Mia looked at the ground. ‘OK,’ she said in a small voice.
Rosie cupped her ear. ‘Can’t hear you.’
‘I said OK.’
‘Good, cos otherwise I don’t think you would have the right qualities to hang out with us.’
‘Yeah,’ said Tilly. ‘Lara has to pay for trying to kill Rosie.’
‘Dead right,’ said Rosie.
‘Wait, is her mum around?’ asked Bella.
Tilly looked about, as did all the girls. ‘Can’t see her.’
‘Come on then,’ said Rosie, and she strode over to where Lara was coming back down the path and turning onto the pavement. Rosie stopped right in front of her.
Lara looked confused and tried to walk past but Rosie snatched away the bag in Lara’s hand to a startled – ‘Hey!’ – then she turned and took off. She heard the thumping of footsteps behind her and looked back over her shoulder to be reassured that her friends were following, and they were – except there was one extra to their group. Lara was chasing and she wasfast.Rosie was shocked – and thrilled. She kept up pace to the end of the street then headed for the park. No houses there so no trick-or-treaters, so no adults. She ran through the gates into the darkened grounds and stopped by the swings, her heart thumping. The other girls gathered too, most of them having realized on the chase that Lara had followed them. They eyed her warily then Rosie saw them look to her, waiting for her to tell them what to do.
She watched Lara for a moment; she could see Lara was breathing heavily and Rosie heard a wheezing sound coming from her mouth. Lara was looking at them all with an admirable attempt at bravery but there was something else in her expression – and then Rosie realized what it was.She didn’t know for certain who they were.They all had masks on except for Mia, remembered Rosie, but a glance around told her Mia hadn’t come. She’d deal with that later.
For now Rosie held aloft the bag of sweets.
‘Give them back,’ said Lara.
‘Come and get them.’
But Lara stayed where she was. Rosie knew she was aware she was outnumbered. She threw the bag to Tilly and a couple of sweets tumbled out. Lara’s face fell.
‘Is that you, Rosie?’ she asked.
Rosie lifted her arms and waved them in Lara’s face. ‘No, it’s your dad. I’m the ghost of your dad and I’ve come to kill you.’
‘Shut up, Rosie,’ said Lara, but Rosie could hear in her voice that she was upset. She added some more ghost sounds for effect and heard the other girls laugh. It made her feel good and important.
‘This is your punishment for trying to drown Rosie,’ she wailed in her ghost voice.
‘You fell in and you know it,’ said Lara.
‘Liar,’ said Rosie. ‘Liar, liar, liar.’ And then the other girls were joining in the chant, encircling Lara. Rosie got bored then and walked over to the roundabout. She stepped on, placing the sweets on the seat opposite, then she came off and stood nonchalantly to one side. And waited.
Lara looked at her, at them all, warily. For a minute Rosie thought she was going to walk away, too nervous to retrieve her stash, but then she had a sudden change of heart and leapt onto the roundabout, grabbing the bag. Asshe turned to get off, Rosie threw herself on the side of the roundabout and pushed with all her might. Lara wobbled and had to grab the seat to stay upright. The other girls cottoned on pretty quickly and they all took a rail on the outside and ran around, pushing the roundabout with all their strength. It went faster and faster. Lara clutched the seat with a new fear.
‘Stop!’ she yelled.
Rosie smiled behind her mask and pushed harder. It was going too fast for them to run around it now, they just had to stand there and watch as it spun Lara round and round, the other girls giving it an extra push whenever it lost a bit of momentum. Lara was half lying on the seat, the sweets crushed under her. She looked frightened, thought Rosie.Good.
And then she got a really good idea. She dug in her shroud, in the pocket. Earlier, back at the house, she thought her mum had seen her put something there but if she had, she didn’t say anything, thank God, otherwise she would have taken it away. She didn’t approve of the trick part of trick-or-treating. Bella had brought them all one, a small squirty pistol of fake blood that was socool. She removed the cap and then held it up. She waited until the roundabout spun so that Lara was passing her and then aimed and fired. It made a very satisfying spattering pattern across her face. Lara screamed.Baby, thought Rosie. It’s only fake blood. It reminded her of the art project they’d done in school last week, flicking paint onto canvas Jackson Pollock style. It had been fun.
The rest of them, one by one, copied her and taking out their blood pistols, they fired them at Lara while she screamed at them to stop, saying she felt sick and pleading with them to let her off. They just laughed and carried on until all the blood had run out.
Lara wascoveredin it, Rosie saw, surprised. It looked as if she had been really badly hurt, like she was bleeding everywhere. It seemed real all of a sudden, even though it wasn’t.
Rosie felt cold. They’d been there for a while and she knew her mum would be looking for her.
She turned and ran out of the park, back towards the streets, her friends seconds behind her.
Lara lay on the roundabout seat feeling as if she was going to throw up. The seat was wooden and hard and it hurt her chin and her wrists. Her breath was ragged and she needed her asthma pump but it was with her mum. She tried to do what she’d been told: to relax, to take deep breaths. She could feel the roundabout losing momentum, slowing down, and with it came a sense of exhaustion.
