There’s a hole in the world, she thought.
Something else caught her eye. To the right of this strange opening was a squat grey tor poking up from the earth. It came almost to her shoulder, and its stone surface was surprisingly smooth and rounded. Various lines and symbols criss-crossed its surface, and the tip of the rock was slanted with several concentric circles carved into it.
She turned her attention back to the gap. The edges of it shimmered white and glowed, flapping and rippling as if blown by a breeze.
Jem blinked and felt a strange wave of dizziness. The dizziness only got worse when Tom stepped through the opening and onto the path beyond.
‘Tom, what are you doing? Please come back. I don’t think it’s safe,’ Jem pleaded.
Tom waved a hand dismissively while he looked around him. Jem clenched her fists, feeling a mixture of fear and annoyance. As usual, Tom was plunging headlong into something without thinking.
‘We should go back to the car,’ said Jem.
Tom shook his head and beckoned her forward.
Jem felt she had no choice. She steeled herself then followed him, lifting her feet gingerly as she stepped over the lip of the hole. Her heart was racing.
The first thing she noticed was the air on the other side. It felt cleaner. She looked back at the way they’d come, through the shimmering oval tear, its edges on this side rippling with rainbow colours. She could see the forest, but when she turned round there was no forest, just what looked like a large country estate. There was also another stone tor on this side that looked exactly the same size and shape as the one in the forest.
Tom rubbed his chin. ‘All right, all right,’ he said quietly, his eyes narrowing.
‘What is that?’ Jem asked, gesturing at the hole.
Tom shook his head. His cheek twitched, and he gave a nervous little laugh followed by another bout of coughing.
‘What do we do?’ asked Jem.
‘There’s a house up there,’ he said, pointing towards the end of the chalk path.
Jem shook her head, sorry she’d asked the question.
‘Come on, Jem. If there are people in the house, we can ask them if we can stay the night.’ He grinned. ‘And if there aren’t . . .’
Jem shook her head even more vigorously. ‘No, we can’t.’
‘I don’t see any lights.’ He shrugged. ‘We’ll be polite and knock first.’
Jem shivered and looked back at the dark forest behind them. She supposed anything was better than sleeping in the car again. Also, she thought there might be the prospect of food. They hadn’t eaten a decent meal in two days. Just thinking about it made her belly grumble.
She followed Tom up the path. There were brambles tightly packed on either side of them, and at least a dozen strange leafless trees arranged neatly along the path’s borders, almost as if they were standing sentry to the house.
Tom chatted brightly about the house that lay ahead, and how some day they would live in a place just like it. A mansion, in fact. She knew his animated talk was all just an act for her benefit, something to distract her from the eeriness of what they’d just discovered, so she only half listened as she stared around her.
Tom stopped suddenly.
‘Did you hear that?’
Jem held her breath. For a moment there was nothing.
Then she heard it.
A soft rustling followed by a hiss.
The hissing became louder, and Jem caught movement to her right.
All the trees had drooping crowns like snowdrops. Yet they had very few branches. If anything, they looked like oversized flowers.
And now one of them was straightening up. Slowly.
‘What’s it . . .’ Tom began.
Jem was frozen to the spot. She watched in horrified fascination as what looked like several leathery petals slowly peeled away from each other to reveal row upon row of razor-sharp teeth.
Tom grabbed her arm.
‘Run!’ he shouted.
Jem turned to run, but Tom was pulling her too hard, and she lost her balance. She fell to the ground. Tom tried to lift her, but one minute he was upright, then he too was on the ground as another plant moved onto the path and wrapped one of its roots round his leg. Jem just managed to reach out and grab his hand before it could drag him away.
She heard a squealing sound and looked up to see the first plant moving towards her, its mouth wide open, a saliva-like substance dripping from its maw, roots wriggling frantically as it made its way over the path.
‘They’re everywhere!’ Tom shouted.
Jem looked around to see that the rest of the plants had moved from the fringes of the path too and were now surrounding them. Their roots were thumping against the ground, and they were shrieking and snapping at one another as each of them tried to be the first to reach the children.
Tom was kicking furiously at the root tightening round his leg.
‘No!’ Jem screamed as she tried to pull her brother away from the creature that had him in its grip.
She looked up. A plant loomed over her, then dipped its head, jaws wide. Jem lashed out at it with her free hand and landed a satisfying smack. It reeled back, squealing, shaking its head, and Jem experienced a moment of both elation and utter revulsion.
A root wrapped itself round her leg now. She held tight to Tom’s hand. She punched with her free hand, flailed and screamed, but the more she fought back the more she felt Tom’s fingers slip from hers.
She exchanged a look with him. He somehow managed to shake his head. This is it, he seemed to be saying.
And then something roared and blotted out the moon.
Jem looked up to see a huge bear towering above her. It roared again. She had never seen a bear in real life before, but she couldn’t imagine any bear in existence being as large as this one. It crashed down on its forepaws and bellowed at the plants before taking a swipe at them with one of its paws. The creatures recoiled and shrieked angrily. The bear roared again. They started to retreat towards the edges of the path, and Jem saw the root uncoil from Tom’s leg, then felt the one holding her release her almost gently. Tom’s captor gave a last defiant hiss before it retreated.
The plants took up their sentry positions again. Heads bowed, petals closed, they looked as if they’d never even moved in the first place.
Jem and Tom got back to their feet. Jem felt her throat tighten as the bear turned and bellowed at them, panting furiously, its eyes ruby red, its teeth like yellowed tusks. Jem felt the hot stinking blast of its breath, and as it padded forward she squeezed her eyes shut and prayed that it would all soon be over.
Then a voice shouted, ‘Uncle! No!’
Jem opened her eyes. There was a girl standing in front of the bear. She was about Jem’s age and impossibly pale, with curly black hair. She wore a short black velvet dress with a grey collar. She tilted her head at them, frowning, looking both curious and angry.
‘Who are you?’
‘I’m Jem, and this is Tom, my brother.’ Jem was surprised that she managed to blurt out any words at all.
The girl took a few steps towards them.
‘My name is Mirabelle, and you shouldn’t be here.’
Mirabelle
The girl was extremely quiet, and the boy talked too much.
That was the conclusion Mirabelle drew as they made their way to the house. Despite all that had happened to them, the boy seemed a little too confident and chatty for her liking. Even as he talked, she could see him looking around, as if trying to take everything in. It made her suspicious.