“Hey,” Ruth called out to the creature, as it lumbered towards the
others, trapped in their corner. “Hey, rocky! Leave them alone- I’m
the one you need to worry about!” She ran towards it. Confused, it
looked away from the others and turned towards Ruth.
“No!” screamed it’s mistress. “You stupid girl, what do you think you’re doing? Idiot boy, why did you let her go?”
Ruth could not run far. Climbing up the steep path to the castle had
been too much for her. Patrick was still sitting gasping on a block of
stone. He reached out towards Ruth as she passed him.
“What are you doing?” he gasped.
“What I can to put right what we’ve done,” she said, evading him and scrambling up the wall where it was broken down.
“No!” he cried, suddenly realising what she was going to do. He stood
up and reached out towards her, but was pushed out of the way by the
adjudicator.
Ruth was standing on the top of the wall, holding on to the branches
of a thin tree that clung to the top of the slope for balance. She
looked down. The valley was a long way below. Behind her, the monster
was pulling itself up after her, too intent in it’s pursuit of her to
notice any danger.
Looking over her shoulder, she saw the evil woman watching, a striking figure, her dress and scarf flowing in the wind.
“Come down from there,” the woman said, aiming her gun at Ruth. Ruth looked at her, her limbs shaking in fear.
“No,” she said. The creature was close now. Too close. With a
sudden movement she swung herself off the wall, clinging to the tree
branch as she dangled out over the steep drop. The clumsy form of the
creature, thrown off balance by her move, toppled from the wall and fell
like a stone to the valley below. Scarcely daring to look down, Ruth
heard a sound like a thousand nutshells cracking as it shattered.
“No!” screamed the adjudicator.
Ruth clung onto the tree. She could feel the wood creaking and
beginning to give way. If she couldn’t climb back onto the wall she
would soon fall after the creature- the tree was a spindly thing and
could not bear her weight for long.
But the adjudicator was still aiming at her. Ruth tried to move
towards the wall. The branch creaked alarmingly. “If you move, I’ll
kill you,” the adjudicator said. Ruth looked shakily at her.
“If I don’t get back on the wall I’ll fall and die anyway,” she said. “So what do I have to loose?”
“You killed my servant,” the woman said. “And thanks to you the
others have escaped. Again.” It was true. Ruth could see them making
their way down the path as fast as possible, now that the creature was
no longer keeping them trapped in their corner.
“Good,” Ruth said. “That was what I wanted to do. If I die doing it, so be it. My life’s worth little enough anyway.”
“Spare me the self pity,” the woman said. “Fall, or be shot. I don’t
care which.” The branch creaked again. Instinctively Ruth reached out
for the wall with her feet. The woman raised the gun.
“Don’t shoot!” Patrick cried, pushing her out of the way. He
scrambled up onto the wall and reached out towards Ruth. “Take my
hand!”
But it was no good. Even as the woman turned on him, the branch broke
with a snap. Ruth, reaching in vain towards the wall, fell. Patrick
leant out to try to catch her and almost overbalanced himself, and the
last thing he saw before the woman pulled him backwards was Ruth’s
terrified face staring up at him as she plummeted towards the remains of
the creature.
Adam, Tom and Agnes pelted down the hill, scrambled over the castle
wall and kept running. Agnes tripped and would have fallen if Tom
hadn’t steadied her. They heard behind them the heavy footfalls of the
Fantom. Snatching a glance over his shoulder Tom saw it reach the
broken down castle wall and pause. It couldn’t climb over it. It
lumbered off towards the one gate, much further along the wall. That
might give them enough time to get away.
But where could they run too? The adjudicator had cars, vans. They
couldn’t escape from her on foot. They needed to raise the alarm
somehow, get help. And what about Ruth?
Behind them they heard shouting, and then a noise like the beginning
of a landslide. They stopped and wheeled round, but they could see
nothing to explain the noise.
The Fantom behind them, however, seemed to know what it was. It had
stopped, and was making a scratching, groaning sound, as though keening
for some injury. The three looked at one another.
“Come on,” Adam said.
“But what about Ruth?” Tom said.
“She told us to run,” Adam said. “Whatever happened, to run.”
More shouting drifted down the hill to them. Then a scream.
“We can’t just leave her!” Agnes said.
Then it went quiet. The Fantom hesitated, unsure whether to follow them or return to it’s mistress.
“We’ve got to go,” Tom said wretchedly. “That thing will be after us
in a minute. We can’t help Ruth by getting captured again.”
They knew he was right. Sadly, they turned and continued down the hill.
The story continues...
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