Blearily, Toby opened his eyes. He felt hot. Shuffling upright, his back hit a metal bar, and a split second later, his head did too. Toby winced as he squirmed around, trying to get the slightest bit comfortable, and eventually, he found that if he lay on his side and tucked his feet in up to his chest, he could lie in relative comfort while his head stopped spinning.
He still felt hot, though, he realized, as he rolled over again, catching his foot off one of the bars and feeling it click awkwardly. He then peered between the bars, and although the world was sideways, he still recognized what was in front of him. Looking down only confirmed his suspicions.
Ah. That's why it was hot.
Toby spun and wriggled, trying to find the latch on the cage he was in. His hands were slippery, and the boiling vat of water below him wasn't exactly helping. His hands closed on the rope knot at the same time as the rest of the room sort of came into focus.
"Toby?" Rosie's little voice piped up, fearfully.
"Is she still here?" Toby called, as he began on the knot.
"Who's she? The cat's mother?"
Toby let go of the knot, twisting in the small space so he could see.
"Don't touch the knots" the old woman cackled, redoing everything Toby had managed to undo and putting another knot in for good measure. "Don't touch..."
"Rosie?" Toby called again, squirming, as the metal cage was starting to conduct the heat from the water rather too well for his liking. He looked around the room they were in. It was a conjoined kitchen and living room, with a big oak table in the centre, sofas and chairs on the other side of the room, and a wooden door leading to a pantry, tinged with red. Toby finally spotted the little girl-sitting frozen on a chair, with a ring of wood and coals around her, white hot, keeping her still. She shook her head at him. She couldn't move. And if the floorboards caught fire...
The old woman was still standing over the cage, rubbing her bony fingers together. She was standing awfully close, Toby realized. Extremely close.
The water was boiling properly now, and the metal surrounding him was beginning to get very, very hot. Toby tried to put his feet through the bars and kick off the wall in order to move the cage, but it was stuck fast, tied to something or other with more rope.
It was only then when Toby really started to panic. How was he supposed to get free of this? The cage wouldn't move...
But once again, his natural intuition and knack for solving problems kicked in. Yes, the cage wouldn't move, but the pot of water might.
Rolling onto his knees, wincing at the pain-it was pain now, there was no denying it-Toby tried to use his hands to move the pot beneath him. It didn't budge.
In one last ditch attempt, Toby rolled onto his back, and kicked with both legs.
Then the pot moved.
In fact, it did more than just move. It skidded straight off whatever it was standing on, splashing and crashing to the floor. The boiling water poared everywhere, all over the old woman, who shrieked in pain and fell down, the water also dousing the coals surrounding Rosie, which was what Toby had been hoping for. What he hadn't considered was how his cage was resting on the pot, and as a consequence he dropped straight down, almost over the fire. But he didn't have time to think about that problem, since almost the second he landed Rosie was hauling him clear.
"Thanks" Toby gasped, but Rosie didn't hear, as she had been forced to run to the other side of the room as the old woman, having struggled to her feet, tried to grab at her. The two female voices bounced frantically around the cottage as the old woman chased, Rosie, screaming, tried to evade her, and Toby tried desperately to undo the knots in the rope whilst the attention wasn't on him. He could feel the skin, blistered and burned, on his shins and on his back, but he tried his best to focus on his fingers, since ultimately, they were going to be what saved his life, if anything could.
"Rosie!" Toby yelled, as the knots finally came free and he started to worm his way out. "Follow the story!"
Rosie, who was currently cowering in the corner, shook her head frantically. Toby saw that now she was trapped. The unknown woman was closing in to grab her, and as Toby finally kicked himself free of the hateful cage Rosie screamed, louder and harsher than any scream Toby had ever heard. Empowered, he splashed through the puddle of warming water which surrounded him on the floor, and picked up the huge pot which had been boiling below him and crammed it on the head of their captor.
"Close enough" he called to Rosie, lightly despite their dreadful situation, and the now blind, burned, bedraggled monster between them spun wildly to face where she thought he had spoken from.
What ensued was a hauntingly gaunt game of Blind Man's Bluff. With his finger on his lips to keep Rosie quiet, Toby began to edge away from the door, splashing his feet through the puddles to lead the woman away from the little girl, and to leave a clean run for Rosie out to the door. He pointed at where he wanted her to go, and carefully, the young boy and the little girl began to step together in time, one towards the door, one away from it. Like a puppet doll, the woman stumbled forward towards Toby, one hand waving out in front of her and the other trying to prise the pot from over her shoulders. She was making a lot of noise herself, and as Toby reached the back wall Rosie reached the door.
"Go!" Toby mouthed at her. "Run!"
Rosie shook her head fearfully again, staying frozen to the spot as Toby began to slink around the wall. Despairing, Toby considered his options. He couldn't go left because of the woman, but he couldn't go right because of the wall, and he couldn't go forward because of the table.
Well, that wasn't strictly true.
Toby backed up as far as he could, before running full tilt at the table, scrambling over it and reaching the door before the woman had time to turn or grab him. He pulled Rosie after him as the two of them pelted out of the house and down the hill. Toby's head was blurring and his vision was getting cloudy as he and Rosie dodged though trees. They were both hopelessly lost, they knew, but they had to get away.
Toby kept pushing them both to run further until Rosie fell over the first time. She burst into shocked, hysterical tears, curled up in a ball on the floor, and Toby didn't have the heart or the energy to soothe her. He instead scooped her up in his arms and carried on moving.
"Don't run!" A cackling cry rang out through the trees. "I'm on my way..."
