The Dying Light (Bloodwitch #1)
CHAPTER 13

‘You don’t know anything about me,’ Charlie muttered, shrugging Kovalev’s hand off his shoulder. ‘Just get out of here. I don’t need any of you.’

Without hesitation, Charlie staggered down the corridor after Faulkner. He did not stop to check whether the soldier was following behind him. He was better off alone. His mind fixed on his target, Charlie drew the gun from the waistband of his jeans and aimed it in front of him. He would not let Faulkner get away this time.

He roamed deeper into the Facility, thinking of nothing but saving the children, until, with a sickening feeling, he realised that he did not recognise his surroundings. He was lost. Then Charlie noticed movement in the shadows.

‘Stop right there, you piece of shit.’ He ground out the words, his sights set on Faulkner.

Faulkner strode out of the gloom, his hands raised to his shoulders. A nasty smile was hovering around his scarred mouth. ‘So, you made it. You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?’

‘I’m not afraid to use this,’ Charlie said, pulling back the hammer of the gun.

‘Yes, you are,’ Faulkner said, his voice soft, his eyes on Charlie’s. ‘You have always been afraid. Did you think three years apart would be enough to make me forget? Remember, I know you better than anyone.’

‘I remember everything,’ Charlie whispered. His fingers were trembling. ‘Everything.’

Then he heard Kovalev’s voice shouting his name and saw him sprinting towards them.

‘I see you’re as popular as ever,’ Faulkner sneered, and Charlie gripped the gun tighter. ‘Is your new friend here to save you, Charlie? What could possibly have motivated him to do such a thing?’ His gaze moved to the muzzle of Charlie’s gun. ‘Walk away, or you’ll regret it.’

Charlie sensed Kovalev beside him. ‘Come on, let’s go,’ he said, a clipped edge to his words. ‘Leave him, Charlie.’

‘Have you told him what you are yet, Charlie?’ Faulkner murmured, his eyes glittering. ‘D’you think he’ll still want to –’

’Shut the fuck up!’

A moment later, Faulkner was on the floor, bleeding from one forearm. Charlie did not remember making the shot. His arms went slack at his sides, his shoulders sagging as he breathed deeply. The pain in his chest and ribs was finally starting to ebb away.

‘The roof,’ Kovalev said, his eyes on Faulkner’s body. ‘We’re getting out of here.’

They surged along the corridor and up the stairs. As they approached the last flight, Kovalev paused. He looked back at Charlie, watching him intently.

‘You’re not a bad shot, are you?’

‘I’ve had experience,’ Charlie muttered.

‘I’ve seen him skulking around the Facility before. Who is he to you?’

‘Old friend.’

‘You make a habit of shooting your old friends?’ Kovalev frowned. ‘Who is he?’

Charlie did not reply, and Kovalev did not ask again. Once they reached the roof, Charlie followed the soldier past a row of helicopters, towards a small shack at the top of a flight of rickety steps. It appeared to be an abandoned watchtower.

Inside, the room was bare, but for a mouldy-looking wooden desk and shelving unit. Shafts of late afternoon sunlight pooled in through the dusty windows. The rotten floorboards creaked underfoot. Alexandra looked up at them as they entered, cradling Seren in her lap.

‘She’s not awake yet?’ Kovalev’s dark expression softened with concern as his eyes travelled over Seren’s pale face, while Alexandra shook her head. ‘We can’t stay here long.’

‘We’re almost free, Seren,’ Charlie said, staring into her face as she lay with her eyes closed in Alexandra’s lap. ‘Just rest. You’ll be all right. Everything will be fine.’

Kovalev raised an eyebrow and regarded Charlie with a dubious look on his face, before turning to gaze over the mountains through the grimy window. ‘Somehow, I doubt that.’

Seren’s eyes flickered open. A relieved smile broke over Charlie’s face, but she did not return it. She was staring at him as though she did not even recognise him.

‘Where am I?’ she asked, her voice uncertain, as she put one hand to her head.

‘You’re safe,’ Charlie said. ‘We’re on the roof of the Facility now, in one of the watchtowers. We’ll be safe here.’

He tried to help her to sit upright as he spoke, but she flinched away from him, pushing herself out of Alexandra’s lap and drawing away from them all.

‘Did I escape from the prison?’ she asked, her brow furrowed. ‘How did … did I …?’

