarter to print out eleven copies now?"
She shook her head. "Gives us an excuse to show up at the library. Keeps your parents happy."
And yours? I was tempted to ask, but said nothing.
Once we were out of the library, we went to a café a few streets down and ordered milkshakes while Ataraxy explained today's prank. "It's simple. A foam grenade."
I blinked. "That's it?"
She shrugged. "It's harmless, but it'll be effective in this situation. Because our target won't be him directly."
Moodily, I stirred my milkshake. "How does that work?"
"He's got a date with someone new tonight. Surprising after yesterday, but there we go." Ataraxy had a blob of cream on her nose. I decided not to point it out. "So we're going to get her with it. They're going to a Christmas party, she'll probably be wearing something fancy, she'll get mad."
"She'll blame it on him," I realised. "She'll either think it's a prank by him and his friends, or she'll assume-correctly- it was one of his many enemies."
"Exactly. I rather hope she'll lean towards the first." Ataraxy grinned. "It's flawless."
What was not flawless was the fact that Jamie and his date would be leaving for their party at eight o'clock. Unfortunately, both of my parents were at home, and would have no doubt been suspicious if I'd left the house after dark wearing full black carrying a bottle of vinegar. So I ended up closing my door, turning the volume of my TV up, and climbing out of the window again. I hit the lawn awkwardly, almost smashing the bottle of vinegar, and sprinted madly for the cover of the trees.
Getting to Jamie's house was a whole separate problem. It would have taken me half an hour to walk, and I'd left the house at twenty to eight. Pushing it a little. I decided to get the bus.
Ataraxy was waiting at the stop. "Hey," she whispered. "D'you have the vinegar?"
I held it out to her and she sighed with relief. "Good stuff." She pulled out a few other items from her hoodie pocket. A water balloon, and was that baking soda?
She noticed me staring. "Primary school science," she explained. "That's what we're relying on."
I groaned.
We reached Jamie's house at ten to eight, with lots of time to spare for Ataraxy to mess with the water balloon, fill it with baking soda.
"At five to eight," she instructed, "we'll add the vinegar and tie it."
"It'll be fine," I agreed. Judging from how nervously I was drumming my fingers on my leg, I didn't entirely believe it.
When the front door creaked open, we weren't exactly ready. Voices drifted up the lawn. "Tip it!" she hissed, and I dutifully tipped the bottle of vinegar into the water balloon. I didn't exactly do it precisely, and drops spilled onto her hands, but she didn't care. "No- that's too much!" She swore softly and I hastily straightened the bottle. The water balloon was starting to fizz- and it still wasn't tied. I cursed and lunged forward, wrapping my hands around it, fumbling to make a knot. This plan was so simple, and it was literally about to blow up in our faces.
Jamie and his date were nearly at his car. They both sounded relaxed and happy, and the girl was wearing a beautiful ice blue dress.
I finished tying the balloon. "Go, go, go!" Ataraxy whispered and I did. I sprinted around the side of the house, saw Jamie opening the door and threw my caution away. I slung the balloon desperately in their direction and was rewarded with a huge bang, and a lot of screaming.
As it turned out, my throw had been slightly to the left, and had hit the half-open car door. But it had been enough.
As Ataraxy and I sprinted down the lane under the cover of the trees, I risked a glance behind us. The poor girl was utterly covered in foam, her dress completely ruined. Make-up ran in tears down her cheeks. And she was screaming at Jamie.
Mission accomplished.
We ran down his street under the cover of the trees and didn't stop until we were safely under the glass roof of the bus shelter. "D-did you put the carol lyrics through?" I asked breathlessly.
Ataraxy held up a finger. Finally she panted, "yep. And I got this too." She fumbled in her pocket and held out her phone. I unlocked it and whistled. She'd taken a photo of Jamie's date. The girl was caught mid-howl, drenched in foam, with smeared make-up like some sort of grotesque puppet.
"I'm a good photographer," Ataraxy said cheerfully, grabbing her phone back. "I'm going to send this to the insider. He's going to hack into Jamie's Facebook and post it, pretending that it really was all a prank by him."
My mouth fell open. "Remind me never to get on your bad side?"
She grinned. "Deal."
We waited in silence for a few minutes. "Can we trust your insider?" I asked eventually.
Ataraxy nodded. "Of course." She pulled off her beanie and shook out her long hair. "He's my cousin."
***
I'm flicking through the book again. Not really reading it. I haven't the stomach for that anymore.
A news report blares from the TV and I switch it off. The noise irritates me.
The kettle switches off in the corner and I go to it. I still can't believe how quickly you can get addicted to something- even something you thought you hated. The warm smell of coffee fills the kitchen.
I settle back down in the chair and pick up 'Otherworld' again. I go to the contents instead of even trying to read the story itself. The chapter names are as obscure as you'd expect them to be, all demons and portals and dragons.
But there's one that makes me stop short.
'Twelve Days of Revenge'.
Twelve days of revenge. Twelve days of Christmas.
I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. With newfound energy, I leaf through the pages until I reach the fortieth chapter of the book.
The coffee on the table becomes colder, and colder.
