The Power of Five Oblivion

light.”
    “Thank you, Tom. I’ll be back before then.”
    This was the tricky bit. We couldn’t pass the observation tower without being seen and if we tried and were caught, Tom would be sure to raise the alarm … he had a large bell attached to the roof just above his head. We had to wait long enough for Miss Keyland to have gone but not so long that she disappeared altogether. It was all a question of timing, and having judged the moment correctly – I hoped – I pushed Jamie forward and showed myself.
    “Is that you, Tom?” I called out.
    “Holly…?”
    “Have you seen Miss Keyland?” I asked in my most innocent voice. “Reverend Johnstone sent us to look for her. He asked us to give her a message.”
    I just had to hope that Miss Keyland was far enough away not to hear me. At least Tom didn’t question my story. “You just missed her,” he said. He turned round and peered over the treetops. “There she goes!” He pointed. “I can call out to her if you like.”
    “No. We’ll find her.” Jamie and I hurried ahead. Tom smiled and waved.
    The forest got thicker and more tangled. The leaves and the branches seemed to be tied together, as if they didn’t want to let us through. We could hear Miss Keyland fighting her way ahead of us, but looking back, I realized that the observation tower was out of sight. We pressed on for about ten minutes. This was never the way I came when I went hunting and I just wanted to stop, to go home, to forget all about it. What did it matter what Miss Keyland did? If Jamie was right, if she really was calling the police, he would just have to leave. He had been planning that anyway. And what exactly was she doing, stuck out here in the middle of this wilderness? What made her think she would find anything here?
    “There!”
    Jamie had seen it first and we both crouched down behind a bush with sharp, spiny needles instead of leaves. It was in a clearing, which made it easier to see. And it was bright red, the colour vibrant against all these greens and browns. It was a rectangular box and even the straight lines seemed alien in the middle of a wood. I knew exactly what I was looking at. I had seen pictures in books.
    It was an old-fashioned public telephone box, the sort that had been replaced by modern glass counterparts and then phased out altogether when people started carrying their own mobiles. What was it doing here? Of course, it would have once stood next to a road but the road had been carefully removed. The telephone box had been left behind and it was alien, like a visitor from a forgotten world. I had been in the forest loads of times and I was amazed that I had never seen it, but then, I had never come this way. How had Miss Keyland known it was there? Could it possibly be still connected?
    We watched her go in. She opened and shut the heavy door behind her. Some of the little square panes of glass were broken but we were too far away to hear what she said. She dialled a number and began to talk. The conversation couldn’t have lasted more than a couple of minutes and then she hung up and came out again, retracing her steps and passing so close to us that I was certain she would see us. But her thoughts must have been on what she had just done. She was inches away from us but she didn’t look down or stop.
    We waited until we were sure she had gone.
    “I knew it,” Jamie said. “She’s told them I’m here.”
    “Told who?”
    “The police. The Old Ones. It doesn’t matter. They could be the same.”
    “What now?” I asked, although I already knew the answer.
    “They’ll come for me. Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow. I can’t stay in the village.” He looked at me and I was shaken to see how scared he was. “They’ll punish you for taking me in, Holly. You, Rita, John and George. They’ll punish the whole village.”
    “We didn’t do anything wrong.”
    “You don’t know them.” Jamie closed his eyes, suddenly tired. He opened them again. “I should go now.”
    “You can’t!” I said. “You’ll never find your way through the forest. Even in the day it’s hard enough.” I looked up. The sun was already dipping. Why did the days have to be so short? Already the treetops seemed to be closing in on us and if we didn’t go back to the village soon, we’d be stuck out here ourselves.
    “I don’t want to bring trouble to you,” Jamie said.
    He sounded so sad that I made up my mind. “Wait here,” I said.
    “Where are