Chapter Eight
“You have a plan, right?” Lock whispered to her when they came face to face with Ryan Small. He was standing at the edge of the pier with a sickening grin on his pale, almost white face.
“Where’s Sam?” Star asked, evading Gareth’s question.
“He’s learning what drowning feels like.” The ghost sneered.
“If you hurt him…” Star spat stepping closer.
“You’ll what?” Ryan asked cocking his head at her with an amused glint flashing in his dead eyes. “You can’t touch me.”
Star forced herself to regain composure, cooler heads prevailed and that was what she had to be if she had any hope of getting her brother back alive. “You’re right I can’t…”
“Star!” Lock hissed grabbing her arm.
“But she can.”
Star stepped back to reveal her secret weapon: Ryan’s mother.
They stared at each other for a second as if the blood in their veins had frozen, and time had ceased to have meaning. “My boy…” Mrs Small sobbed stumbling forwards, her shawl fell from her shoulders as she dropped to her knees in front of a startled Ryan, and fisted the legs of his jeans. “What have they done to you…”
Star had clutched at straws, not everyone could see the dead. She had prayed that Ryan’s mother would be able too, sometimes a close loved one could sense the presence of their departed and even in rare cases see them. Mrs Small was one of those rare people. Star had gotten lucky.
“You bitch!” Ryan snarled at Star and she knew she had to move fast.
“Ryan what they did was wrong, but killing them won’t change anything.”
“What would you know!” He snapped.
“I see death everyday Ryan, trust me, nothing good ever comes from it. These people will be punished for what they did to you I swear. They told me what happened, I’ll go to the police…”
“An eye for an eye!” Ryan snarled. He was in front of her one minute then gone the next. Mrs Lock cries made Star turn in time to see Ryan grabbing hold of Gareth’s son, clutching the boy to him Ryan fell back into the lake.
“No!” Gareth sobbed running to the edge and jumping in after his only child.
“Gareth no!” Star warned but it was too late. Ryan’s thin white face appeared above the water, his dark eyes the only thing visible above the gloomy water. Gareth saw him and tried to swim back but it was like trying to paddle through cement.
Star leaned down and stretched out her hand, “swim!” she ordered him but it was no use Ryan moved like he was water, with a death grip he pulled Gareth Lock down into the deathly depths of Sliver Lake…