***
On the third day of Christmas Ataraxy informed me that Jamie was staying inside all day. It had been snowing again, and I wasn't in the mood for pranking.
"Why's it so important?" I whined as we trudged through the snow together. "We've got him good twice. And the Facebook thing yesterday blew everything up." That much was true enough. Ataraxy's cousin had hacked Jamie's account, posted the picture captioning it 'pranked', and had started an online war that affected practically all of the sixth formers in the school.
The culprits? A thirteen year old girl and a fourteen year old boy messing with things they should probably be leaving alone.
"Alright," Ataraxy huffed. "I'm telling you, I have a good reason. Maybe twice is enough for you but for me it's not!" She swung her backpack around and slammed it into a fence as she spoke. Ouch.
I rolled my eyes. "You can take today for yourself, then," I offered. "Make all the mischief you want. Sorry. I'll be back on tomorrow. Just not today."
I expected her to argue. But she didn't. Just rolled her eyes back at me and said with a scowl, "fine. I'll see you later."
And that was that.
It wasn't an argument. Or if it was, she fixed things quickly enough by sending me a huge envelope with Jamie's name written on the front, filled with- believe it or not- grubs. She had left a copy of the carol lyrics in there too and left it on his desk by climbing through the window.
Typical.
***
There are lots of underlined words in the 'Twelve Days of Revenge' chapter. Just words, never a whole sentence, and in some places, slashes are written in too. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what to do next. I start putting them all together, only to miss a whole page and to have to reread the entire thing again. To make matters worse, it's one of those books that is increasingly difficult to read the more into it you get. But finally, I have the finished product copied onto a post-it:
led by a beating heart // go to sleep on your own // I have written you down // memories will taunt you // in the city that we loved // these words are all we have // can you fill the silence //
All of which makes absolutely no sense to me. Sighing, I take a sip of my coffee only to find that my old hate has been rekindled- at least, for coffee gone cold. I pour it into the sink while I try to make sense of the words. Poetry, maybe? But then that could be anyone, just playing a game with the words of a book...
I don't think I can do this by myself. I decide to enlist the help of something greater than myself- the Internet.
As I turn my laptop on, I stare at the words again. None of them mean anything much to me... or do they? "In the city that we loved," I mutter. "Isn't that a song lyric?"
Drumming my fingers on my knee, I click on Google and wait impatiently for it load. Song lyrics.
I type in the first one, 'led by a beating heart'. The very first result is a lyrics page for the song 'Laura Palmer' by Bastille. I've never heard it, but Bastille... a faint memory arises in me, a late night conversation with Ataraxy. Wasn't Bastille her favourite band?
Heart racing, I think back to the one I remembered. In the city that we loved. That was from a song as well. A song by Bastille!
My fingers fly over the keyboard as I key in every one of the lyrics and scroll eagerly through the results.
Sleepsong. Poet. Haunt. Pompeii- that's the one I remember. Overjoyed. The Silence.
All songs by Bastille. I'm definitely onto something. For a few moments, I'm almost dizzy with happiness until I realise- no. I am not onto something. All I've discovered are song lyrics from her favourite band. How is that meant to translate into clues to finding her?
Unless Bastille were doing a concert in our area. I went straight to Google.
No luck.
Disheartenedly, I shut my laptop. Dead ends. Nothing but dead ends!
Not for the first time, I wondered if it was worth carrying on.
***
On the fifth day of Christmas, Ataraxy and I were in police custody.
Okay, maybe I should backtrack a little.
On the fourth day of Christmas, Ataraxy and I covered Jamie's car in graffiti, which resulted in Jamie getting mad, which resulted in him threatening his friends, which resulted in Ataraxy's cousin caving and turning us in to the police.
I knew we shouldn't have trusted him.
So that was how we got ourselves into mounds of trouble. They picked us up before we could catch the bus, and we spent a nerve-wracking hour in the police station half-heartedly nibbling biscuits while we waited.
Eventually my parents showed up and did a lot of yelling. My mother's a lawyer, and made a big deal about it being a form of revenge for Jamie Cartwright's torturous behaviour.
I think that the police officers were a little taken aback, because they let us both off with a warning once our legal guardians were notified. My parents whisked me off, and we effectively abandoned Ataraxy at the police station.
I was worried about her, but I didn't have much time to think about it because I was so busy fending off my parents' questions. I must have done an okay job, because by the time we pulled into our driveway, I was grounded for the rest of the Christmas holidays. That might seem bad, but when both of your parents are out working all day and don't get home till five, it really was fine.
Ataraxy called an hour after I got home, sounding shaken. She was grounded like me. "I think we'd better lie low for a bit," she mumbled.
I laughed dryly. "You think? We just got arrested!"
She coughed. "Yeah. My folks are mad, and, well, let's just say I'm not going to be out of the house for a while." She sounded bitter. I still had never met Ataraxy's family. "If there's one thing we've learnt out of this, Carter, what do you reckon it is?"
"That we're both idiots? That the police don't appreciate revenge?"
She didn't laugh. "No. That you should never trust family," she said, and hung up.
***