Page 45 of A Flash of Neon
She edges down the narrow street and turns left on to a wider residential road. A group of seven or eight-year-olds dressed as cartoon characters come out of a house, each clutching a plastic pumpkin full of sweets. Suddenly one stops by the gate and drops his haul. As chocolate bars and monkey nuts go tumbling on to the pavement, a Blank glides past. The pale sphere where its face should be turns slowly towards the children. Half of them freeze; the others scream and sprint back into the house.
“What are those faceless people supposed to be?” Mutti turns her head to stare at the Blanks as we drive past. “Are they from one of those superhero movies?”
Mum points to the other side of the street. “Look, there’s another one.”
Under a street lamp, a second Blank is walking slowly towards a man dressed in a medieval-style tunic. The headlights of Mum’s car wash over them, making the Blank’s featureless face glow like the moon. As I twist round in my seat, the Blank puts its hand on the man’s chest. He crumbles into a thousand tiny pieces and falls to the ground like ashes, blown away on the wind. I gasp and clamp my hand over my mouth, but my parents are looking ahead and didn’t see the character vanish into nothing.
As we drive, more Blanks appear. They seem to come from nowhere, pale flames springing into the night air. I keep waiting for Mum or Mutti to realise that this isn’t normal, that there’s something very strange going on here. But, like the kids at school, they don’t seem to have considered anything other than the most logical explanation. Soon they stop asking questions and sit in silence, their expressions turning blank like Carrie’s did yesterday. It’s as if all their curiosity about the situation has run out.
As Mum turns on to the long road that borders the loch, a cacophony of horns and raised voices fills the air. The traffic on both sides of the road has come to a standstill. Some cars seem to have been abandoned, doors still gaping open. Mum stops the car behind a furiously honking minivan. Neither she nor Mutti comments on what’s going on, so Joel gets out to take a look.
“There seems to have been an accident, but I can’t see anything,” he says. “Can’t hear any ambulances on their way, either.”
Neon and I climb out of the back seat after him. Down by the water, a constellation of lights twinkles. At first I think it’s a boat, but when my eyes adjust to the dim light I realise it’s coming from the banks of the loch. A large crowd of people have gathered there, and they’re all holding phones or cameras to the water, just like in the video that Tilly sent me this morning. In the darkness, the surface of the water ripples. Someone screams, and I can’t tell whether it’s from fear or excitement.
Neon takes a sharp breath. “Hang on. You don’t think…?”
It takes me a long moment for the mist in my mind to clear and for me to understand what he’s suggesting. There’s something in the water.
Something is moving in Loch Ness.
Before I can stop him, Neon runs towards the crowd. I race after him, ignoring my parents’ confused questions. The crowd by the shore is bigger than I realised, and quickly growing: dozens of people rush down the banks after us, some shouting into phones, others narrating what they see as they film. Neon pushes through them and arrives at the water’s edge. A few metres away, a movement makes the surface ripple. There are more screams; a woman carrying a giant camera wades right into the water to get a better shot.
“We need to go back to the car,” I tell Neon. “If that’s what I think it is, the Blanks will be on their way. You saw how many of them there are now.”
“Dude, the road’s completely gridlocked. We’re not getting out of there for hours.”
A large shape slips past the surface and flicks water towards the crowd. It’s too dark to make out what it is, and it quickly disappears back into the depths of the loch. Someone behind me says it’s only a big fish, maybe a water snake. Other people – probably those who haven’t been around the Blanks and are still able to imagine something more fantastical – take this as proof of what they’ve suspected.
“Nessie!” An older man in a green coat punches the air. “Iknewyou were real, girl!”
More and more people arrive, and the crowd jostles as the newcomers push to the front for a better view. Behind us, someone calls my name. I turn round to see my mums and Joel making their way towards the loch. Nudging Neon to follow me, I squeeze past two people with their phones held up at arm’s length and go to join my family. My parents still looked dazed, but Joel has an ear-to-ear grin on his face.
“Did you see it?” He stands on his tiptoes for a better look at the water. “Is it really her?”
Mum shakes her head in confusion. “Laurie,whatare you doing? Why are we here?”
I point to the loch and swallow. “I think, uh … I think that’s the Loch Ness Monster in there.”
My parents stare at us, then at each other, then at me and Neon again. Mum scoffs and says that’s impossible, that it’s only a story. But there is, finally, the tiniest hint of wonder in Mutti’s eyes. She fixes Neon with a long gaze, her eyebrows furrowed in a frown.
“Whoareyou?” she asks. “Where did you come from?”
An excited scream from somewhere in the crowd saves us from answering. A huge group of people in costumes come rushing down the path, including three Doctors, two Hulks, an angel and a devil who have walked here from school. Tilly makes a beeline for me, with the others right behind her. They all look totally bewildered, especially Caitlin. She heads for the water with her phone held high, but it seems to be more of a reflex than out of curiosity about what everyone is trying to film. Hannah follows with the same blank-eyed look, her halo lopsided and her angel wings hanging down at her elbows. Mum and Mutti exchange panicked expressions, then hurry after them, shouting something about being careful not to fall in.
“Are you all OK?” Neon asks Tilly. His eyes flit over Russell and Hari’s smudged green faces as they follow the girls towards the loch. “Where are the Blanks?”
“We trapped some of them in the gym until you guys had escaped. They managed to get out and headed for the high street. There aresomany of them now.” Tilly blinks hard, as if trying to clear the fog in her head. “Everyone’s saying there’s something in the water. Is it true?”
Neon nods. “There’s definitely something, and if it’s really Nessie, I think I need to take her back. There are way too many people here. I don’t want her – or anybody else – to get hurt.”
“What do you mean, take her back?” Jamie asks, frowning. “Take her back to where?”
While Tilly and Neon try to come up with an explanation, I turn back to the loch. More people have gone into the water now, willing to risk being attacked or getting hypothermia for a good shot of one of the world’s most famous monsters. Neon is right. This could end really, really badly.
“OK,” I tell him. “You should do it.”
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to convince her to go by herself, like I did with the cù-sìth. I might need to leave too.” Neon bites his lip. “Actually I’m going to go back either way. The Blanks won’t be far away now. I don’t have much time.”