Charlie watched her wordlessly, taking in her wild, wide-eyed expression, and the way her hands shook as her eyes darted to each of them in turn. He sensed Kovalev’s gaze on them from behind him. Alexandra was stiff with tension and seemed to be holding her breath, her eyes flicking between the other three.

‘We escaped together,’ Charlie said, treading carefully. ‘You saved me … remember?’

The frown creasing Seren’s forehead deepened as her eyes scanned Charlie’s face. She looked as though she was trying to force herself to recognise him but was coming up empty-handed. Her lips were parted slightly, and she was twisting her hands together in front of her chest. Long moments passed, during which none of them broke the terrible silence.

Then, in a small voice, she asked, ‘Who are you?’

‘Saints …’ Kovalev breathed. ‘Don’t tell me –’

‘Oh, no,’ Alexandra whispered.

Charlie said nothing. He stepped back a few paces, noticing as he did so that Seren relaxed a little at the increased distance between them. He stared at his feet, his mind completely blank. The familiar feeling of nausea in his stomach had returned.

‘Perfect,’ Kovalev said under his breath.

‘What should we do?’ Alexandra asked, tugging at the straps of her rucksack.

‘Well, unless Carroway has any bright ideas, I’m done playing babysitter.’

Kovalev gripped his rifle in his hand and left the watchtower, slamming the door behind him. Charlie watched him prowl back and forth in front of it at the bottom of the stairs, scowling.

Charlie’s fingernails dug into the skin of his palms as he looked at Seren. She had wandered over to the dirty windows, her eyes on the slums of Penumbra beyond the wire of the Witchtrap Wall. Shivering in her thin dress, she wrapped her arms around her body.

‘Where am I?’ she asked, suddenly sounding much younger than she was.

‘You must be cold,’ Alexandra said to her. She handed Seren a thick, dark green woollen jumper, which she had managed to extricate from her rucksack. Now that he looked at it, Charlie saw that it was packed with belongings. ‘You can keep it. I also have some shoes here,’ she continued, as Seren pulled on the jumper and white sneakers without hesitation, giving her a shy smile. ‘I have more clothes than I need, really,’ Alexandra added sheepishly. ‘That colour really suits you. Can I stand here with you for a while?’

‘Thank you,’ Seren said, tugging the sleeves of the jumper up over her hands. ‘I’m Seren. I don’t know if … do I know your name?’

Alexandra’s face broke into her warm smile. ‘I’m Alya. That’s Vasco, and this is Charlie.’

‘I know Charlie,’ Seren said, her voice bright. She turned to look at him and flashed him a dazzling smile before twirling around playfully. ‘Look, Charlie – Alya gave me a new jumper. Isn’t it great? I’ve never worn anything this nice before. Isn’t she so kind?’

Charlie opened his mouth, only to close it again. He ran his fingers through his hair and smiled ruefully back at her. ‘Yes.’

Kovalev had returned. Charlie was uncomfortably aware of how closely the soldier was watching him, and of the pointed expression on his face. Charlie said nothing.

‘She’s given me some shoes, too. That makes life easier, doesn’t it?’

‘If you’re all done with the fashion show,’ Kovalev said grimly, looking away from Charlie at last, ‘perhaps we can discuss what we’re supposed to do next.’ He was surveying the line of helicopters and the mountains beyond them with a distinctly unimpressed look on his face.

‘What are we doing here?’ Seren asked in a small voice.

‘Do you want to take this one, Carroway?’ Kovalev asked, his arms folded.

Charlie glared at him. ‘I’ll explain later, Seren,’ he said. ‘For now, though, it’s probably best if you don’t use your powers. You’ve been through a lot,’ he added, seeing the questioning look on her face. ‘Just rest. Let me take care of everything for a while.’

An exasperated noise escaped from Kovalev’s throat, but he said nothing. For a moment, Seren looked as though she wanted to say something herself, but she seemed to decide against it. For a while, none of them said anything. Instead, they stretched their legs around the watchtower, the two girls taking in their surroundings with a mixture of interest and apprehension.

‘Alya says you live down there, Charlie,’ Seren said, wary curiosity etched on her face.

Charlie nodded, staring at the slums in the distance. ‘All my life,’ he said, and he fixed Alexandra with a humourless smile. ’And, if we’re going down that road … Before, when you were pretending to be a nurse at the Infirmary Station, what was the deal there? Was it some kind of fantasy of yours? You wanted to see what it was like to spend time around poor people?’

