Soul Fire

against a supernatural white glow.
    There’s nothing supernatural about the smell. Is it gunpowder?
    Sahara’s eyes are wide now, and she’s backing away, pulling the balaclava out of her pocket and squeezing it down over her face. Ade looks almost amused at how ridiculous she looks.
He pulls a scarf out of his messenger bag, and a pair of sunglasses, and Zoe repositions her scarf so it covers her nose and mouth. Her eyes flash when a firecracker explodes nearby.
    ‘Wish us luck,’ Ade says to Cara. I’m still standing next to her, so I see him use the cover of the crowd to reach out and squeeze her waist. It could be nothing more than a
friendly gesture, except his hand stays there just too long.
    Despite the racket, I hear her sigh with pleasure. But she does stay back from the crowd, at least. For once, my best friend seems to have her sensible head on.
    There’s a new sound coming towards us: drumming. While the firecrackers whine and bang chaotically, the drum beat is rhythmic. Despite the fancy buildings, and the familiar brands being
advertised on the store fronts, this feels like a primitive place now.
    Then I see the Devil for the first time.
    Or a devil; there’s more than one. Hundreds of them, in fact – a Satanic procession stretching a mile or more up the road. But this devil, my first, ticks all the boxes: red
face, black-rimmed eyes, horns growing out of his head and a knife-sharp metal trident that shoots sparks in every direction.
    People jump into his path, shrieking with delight or fear or both. I’m just far enough back to feel safe, but I can see his face. He’s smiling and I realise that I’m less
afraid; he’s having too much of a good time to look truly satanic. He’s loving the dance, and the crowd is loving him back, as he growls and leaps at them, waving the trident as it
lights up in flames. Even the little girl in front of me on her dad’s shoulders is reaching out towards him. Well, perhaps they’re related; she has her own pair of knitted horns on her
head.
    It’s magnetic. The crazy energy draws me in. On Lewis’s phone box, another photographer is climbing up, even though there is no room left on top. They sway like drunks, but two of
the guys reach down to pull him up. For a moment, it looks as though they’re going to fall off. I hold my breath.
    Somehow they manage to stay upright, grabbing each other and twisting and turning.
    Ade and Zoe are lost somewhere in this wild crowd, running with the demons and the beasts. Cara’s some way ahead of me, too. I can just see her dyed white hair. To my surprise,
Sahara’s at my side, pushing forward as though she can’t help herself.
    ‘That was close. Lewis almost fell off the kiosk, did you see?’
    She gives me an odd look. ‘It was like they were dancing , wasn’t it, Alice?’ Her voice is muffled by the balaclava.
    ‘Dancing?’ I ask, momentarily baffled.
    Sahara moves the fabric up off her face. ‘Like the tango dancers in the park. Clinging onto each other as though their lives depended on it. Which, in this case, they sort of
did.’
    ‘Ah, I see what you . . .’ and then I realise what she’s said. ‘The dancers?’
    ‘Don’t tell me you didn’t see them, Alice,’ She’s staring at me.
    ‘Who?’ Does she mean Ade and Cara?
    ‘The dancers. They were so . . . passionate. Fiery! ’
    Oh, God. What if she did see them? I can’t ask without giving away what I saw myself. Though surely if she did see her boyfriend kissing another girl, she would have confronted him.
No one would be able to keep that to themselves, would they? Unless they were planning to get their own back some other way!
    Before I can work out what to say, the crowd surges forward. A dragon larger than a racehorse moves towards us, its head tossing and turning, firecrackers bursting from its nose and mouth.
    I look for Cara’s white hair. She wasn’t that far ahead – and I should warn her to be careful. Sahara might not mean what I think she means, but it’s better to be safe
than sorry.
    I can’t see my best mate anymore.
    ‘Cara? CARA!’
    But it’s hopeless. The explosions are too loud for her to hear me, and, even if they weren’t, I know my best friend too well. I bet she’s gone into the fire with Ade.
She can’t help herself.

46
    I try to stay calm. If I can’t find Cara, at least I can stay glued to Sahara. No harm done . . .
    But when I spin round again, there’s no one there. I stare at the