Soul Fire

us for months, haven’t you?’ She spins round. ‘Look, she’s even been
putting pillows by the door so we can’t see she’s still awake.’
    Dad frowns.
    ‘No wonder you look like a ghost. You probably spend half the bloody night online. You’re making yourself ill.’
    I wish I could tell her I’m not ill, but happy. That being with Meggie is better than anything real life can offer.
    ‘Alice? Is your mum right?’ Dad asks.
    He’s the only one who ever listens to me. I can’t lie to him. I say nothing.
    ‘See, Glen? Well, that’s enough, Alice. No more warnings. As of now, you’re offline. No more living on the bloody internet. We should have done this months ago.’
    I stare at her. She’s joking. Or drunk . But then I see her eyes, which are scarily sober. ‘But . . . my schoolwork. I need to be online for my schoolwork,’ I plead.
    Mum laughs, but not in a nice way. ‘Your dad and I managed to get through school before they even invented computers, so you’ll survive. There’s more to life than schoolwork,
Alice. Like friends. You’ve broken Cara’s heart the way you’ve treated her.’
    I close my eyes. I’ve tried to stay friends with Cara, but if it’s a choice between her and Meggie, well, my sister needs me more. There aren’t enough hours in the day to look
after both of them.
    Dad looks shifty. ‘Alice might have a point about school, though, Bea. It’s not like it was for us. They even send their coursework online these days, don’t they?’
    I say nothing, hoping Mum will listen to him.
    She scowls. ‘We can’t let her carry on like this. We’ve cut her too much slack because of Meggie, but it’s almost a year now and . . .’ Mum stops, as though she
can’t believe it’s been that long.
    I seize my chance. ‘Which also means I’m almost seventeen. You can’t do this.’
    We glare at each other.
    Dad sighs. ‘How about we move the laptop downstairs? That way, we can control her access to the web. Keep an eye on what she’s doing.’
    ‘Don’t talk about me like I’m not here!’ I scream. ‘I’m not some little kid who needs monitoring to make sure she’s not being stalked by the Big Bad
Wolf.’
    ‘That’s exactly what you are. A little kid. We’re still your parents, Alice, and until you can learn to exercise some self-control, we’ll have to exercise it for
you.’
    ‘But, Mum—’
    She turns her back on me, grabs my laptop and almost trips over the cable trailing behind her. Dad won’t look at me. I’ve hurt him. I wish I could explain that I wouldn’t have
lied if it wasn’t necessary. But I reckon they’d throw the laptop out of the window and send me to live with the Amish if I even mentioned Soul Beach.
    Mum sticks her head back round the door. ‘Oh, and before you get any ideas, I’m sleeping with the laptop under my pillow. So I suggest you get some sleep and prepare for tomorrow
– when we help you get your life back. It’s for your own good, Alice. We’re not losing another daughter.’

8
    I don’t sleep at all, of course.
    My head’s too full of evil: of a shadowy killer overpowering Tim and watching the life drain from him. That same faceless figure combing my dead sister’s hair to remove knots. She
was immaculate when she was found by another student from her corridor. It’s one of the many things the press feasted on: the description of my sister as a Sleeping Beauty.
    Is Meggie wondering where I am tonight? And what did Sam need to warn me about? The rules of the Beach are murky and ever-changing. Perhaps Tim will take my sister’s place on the shore.
Perhaps she has left at dawn, as Triti did before her.
    It might have been my last chance to see my sister.
    I turn over in bed for the millionth time, trying to force myself to think rationally. Tim’s death can’t be the end. If he’d chosen to die, he would never have left us in the
dark. There would have been a note, a message . . .
    I sit bolt upright. What if he tried to leave a message for me ? It would make sense. I’m the only one in my family who believed in him. Surely he owed me that.
    I scrabble round for my mobile in my rucksack. My crappy phone doesn’t even have the internet. I hardly use it anymore. It’s not like Danny and Meggie can text me from where they are
. . .
    But Tim could have done, in his last hours. Battery’s dead.
    I put the phone on charge and wait for the prehistoric thing to respond.
    Finally it comes to life with