HOLLY - The loneliest Girl in the World CHAPTER SEVEN • Jayne Sharratt Sam tried to persuade Nic she didn’t need to go. It was a really bad idea. Their parents would never let them go and camp out all night in an over-grown wood. They’d have to stay awake until after they heard their mum and dad go to bed, and then sneak out of the window of Sam’s room, which opened out onto the back porch.

From the porch they could climb down the step ladders which Nic would leave there before she went inside in the evening. That bit was easy. Getting back inside in the morning without anyone noticing they’d been gone would be harder, and explaining it all to Mum and Dad when it all went wrong would be nearly impossible.
“I don’t know how you’re going to do it,” Sam told his sister.
“I? Oh no, you’re coming with me, you’re not going to get out of this.”
“Why? I didn’t get into this. I didn’t tell Holly she had to prove to me ghosts existed.”
“You’re coming with me so you can’t tell Mum and Dad where I am. If we get found out you’re going to get in as much trouble as I am.”
“No I’m not. I’ll tell Mum you made me.”
Nic shook her head. “They’re not ever going to know about this so long as you don’t tell. And you won’t do that. You’ll have a good time. It’ll be an adventure to camp out all night, and nothing is going to happen. We won’t see any ghosts, and the only thing that’ll happen is Holly will look really stupid.”
“I don’t see why you want her to. Don’t you like her?”
“It’s not that I don’t like Holly...”
“Because we’ve had more fun since we met Holl than we’ve ever had,” said Sam.
Nic began again. “I like Holly, but I worry about her. She lives in a fantasy world. She needs to know she can’t drag us all into it with her. She can’t keep bossing us about the way she does.”
“No,” said Sam. “That’s what you’re supposed to do.”
Nic glared at him. He gave in because he knew he had no choice, once Nic set her mind on something. He was scared he’d miss something if he didn’t go.
They had arranged to meet at midnight. When Nic and Sam arrived at the mausoleum in the woods Holly and Max were already there. They had a torch and blankets which Max had managed to find, and old-fashioned flasks full of hot chocolate, and food. They spent a while arranging the blankets at the top of the steps so that they would all have space to lie or sit, with the torches in the middle, shining up towards the roof.
It was a warm night following a hot day, but they still needed the jumpers and coats they had brought with them, for comfort as much as anything. Holly sat on the hard marble floor, still wearing the grubby t-shirt and shorts she always wore.