"Hush, Rosie" Toby whispered desperately. "She'll hear you if you...shhh..."
Rosie whimpered pitifully, and she was now getting very heavy to carry. Toby slowed to a walk, panting.
"Can I let you down?" he asked. The little girl whimpered again, hanging onto his neck tightly, and with a heavy heart Toby took that as a no. He tried to move faster, but having to check his back every five seconds meant he really was barely going anywhere. It was at this point when, for the first time, Toby thought that perhaps he wasn't going to get out of this one. The woman, although she looked old, moved like a cat, and was just as nimble, and at the dizzy, burned, shattered state he was in, he couldn't ever out-manouvre her, especially carrying Rosie. All Toby could hear was his own heart and Rosie's snuffles, but now a new sound came to his ears, and his heart sunk further into the depths of fear.
"If you go down to the woods today, be sure of a big surprise..."
The song floated through the tree trunks, and Toby couldn't tell how close it was.
"If you go down to the woods today, you'd better go in disguise..."
Taking a guess at where the noise was coming from, Toby slid behind the biggest tree he could find, trying to put Rosie down, but she refused to let go, gripping tightly with the strength only small children had.
"For every bear that ever there was..."
The tinkling song continued, but now there was something else.
"TOBY? TOBY!"
Breathing quickly, Toby instantly recognised his brother's voice. Also, if he strained, he could just about pick up other voices too, all calling for him in the distance.
But which sound was closer?
Toby knew that if he shouted from where he was, he'd attract the attention of everyone else in the woods-essentially salvation and the danger at the same time. He also knew that the longer he waited, the closer they both could get, but they could also get further away...
Toby shook free of his overthinking, apologised to Rosie quietly and shouted.
"QUINNE! I'M HERE! HELP!"
He then moved out into the open, Rosie almost unconscious in his arms, looking around frantically. He saw shadows moving in the distance, he saw shapes moving between the trees. He saw lights. He saw dark spots. He saw little glints of sunlight off metal.
"QUINNE?" Toby yelled again, his voice breaking slightly in desperation. "QUINNE, I'M HERE!"
He backed to where he thought the noise was coming from, looking left and right, everywhere at once.
"TOBY?"
"Quinne!" Toby called out, looking desperately around for his brother. Quinne was running full tilt through the trees towards him, and they met relievedly on both sides.
"Quinne, this is Rosie" Toby gasped, trying to push the little girl off onto his stronger brother. "She's in shock. I can't carry her..."
"Here" Quinne ordered briskly, and Rosie, now sleeping fitfully, was passed between them.
"You're an idiot" Tarquin muttered, grunting under Rosie's weight.
"I'm an idiot" Toby agreed reluctantly, as his legs began to give way and he slowly dropped down to his knees on the muddy ground.
"Is there anyone else?" the younger brother then asked, looking up as Tarquin cradled the little girl comfortingly in his arms.
"Yeah. I ran ahead.." Quinne began, but trailed off as once again, that haunting song came to their ears.
"If you go down to the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise..."
"What's that?" Quinne asked worriedly, glancing left and right. Toby pinched himself, scrambling to his feet again.
"It's her. It's the woman. It's the woman who killed the children" he explained quickly, pushing his brother holding Rosie back the way he had come. "She's after us."
"I can't run with this girl..." Quinne started to say.
"Boo!"
Toby yelled, and Quinne took a half- step back. The two boys began to move slowly away, as the old woman had sneaked up on them so silently neither of them had heard.
"What's the fear, my dears?" she crooned softly, shuffling closer. Quinne couldn't drop Rosie, so Toby stepped in front of him and grabbed a stick from the ground, pointing it shakily forward.
"Ohhh" the woman sighed, smiling loosely. "Don't bother with that silly little thing..."
She darted forward. Toby swung with the stick. Quinne started shouting loudly for help, and the woman seemed to shy away from the noise.
Too late, Toby realised it was a feint, as she darted forward once again, twisting the stick from his grasp and throwing it away, pulling him forward.
Six gunshots rang out through the trees.
Instantly, Toby dropped to his hands and knees, crawling away as best he could. Another twelve shots followed-two rounds-and Quinne flattened himself and Rosie against a tree. Toby peeped behind to see where the shots had come from, and saw Carmen striding furiously across the forest floor, holding a smoking, gleaming silver pistol out in front of him. Barnes was jogging worriedly behind.
"Toby?" Carmen asked concernedly.
"Fine, sir" Toby replied, promptly despite the shock. "Thank you, sir."
"I hope it teaches you a lesson" Carmen growled. "Tarquin?"
"I'm alright, sir" Quinne replied. "I only just got here..."
The woman, who had also dropped to the floor on hearing Carmen's shots, chose this time to try and sneak away. Carmen turned his attention straight to her, reloading and relifting the gun.
"Don't move" he ordered gratingly. "I'd like you down at the station, if you don't mind."
"Would you use that? On a senior citizen?" the woman asked coyly. Carmen snorted.
"With all due respect, I daresay I would. Not to kill, mind. Although perhaps..." he mused, as he cocked the shining weapon almost lovingly. "Perhaps to temporarily paralyse."
The woman seemed to realize that running maybe wasn't the best option here, although Toby couldn't be sure. Sitting on the rough ground as he was, it didn't stop him from beginning to slip into unconsciousness. He heard a police whistle, and lots of running feet. He heard Carmen yell for nobody to move. He heard lots of shouting, and some chillingly animalistic screeches of hatred. He then felt huge, strong arms hoisting him up off the floor, and everything sort of faded to a peaceful, misty grey.