‘What?’ Alexandra looked horrified. ‘Why would you say something like that?’

Charlie scowled back. ‘I’m just interested in what you thought you were doing, before you went home to your palace and your father and your servants, and congratulated yourself on being such a good person – before you forgot all about the people living so far beneath you.’

Kovalev had gone white with rage. ‘Do you even realise who you’re talking to, you smartass lowlife?’ he snarled. ‘How dare you speak to her like that? She’s worth a hundred of you! You’ll pay for that, you –’

‘No,’ Alexandra said softly, which was all it took to make Kovalev halt in his tracks. ‘No, Vasco. He has the right to be angry.’ She let out a deep, sad sigh. ‘I don’t know what you’d like me to say, Charlie.’

‘Why are you apologising to him?’ Kovalev demanded. ’He’s the one who –’

‘No, listen to me,’ Alexandra broke in, twisting her hair over her shoulder. ‘We’ve all been through a lot. We have a long journey ahead, and we won’t make it if we’re at each other’s throats all the time.’ Kovalev made to argue, but she waved a hand to silence him. ‘Charlie was right to say that we would be safe here, Vasco. No one’s following us. We should all take some time to rest, while we still have the chance.’

‘I agree with Alya,’ Seren said, her hands on her hips. ‘Let’s agree to cease fire for a while, shall we?’ she added, fixing both Charlie and Kovalev with a hard stare, the intensity of which surprised them both.

Alexandra returned Seren’s reassuring smile with a small, sad one of her own, and walked away from them without another word. Kovalev watched her go without moving from the spot where he stood. Charlie thought he saw genuine concern and distress on his face.

‘What’s the deal with you two?’ he asked. ‘Do you like her, or something?’

All the colour drained from Kovalev’s face in an instant before he shot Charlie a furious glare. He appeared to be struggling to hold back some choice words. Finally, he managed a cold smile, his dark eyes burning. ‘Ceasefire, Carroway, remember? I need some time to think.’ He turned on his heel and strode away, his head bent and his hands in his pockets.

Once they were alone, Seren turned to Charlie with a meaningful expression, and nodded her head in Alexandra’s direction. ‘Well?’

‘Well what?’

‘That girl is the reason we’re free,’ she said. ‘And you just bit her head off.’

‘We would have been fine on our own. I could’ve handled it myself.’

Seren smirked, looking distinctly unimpressed. ‘I thought you were better than that, Charlie,’ she said, as she turned her back on him and began to wander over towards the window again. ‘But maybe I was wrong.’

Charlie watched Seren go, an unpleasant mixture of guilt and resentment churning in his stomach. With a sigh, he made his way towards Alexandra. She was sitting on the dusty wooden floorboards, leafing through a black notebook. She seemed to be concentrating hard on ignoring him as he approached her.

Clearing his throat, Charlie launched into his apology before he lost his nerve. ‘Alexandra, I’m sorry for the way I spoke to you, and the things I said. I don’t know anything about you, and it was wrong of me to make assumptions. I’m grateful for everything you did to get me and Seren out of the Facility. I know I owe you a lot.’

Alexandra looked up at him, the same sad smile on her face. ‘You weren’t wrong to say what you said. People don’t tend to speak that way to me, but maybe I needed to hear it.’ As he sat down beside her, she continued. ‘I know you’re angry.’ Her eyes bored into his. ‘And I know why. Charlie, when are we going to talk about –?’

‘Not now,’ Charlie said flatly, shaking his head. ‘Listen, Alya … Seren doesn’t know about – about what’s wrong with me. So, please … please don’t –’

‘It’s your secret,’ she said at once. ‘I have enough of my own. Trust me, no one’s going to hear about it from me. You don’t need to worry about Vasco, either,’ she added. ‘All he knows is that you’re sick, and he won’t even mention it unless you do. That’s just the kind of person he is.’

Charlie smiled darkly. ‘I get the feeling your bodyguard doesn’t like me all that much.’

A pained look crossed Alya’s face. ‘Don’t blame him. He’s just trying to keep me safe.’

‘Who d’you need to be kept safe from?’ Charlie asked, and Alya looked away.

‘What are you two looking at?’ Seren had appeared out of nowhere. ‘Can I help?’