“Aren’t you cold?” Nic asked.
“You must be,” said Max. “It always gets colder at night, especially as we’re by the sea. I thought you went home for a bit, couldn’t you have changed into something warmer?”
Holly shook her head. “I’m not cold,” she said.
Nic disapproved of how scruffy Holly looked. The shorts and t-shirt she wore now had looked a mess three days ago and yet she was still wearing them. Nic knew her mother would never let her go outside looking like that, but she was learning not to say anything to Holly. She wondered though. Even if Claudia was her step-mother, and didn’t notice her much, surely she wouldn’t want Holly to look such a mess? And they couldn’t be so poor that they couldn’t afford a change of clothes and a warm jumper for Holly, could they? Even her father must stop painting for long enough to notice what his daughter did occasionally, mustn’t he? Nic longed to ask if Holly had sneaked out of her house, or if she’d just told her family she was going to be out all night, but she decided against it.
“Why don’t you just put a blanket around you?” Nic asked, and without waiting for a reply picked one up and tucked it around the younger girls shoulders. She had felt shivery just looking at Holly. Holly gave a grateful smile. The arguments of earlier in the day, and the reason for their being there at all seemed forgotten. The boys were relieved. They sat around, Holly hugging her knees as she always did, and Max pouring them all hot drinks, which Holly refused, and then took, and allowed to go cold.
Nobody mentioned what they were waiting for.
“Tell us a story, Holly,” Sam asked.
“You got too scared last time,” Nic pointed out.
“I didn’t! Well only a bit. And I liked it. I like Holly’s stories.” Sam was defensive.
“Do you know any more stories about the Tempests and the house?” Max asked.
“I could tell you a fairy tale,” Holly said.
Sam pulled a face.
“We should see who can tell the scariest story,” Max suggested.
“I don’t know any stories,” Nic said.
“None at all?” Holly looked shocked.
Nic shook her head.
“But don’t you make them up?” she asked.
“Why would I?”
“But how do you...how do you live if you can’t...imagine...” Holly was struggling for words.
“Is that what you do?” Nic was getting closer. “You make up stories, don’t you ?”
“Sometimes. All the time, I tell myself stories, it makes me feel better. But I didn’t
make up the one I told you about the treasure and the Tempests. You saw that was true, in the secret room. You believed it then, so why don’t you now?”
“I just don’t see why it’s so important. I don’t see why you get so upset, and insist on telling us there are ghosts.”
“Chloe will walk through here, she does, all the time. I’ve seen her. She wears a long white dress, and her dark hair is long and flows out behind her. She cries as she floats by and doesn’t look where she is going. Her family don’t want her. She is all alone and she has no one to go to. Her wicked step-mother persuaded her father she should be locked up in an asylum, but they were afraid to move her, so her step-mother slipped something into her drink.. . and poisoned her.”
“You said she had a weak heart,” Nic objected.
“She did. She was helped on her way,” Holly said darkly.
“But how do you know that?”
“You’ll see, wait and see, I’ll show you her, and you’ll see how unhappy she is...I don’t know how to show you what happened, I don’t know how I know, but I do just know...” Her voice trailed off. She was stood up now on the top step, gazing past the small lake and into the trees. She didn’t say anything.
“This is creepy,” Nic whispered.
“Shhh...” Max was watching too.
“Well it is. We shouldn’t have let her do this. It’s stupid...”
“I can hear something,” Sam said. He had been quiet for a long time. Now like Holly he stood up and gazed out into the trees. “Can’t you?”
Nic shook her head. “It’s wind in the trees. Or it’s the waves on the shore in the distance. It’s nothing.”
Sam gripped her shoulder. “Something’s going to happen,” he said.
“Can you see?” Holly whispered.
“See what?”
They looked out into the trees. Holly was as still as stone.
“You must see, the white glimpses in between the trees, she’s getting closer. Closer. Can’t you hear the wailing?”
Nic said nothing.
“Max?” Holly appealed.
Max shook his head, a worried look on his face.
Holly’s voice was rising in pitch. “The noises, are louder, she’s getting closer, can’t you...”
“No,” said Nic.
“Why can’t you?”
“Because there’s nothing there. Nobody. It’s all in your head,” Nic said.
There was a loud crashing sound. The door to the mausoleum behind them slammed shut as it had done the day before. Without waiting to find out what it was Sam yelled
and ran off into the woods.
Nic was pale with anger. “You can’t keep scaring him like this, he’ll have nightmares and I’ll get all the blame,”
“I didn’t mean to,” Holly said.
“I don’t believe you.” Nic shouted, leaping to her feet. “I don’t believe in pirates or smugglers or caves and secret passages or hidden treasure, and I definitely do not believe in ghosts.”
Silence.
“Are you listening Holly? I do not believe in ghosts.”
There was a whimper and a sob. Holly hid her face in her hands. She had folded up and hunched herself on the floor as Nic’s words fell on her.
“I’m going home to find Sam.” Nic stood up and left.
Holly was still crying, her sobs racking her whole body. Max was staring at her in horror.
“Holl, please stop crying,” he said awkwardly. He sat down next to her, and put an arm around her thin shoulders.
“I saw her,” Holly said after a while. “I don’t know why you didn’t.”
“It’s OK. I guess your imagination gets carried away sometimes, hey?”
Holly shook her head, but didn’t say anything.
“Everyone hates me. I just don’t want to be on my own, that’s all. You won’t leave me on my own, will you?”
“Nobody’s leaving you Holl,” Max said.
“My mother...” More sobs shook Holly’s body, louder and more violent than before.
Max shook his head. “I’m sorry, Holl. I really am.”
Holly sniffed, and seemed quieter. Max wrapped the blanket around her again. “Come on,” he said. “We’ll leave the rest of this stuff for now. We’ll go back to the hall and you can stay there for tonight.”
They walked back through the woods quietly.
After a while Max said, “You know, Holly. This wicked Step-mother thing you’ve got. I’m the world expert on step-mom’s I really am. I’ve had...well, a lot, and step-dads too. I know they’re irritating, but they’re not all that bad either. You’ve just got to learn to ignore them sometimes. You know, not let it bother you. Adults do dumb things, and you’ve just got to know it’s not really anything to do with you.”
Holly nodded, but said nothing. She changed the subject. “D’you think Nic and Sam will be OK? They don’t usually have to find their way out of the woods on their own, you know. If they’re scared they might forget to follow the ribbons, especially Sam.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it. I’m sure we’d have seen them wandering about if they were lost. Or heard them.”
“Max? Nic’s so mad at me. I don’t want her to be. I like her and Sam, I wanted us to be friends,” Holly said.
“Nic will cool down,” Max said. “I guess nobody bothers too much what we do, but she could get into lots of trouble.”
“It must be weird having normal parents,” Holly said.
Max laughed. “I guess it must.”
“My brother Casper has to suffer with a stupid name as well as everything else,” Holly said. “At least being born on Christmas day, I got something reasonably normal.”
“What’s it like having your birthday at Christmas?”
“Annoying.”
“How old are you?”
“Ten.”
“Holl?” Max asked. “You really did see something tonight, didn’t you? I mean, you weren’t just pretending, were you?’
Holly shook her head. “Yes, I saw something. I saw her.”
“I didn’t.”
“But you do believe me, don’t you, you do?”
Max nodded. “If you say you saw her, then I believe you.” he surprised himself because he actually meant it.
“She never goes away. She never rests.” Holly seemed to talk to herself.
They were quiet again. They approached Tempest Hall from the side this time, where the drive ran around to the stables and garage blocks. Old gravel was broken up by weeds creeping their way through, but the drive still sounded crunchy under their shoes.
Holly noticed before Max did. She pulled him back into the shadows of the old stable block and motioned him to be quiet.
Parked in the drive was a distinctive open top red sports car.
A door opened from the hall. Two men with torches emerged.
“It’s all in place, then,” one said to the other.
The taller, dark haired man nodded.
“You’re sure we don’t have to bother about the old lady?”
“She doesn’t notice nothing,” he said, flashing brilliant white teeth. “Takes sedatives to sleep.”
“We could be very rich men, very soon.” They both laughed, and got into the car.
Holly’s narrowed eyes watched it disappear back up the drive.

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