Noon unclenches Riley’s fist from around the locket.
‘Don’t,’ Riley whispers.
Noon pulls hard, snapping the chain. ‘Who’s in here?’ she asks. ‘Who do you keep next to your heart?’
Dawn steps forward. ‘I know.’
‘Dawn,’ Riley whispers.
‘You killed my friend,’ Dawn shakes her head. ‘You killed and lied.’
‘I didn’t mean to,’ Riley says, eyes fixed on the locket in Noon’s hand. ‘Please.’
‘I liked you, Riley,’ Dawn says. ‘That’s worst of all.’ To Noon she says, ‘It’s her father and her mother in the locket, or so she thinks. It doesn’t open, but it’s her most precious thing.’
‘You kept this from me, Dawn,’ Noon says, kind. ‘We will talk about that.’
Noon puts the locket on a rock. She takes up a stone and raises it high above her head.
‘No.’ Riley’s voice sounds like someone else, she is outside her body.
‘It’s not nearly enough payment,’ Noon says, ‘for the life you took.’
‘Please,’ says that strange voice from Riley’s body.
Noon brings the stone down on the silver. Once, twice, three times. On the fourth blow there’s a sharp crack. The locket springs neatly open.
Noon holds up the picture so that Riley can see.
It’s not a photograph of her father, or not exactly. It’s both of them.
Riley’s mother and father stand under a cherry tree in bloom. Her mother looks young. She has terrible hair, a fluffy fringe. But she’s smiling, happy in a way Riley rarely saw her in life. She has her arms around a man. Just some goofy young man. Riley stares at him, the father she never knew.
Noon gazes at the picture. ‘Oh,’ she says, ‘Riley you lied about so much. I know who that is.’
Riley shakes.
Noon raises the rock above her head and pounds the locket into nothing. Riley’s parents’ faces vanish under her blows. Noon takes the mangled remains of the locket and stamps on them until they are flattened in the dust.
They carry Riley back to the stall. She writhes and strugglesand twists her head, trying to bite. It’s no good. Everett raises the machete and Riley screams. He brings the handle down on her head. Everything bursts into light and stars, the world swims. She is faintly aware of being put down in her stall.
The doors slam shut. Darkness falls. Outside Riley hears Noon say, ‘Do you want to shut the bolt?’ She hears a small peeping sound of pleasure. That’s Whitey, Riley thinks. Then the bolt slides home.
Adam Leahy was killed by Leaf Winham three days before Riley was born. There had been hope, deep down inside her, about Nowhere. Riley acknowledges this to herself with a wash of bitterness. She wondered whether by coming here she might understand something about her father – why he abandoned his family for this high lonely place. A part of Riley had hoped that here at Nowhere the locket would open and she would know her father at last.
Light traces the outline of the door, thin pencils of daylight. Riley feels around the edges of the door, touching the light, but there’s only a raw patch of wood where the catch once was.
Time starts to bleed into itself. If you’re in the dark long enough you start to wonder if you exist. Her head throbs and she might vomit. She breathes deeply and it passes. She has to be ready to charge at the door the next time it opens, to get away. Otherwise they’re going to kill her. The world swims and she tries not to drift, pinching the thin skin of her wrist hard between her nails.
She starts awake at the sound of the door opening. Riley drags herself onto all fours and crawls towards the light. She’s unsteady and she retches. A hand reaches in and puts down a bowl. The door crashesshut and she’s back in the dark. Outside the bolt slides home. Riley feels for the bowl with delicate shaking fingertips. She follows the scent – savoury, salty. Her hands find the bowl’s edge. She dips her finger in and licks it – it’s a stew. The strong odour of mushrooms fills the air.
Riley knows what it is, and that this is all the food that she will get. She scoops it into her mouth with a clawed hand. When it’s gone she licks the bowl and fingers clean. She feels a faint gleam of hope. If they’re feeding her, maybe they’re not going to kill her after all.
The light is blinding and the rope is around Riley’s neck before she can think. She claws at it but Midnight has already pulled it tight. She drags Riley out of the stall, into the dusk.
The Ferris-wheel fire is burning bright. Midnight drags her to the circle.
‘Please,’ Riley says to their averted faces, serious in the firelight.