‘This is my friend’s journal,’ Alya explained, showing it to both of them.

Charlie took one look at the tiny handwriting squashed into every white space on the pages of lined paper and lost all interest at once. His head was hurting again.

‘I found it sitting on his desk in the lab while we were in his office,’ Alexandra said. ‘I’ve been looking through it and trying to make some sense of his notes.’

‘Why do you look so worried?’ Charlie asked, noticing her drawn expression.

‘Some of the things he’s writing about here,’ Alya said, running her index finger along a couple of lines. ‘It almost sounds as though … but there’s no way they could be …’

Seren tapped Charlie’s shoulder. ‘Did you give Alya the documents we found in his office?’

Charlie hastened to gather all the sheets of paper together and spread them out over the floorboards. Soon, they were surrounded by a sea of white pages. The three of them leant in over the documents, scanning the writing, photographs, and drawings for any clue as to what the researcher had been working on.

Seren unclipped one of the black and white photographs and brushed her thumb slowly along the unmistakable image of a human brain. ‘I remember what they did to me,’ she said, her voice distant.

The hand that was not holding the photograph traced along the incision that ran from the crown of her head, behind her ear and down her neck. Her eyes were unfocused as she stared into the middle distance.

‘They hurt me. And they – the others … there were so many others …’ She braced her head in her hands, wincing as though in pain, while Alya rubbed her back to soothe her.

‘So they really are experimenting on people?’ Charlie shivered as he spoke. ‘But why?’

‘It’s most likely a weapons programme.’ Kovalev was standing behind them, his hands still in his pockets. ‘Prisoners would be seen as expendable, their deaths easy to cover up. It’s news to me, I should add.’ The familiar scowl was back on his face as he watched Seren brush tears away from her eyes. ‘They’re the ones who did this to her, who made her this way. I don’t like anything about this.’

‘Prisoners … human beings … turned into weapons?’ Alya frowned. ‘But who intends to use them, and for what purpose?’

An uncomfortable thought was forming in Charlie’s mind. He forced it away.

‘Nothing here is conclusive,’ Alya murmured, turning to the next page in the journal.

‘Wait, what’s that?’ Seren asked, pointing.

Charlie followed her gaze. A small square of paper had fallen out of the notebook and was lying on the floor. He picked it up, unfolded it, and paused.

‘What is it?’ Seren was looking over his shoulder.

‘I don’t know,’ Charlie answered honestly. The piece of paper was covered in numbers. As far as he could see, there were no words on it at all. ‘It could be anything.’

‘In that case, it could also be nothing,’ Kovalev said, his voice like flint. ‘It could easily be a piece of scrap paper he was using to add things up on, or something like that.’

‘I don’t think so,’ Alya said quietly, running her finger down the list of numbers, which continued onto the other side of the piece of paper. ‘This isn’t random. These numbers have been separated into columns. Do you see here – on this left-hand side? Every single one of these numbers contains seven digits. I can’t see a pattern, but –’

‘They all either begin in zero or one,’ Charlie suggested, scanning the list.

‘That’s true,’ Alya agreed, nodding. ‘And beside each number, in the middle column, there’s another six-digit number. These ones seem more random, but it looks as though they go from smallest here,’ she tapped the top of the list, ‘to largest here,’ she concluded, resting her finger on the final number of the middle column.

‘Wait …’ Kovalev crouched down beside Alya and eased the piece of paper out of her hands, checking both sides of it before continuing. ‘Yes – do you see? These are dates. This last one – here, at the bottom of the page – that was only a few days ago.’

‘Then each number is associated with a date,’ Alya said, checking along each line to make sure their theory stood up to scrutiny. ‘What about the final column?’

Charlie looked again. The right-hand column did not contain numbers, as he had first assumed, but short words, scrawled in terrible handwriting, as though the author had been in great haste while writing them down.

‘The words keep repeating, but there’s no logic to the pattern,’ Kovalev murmured, stroking his jaw thoughtfully. ’This isn’t written in Matyan. Viv. – mort. – demen. – it’s the same words, again and again, at random.’

‘But what does it mean?’ Seren asked. ‘What do those words mean?’

‘Let me see it again,’ Alya said, holding out her hand. She read the whole list through carefully, growing paler with every passing moment. When she finally looked up, her face had taken on a greenish tinge. ‘It’s written in a dead language,’ she explained. ‘Not many people know it. He was using a code.’

