PROLOGUE
Fire. Blood. Screaming. The town was ablaze and no one could save it. The girl was frozen to the spot, watching flames as tall as people ravage the street. Heat seared her face. Thick black smoke choked the air. She stood, mesmerised, at once enchanted and horrified by the carnage before her. A terrible shrieking on her left pulled her attention from the burning houses. A man in his thirties writhed on the ground, hands raised in defence, as three knife-wielding figures in red devil masks stabbed his chest, stomach and face. On her right, a middle-aged couple sat slumped in the front seats of a silver estate car, silently staring into space. The front of the vehicle was burning, yet neither adult tried to escape.
Someone, she did not see who, let out a terrible, guttural wailing that grew to a crescendo then was immediately silenced. The girl sniffed the air, smelled ash and burning meat. She tasted sea salt and death. Looking down at herself, she saw the T-shirt and jeans hanging from her malnourished, pubescent body were caked in dirt and blood. The blade in her hand had been wiped clean. It was as if she were in a dream or underwater, a viscous film separating her body from reality.
She stared at the blazing houses, saw a front door open and a burning man stumble out. She watched him take two silent steps before collapsing to the ground. She should have felt horror, disgust, but she only felt a vague awareness. The man was dead because of her. And so was the one in the street and the couple in the car. And all those people down at the seafront. She was responsible, along with the others. But for what benefit? She had been given the answer, over and over again. It had been drummed into her like a mantra until she could recite it in her sleep. To show the world what a dangerous thing it was. To demonstrate how chaos was a terrifying, unstoppable force. To prove that the innocents in this cruel world could be just as vicious and unforgiving towards the people who longed to hurt them.
But standing there, death and violence swarming around her, the girl questioned the point of it all. She heard their leader’s voice in her ear. ‘We are clearing a path to the New Dawn so that we may cross over.’ The girl had never understood the meaning behind those words, but now, despite the haze that blanketed her mind, despite the numbness that slowed her limbs and kept her heartbeat steady, she understood exactly what they meant. She just didn’t know if she was ready.
Someone was calling her name. Footsteps were approaching.
‘Hey! What are you doing? Come on, we have to go.’
Slowly, she turned. A boy stood before her, similar in height and build. Like hers, his clothes were soiled and bloody, and his face was obscured by a red devil mask. But she knew exactly who he was.
The boy held out a hand. When she didn’t take it, he gripped her by the wrist. ‘Everyone is gathering in the wood. They say it’s time. But I don’t want to cross over. I want to go home!’
He pulled off his mask and dropped it to the ground. And there he was. Her kin. Her everything since they’d shared their mother’s womb. And he was as terrified as she was numb.
The boy tugged the girl’s arm, but she did not budge, even when he begged her with his eyes.
‘What’s wrong with you?’ he said. ‘Don’t you get it? If we stay here we’re going to die. Do you want to die?’
The girl shrugged. The boy lunged at her, tearing off her mask and tossing it away.
‘No!’ he bellowed. ‘I’m not going to let that happen!’
He pulled on her arm again. When she still didn’t move, he took her by the wrist and began dragging her along the street. The girl did not fight back, but she did not help him either.
They passed more destruction. More bodies and burning things. The boy’s breathing was heavy and erratic, each terrible scene making him babble under his breath. The girl was afloat on a sea of nothingness. Even though the knife in her hand had been cleaned, blood was still smeared on the blade, close to the hilt.
Up ahead, a car skated around the corner, tyres screeching on the tarmac as it shot towards them. A woman was behind the wheel, her expression twisted with terror, and in the back seat a girl no older than five or six years old. The boy leapt to the side, dragging the girl out of the vehicle’s path. Then they were on the move again, the boy pulling the girl along, the girl staring blankly.
Reaching the end of the road, they turned right and began climbing the hill. The boy slid to a halt. The girl slammed into him. Up ahead, more figures in red devil masks and bloody clothing were making their way towards the wood. He twisted around and saw more masked figures close behind.
