III - Charlie
It was
Charlie who took the lead as they made their way out of Devara Hill Royal
Infirmary. He was eager to leave the
place, but not simply because it was frightening. He wasn’t sure he was frightened any more, not in the same way he
had been. No, it was a different set of
emotions that spurred him to action, filled his young body with energy and
vitality in the midst of that cold, awful night.
More than
anything else, he was curious. He
wanted to know what happened next. The
vision he and Paige had seen in the corridors of the hospital seemed to speak
to him in a way which it hadn’t to Paige, not yet, anyway. He realised that whatever was going on
around them was more complicated than just an invasion of monsters or a
terrible nightmare. He had a sense that
there were more players involved and that they were just beginning to move
their pieces.
He had
enjoyed chess once. His uncle – his
mother’s brother – had taught him how to play a couple of years ago, before his
mother left, and whilst he had never got very good at it, he had begun to
understand some of the rudiments of tactics and strategy. He could see, towards the end of a game, how
his uncle’s moves up to that point had been slowly spelling out the doom of his
own king. It had thrilled him to
realise that everything that had been played out up to that point had been part
of a plan and that, one day, he might be able to replicate such a plan.
The games
of chess had stopped very suddenly one day.
His uncle had argued with his father and there had been a fight. He remembered the last time he saw his
uncle, face bloodied, eyes filled with guilt as he left, not even saying
goodbye.
The scene
in the corridor had felt like a chess move to Charlie. If he had been asked why he would have had
trouble explaining it, but he knew, as it was happening, that they were
supposed to see that event and he felt, if they kept moving, there would be
more for them to see. It was like a
game of chess, he was sure, but also like a puzzle, the pieces of which they
would be given, one by one, until they could understand the whole picture. Perhaps that picture was the game plan
itself or maybe it was something else, Charlie wasn’t sure, but he was very
eager to find out and so he ran ahead along the corridor to the stairwell,
glancing back at Josh and Paige who watched him with looks of wonder and, yes,
concern.
“Be
careful, Charlie,” Paige shouted after him, but he just gave her a half-smile
and darted into the stairwell.
No comments:
Post a Comment