‘Why would he use a code?’ Seren asked. ‘Unless …’

‘Unless he had something to hide,’ Kovalev finished, meeting her eyes with a dark look.

‘Do you know what it means?’ Charlie asked, looking from Kovalev to Alya.

‘These words refer to …’ Alya took a steadying breath. ‘Life, death and … madness. I think …’ She swallowed hard and looked around at them all. ‘I think that each of these numbers in the left-hand column refers to someone who was experimented on, on the date indicated in the middle column. It’s a record of experimentations and the raw results. They’re experimenting on prisoners – prisoners of war, witch prisoners.’

Charlie was lost for words. Seren shuddered and began to scratch absentmindedly at her wrist. Kovalev was shaking his head.

‘That’s insane,’ he said flatly. ‘It’s impossible. It wouldn’t be allowed to happen. Your father wouldn’t allow it to happen, not even to witches.’

‘You’ve seen with your own eyes what they’ve done to Seren,’ Alya countered. ‘Why should this be so impossible to believe?’

‘Even if you’re right about the code and the dates,’ Kovalev argued, ‘where’s your evidence that the numbers in the first column refer to humans – I mean, to witches? Isn’t it more likely they were experimenting on animals, and that piece of paper was just used for recording the results? Why are you so determined to assume the worst of your father?’

‘Seren, don’t hurt yourself,’ Charlie said quietly, taking her hand gently but firmly in his, and easing it away from her wrist. Then he saw something that made his breath catch in his chest. ‘Seren … what’s that?’

Alya and Kovalev were looking now too. Without a word, Seren pulled back the sleeve of her jumper and showed them her wrist. Stamped across her pale skin in spidery black ink was a seven-digit number, beginning with the number one.

‘Nine hells,’ Charlie breathed. ‘They did this to you, didn’t they?’

‘We all had them,’ Seren said softly. ‘We were kept underground. At least, I think it was underground. We never saw the light, except for the Chamber. That was the punishment. We were forced to stay awake. I don’t know for how long … and my sister was –’ She looked straight at him, worrying at her lip as she wrapped her arms around her knees. ‘Charlie, there are so many children down there …’

Kovalev was scanning the list of numbers again. He showed them the final number on the list, where, in the last column, instead of a word, there was a star. ‘1740904,’ he read out.

The number matched the one tattooed on Seren’s wrist exactly.

‘And the star must be because Seren escaped,’ Alya said. ‘They still don’t know the outcome of the experiment. That’s why there’s no code word beside the date that the procedure on her was carried out.’

‘This … can’t be right,’ Kovalev muttered. He seemed to be talking more to himself than to the others, but Charlie felt rage flare up inside himself at Kovalev’s words.

‘What is it going to take for you to believe what you’re seeing with your own eyes?’ he demanded. ‘She’s been branded, tortured and experimented on. How many other innocent people are imprisoned here? Her sister is still in that place somewhere, and my family are too!’

Kovalev regarded him steadily. ‘There are no innocent people imprisoned here.’ S~ᴇaʀᴄh the Find ɴøᴠel.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

‘What about the people being trafficked in across the Wall?’ Charlie yelled back. ’What happens to the missing children? When Penumbrans are arrested and never seen again, is this what happens to them? Is this what it means to be Elysian? You must know something!’

Kovalev seized Charlie by the front of his t-shirt and slammed him against the wall. ‘You need to choose your next words carefully, Carroway,’ he warned. ‘You may have a witch insurgent to help fight your battles for you now, but we both know you’re no match for me.’

The anger was draining away from Charlie as quickly as it had come, only to be replaced by a terrible, dawning fear. ‘You really don’t know anything about this, do you?’

Kovalev was regarding Charlie with that same, strangely unreadable expression on his face again. Alya and Seren were watching them both closely. No one moved or said a word.

‘We have to go back,’ Charlie said, starting to thrash desperately. ‘What if they –?’

‘Quiet!’ Alya said suddenly, leaping to her feet. ‘I heard something …’

‘I hear it too.’

Kovalev shoved Charlie away from him and moved to stand at the front of the group. His rifle was at his shoulder immediately, trained on a target beyond the door that none of them could see. He looked back at them all, his jaw set.

‘We’ve got company.’

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