The boy wailed and looked back at the girl with desperate eyes.
‘Where do we go?’ he cried. ‘How do we get out?’
She stared at him, offered another shrug.
‘This way!’ one of the masked devils called, pointing up at the hill. ‘Salvation is at hand!’
And then hands were upon them, helping them along, guiding them to the top of the hill, towards the wood, where the New Dawn was waiting. Where they would finally cross over.
The boy was helpless, too weak to fight them. Too scared to say no. But he did not loosen his grip on the girl’s wrist. Soon, they were cresting the hill, where they were swept along in a sea of red, leaving the town behind and entering Briar Wood. Even from up here, they could feel the heat from the fire below and smell the stench of death.
The girl stared at the army of masked devils that surrounded her. Something stirred inside her body, beginning to wake. It started with a tightening of her chest, followed by a quickening of her heartbeat. Her stomach convulsed, as if she’d swallowed a bird and now it was trying to get out. What was this feeling?
They were moving deeper into the woods, feverish chatter reducing to a low hum. The girl was breathless now. She stared at the boy’s terrified face, at the clearing up ahead, where they would enter the New Dawn.
‘No.’ The word was a whisper. The first word she had uttered since the first life had been taken. ‘I don’t want this.’
She squeezed the boy’s hand, who looked wildly around him. He squeezed back. The girl’s heart thumped in her chest. Blood rushed from her extremities, towards her brain. She tried to move to the left, but the crowd surged around her.
‘Let me out,’ she said, her voice a little louder this time. ‘I need to get out!’
And then she was shoving with her shoulder, pushing people out of her way while dragging the boy behind her. No one tried to stop her; every masked face was pointed at the clearing. The girl pushed and shoved, all the emotions she had been suppressing suddenly flooding her cells. Panic choked her. Tears sprang up in her eyes. Crushing guilt threatened to drag her to the ground. But she pressed on, cutting a path through the bodies, the boy following closely behind.
And suddenly they were free. The girl fell to her knees, panting and sobbing. The masked mob continued on, oblivious to the deserters.
The boy placed a hand on her shoulder and said, ‘Get up.’
But she could not move.
‘What did we do?’ she moaned. ‘What did we do?’
Pulling her to her feet, the boy gripped her shoulders. ‘It doesn’t matter now. If we stay here we’re going to die. Do you want to die?’
The girl shook her head.
‘Then get moving.’
Taking her hand, the boy turned away from the clearing, away from the town. Then froze.
A masked devil stood before them, blocking their path. She was bigger than them, older. She carried a sharp looking sickle in her left hand.
No one spoke. The boy pushed the girl behind him. He would fight to the death if he had to, would happily lie, bleeding out, if the last thing he saw was his sister escaping to freedom.
He quickly scoured the ground, looking for a rock or stone that could be used as a weapon. The devil reached up and removed her mask, and they saw she was no devil at all. It was Julia, one of the older teens, who had always been kind to them. Who, like the boy, had always hovered on the perimeter.
He opened his mouth to speak, but Julia pressed a finger to her lips.
‘If you want to leave,’ she said, ‘I know a way out.’
The boy and girl stared at her, then back at the clearing, where hordes of red devils were now gathered, impatiently waiting for the arrival of their revered leader. In the near distance, the low wail of sirens could be heard.
Panic flickered in Julia’s eyes. She turned to leave.
‘It’s now or never,’ she said. ‘I’m not waiting.’
The girl tugged on the boy’s hand.
‘Can we trust her?’ she said.
The boy shook his head. ‘We can’t trust anyone. But we’re still going with her.’
And then they were on the move, ducking and weaving between the tree trunks, away from the clearing and the insanity that lay within. Away from the burning town and its dead and dying inhabitants. Away from the Dawn Children and life as they knew it.
‘It’s going to be all right,’ the boy said over his shoulder, attempting to sound reassuring. ‘Everything is going to be fine.’
But even before they had left the wood, skipped across the road, and slipped into the neighbouring fields, the girl knew that nothing was fine. And never would be again.
