The Beauty Is in the Walking Read Online Free Page A

it? Maybe there is something up there. We shouldn’t have come.’ She clambered out of the back seat and latched her arms around me so desperately I grabbed at a door just to keep us upright. Bec followed out of the car and put her arms around Amy from behind. I saw fear in her face as well.
    â€˜You do know it’s a scam,’ I said to Bec, over Amy’s head.
    She nodded without giving up her frown. ‘My brain says so. I just can’t convince the rest of me.’
    I knew what she meant. The stories about Kibble’s horse would scare the shit out of Superman and being soclose to where it had happened, isolated, in the dead of night . . . I wanted to be among the lights of boring Palmerston as much as anyone. Maybe my fear leeched into Amy as she huddled in my arms, or was it Bec’s admission that tipped her over the edge? She began to tremble.
    â€˜It’s only the guys being stupid,’ I whispered in her ear, just as a wild cry shot free from the darkness.
    â€˜He’s got a knife. Oh God, a knife!’ and after that it didn’t matter what I said. Amy put her hands over her ears and let out a howl as miserable as anything I’d ever heard.
    â€˜Jacob, you’ve got to stop this,’ Bec pleaded.
    â€˜Into the car,’ I replied and once Bec had shifted across to the far window and Amy was safe beside her I shouted over the roof again.
    â€˜The game’s over, guys. Amy’s getting upset. Turn on the torch and come back to the car.’
    An expectant silence stretched across the darkness, then, ‘Ah, ah! There’s blood everywhere.’
    Stuff it! I pulled open the driver’s door again, only this time I fell into the seat and used my arms to pull my legs into place. The Barina was an automatic, like Mum’s Astra and, although Mum would be surprised to hear it, Tyke had taken me for a few lessons. Before I could talk myself out of it I’d started the engine and steered the Barina around the steady curve of the hillside.
    â€˜No, we can’t leave them. What if they really are in trouble?’ Amy shouted, grabbing at the door handle and for a moment I feared she’d go completely hysterical.
    I stopped the car and turned round in the seat, reaching for her hand as I did it. ‘They were bunging it on, Amy. I saw them smirking at each other before they took off into the paddock. We’ll let them sit in the dark long enough to get sick of the game, then we’ll go back. Are you okay with that?’
    I squeezed her hand to make her respond.
    She glanced at Bec. Maybe she was thinking of what Bec had said earlier about her brain believing, but the rest of her going to jelly. ‘Yes,’ she said weakly. ‘I’m a fool, I know. It’s just that it seemed so real there for a minute.’
    Bec put her arm around Amy and drew her backwards to relax against the seat. Did she throw me a look that said, ‘Good job,’ or was I imagining things?
    With the car rolling again I was more aware of what I was doing. Driving, for God’s sake, and on a gravel road I didn’t know. I searched left and right for somewhere safe to turn around and ended up going a kilometre before a side road allowed enough space for a U-turn. By then Amy was sitting up straighter and she even managed a laugh at something from Bec that I didn’t hear.
    We were close to Kibble’s paddock by this time and when I saw torchlight on the road ahead I called back to Amy, ‘See, they’ve come down off the hillside.’
    She leaned forwards, searching through the windscreen until Mitch and Dan came into view, hands held up against the glare of the lights and not a drop of blood to be seen.
    â€˜Bastards,’ said Amy as I brought the Barina to a halt, but there wasn’t any malice in her voice and after that things happened pretty fast.
    First Mitch yanked open the driver’s door. ‘What the hell! No