‘For what?’ he replies with a knowing smile.
A grin escapes me as I elbow him with my drumstick arm. ‘You know,’ I say gently. ‘I really am grateful.’
He swings the drumstick between us and looks ahead contentedly.
‘Anytime, princess.’
17
The Grimlands proves itself to be the most interesting area of Firecrest altogether.
My jaw drops as I absorb our surroundings. I knew The Grimlands was a horror-themed area, but I didn’t expect to see so many manically decorated and graffitied mannequins. They have been haphazardly spread around the area, blending and blurring with the crowds moving around them.
Settled into the tops of the branches above us sit unsettling, mangled-looking grasshoppers crafted from scrap pieces of metal, spray painted black and grey. A large fountain spitting muddy water stands in the centre, with more mannequins and strange, tentacled ceramic creatures resting in the water.
I spot on our left The Devil’s Hand stage: the largest stage in the area, renowned for its rock and metal line-ups. The sprawling space is decorated with even more metal creatures: spiders, centipedes and wasps look as if they’re swarming the stage, glinting with the purple lights that bounce off them.
Hennie is practically giddy at its oddness.
‘Look atthat,’ she says, pointing at a tower of old, abandoned golf carts that have been tenuously piled on top of each other.More tentacles and vines are entwined around them, looking as if they’re holding it all together in a horrifying, apocalyptic image. A couple happily lounge in the seats of the bottom golf cart cradling acidic-looking yellow cocktails with what appear to be… eyeballs in them.
Owen leans closer to speak in a low voice.
‘Not to alarm anyone, but Elliot and I have noticed that we might have some tagalongs.’
I spin round to see the same two girls from The Lakes earlier hovering awkwardly next to the fountain. There’s a decent amount of space between us, perhaps the perfect distance to trail someone without detection.
‘I think they’ve been following us since this morning and hoping we’ll lead them to each clue,’ Elliot mutters.
‘What?’ Josh starts to walk backwards, eyeing them with disdain. ‘Horrible littlerats, they’re fucking mooching off us?’
‘Yep, seems like it,’ Owen says, with a similar sourness.
‘Not on my watch.’ Hennie’s eyes are alight with fierce determination. ‘How do we lose them?’
Owen is still leading the group, walking painfully slowly so as not to alert our followers where we’re heading.
‘Do we just wait around for a while, hope that they lose interest and fuck off?’ Josh asks.
‘I don’t know if we have time for that… if we wait around we’re just letting someone else get closer to winning,’ I say, my voice plagued with worry.
Elliot’s head whips back to check if the girls are still dawdling behind us.
‘Okay,’ he says, slowing to a stop. ‘If we all split up and go in separate directions, they won’t know where to go. They have no idea where we’re heading, right?’
‘Yes,I like it,’ Hennie agrees. ‘And then we all meet at the Jungle?’
‘Won’t they just follow one of us there though?’ I ask, raising a brow at Elliot.
He’s wearing a smile dripping with mischief. ‘Not if we run.’
‘Run?’ I frown. ‘Like, with speed?’
‘Sure,’ he says, looking amused. ‘That would kind of be the point. Easier to lose them that way.’
The others nod in agreement as Hennie and I audibly groan at the prospect of exercise.
‘Nice idea, Walker. Right, let’s all meet outside Rolo’s,’ Owen says. ‘Take your time to lose them if you need to. Just be sure they’re not following you when we meet. My guess is they’ll go after Elliot and Nora as you’re the originals, and there’s two of you.’
