There was a puddle of water on the pavement.  Unless it was actually some poor kid’s blood.  You couldn’t tell, in the dark.  You’re not on Butcher’s Corner anymore, Natalie told herself, but somehow that didn’t make much difference.

She walked past it, her teeth tightly clenched to keep them from chattering.  They were in a grid made up of long, dark roads, and any minute, something could appear at the other end.

There was a roar in the sky, overhead.  “It’s just an aeroplane!” Natalie yelled, more for her own benefit than for Steph’s.  Her chest kept tightening and tightening, like she was an elastic band being twisted in smaller and smaller loops.  The hadn’t passed the church yet.  She’d been so sure that this was the right way, and they hadn’t even passed the church.  Should they turn back?  But what if that was exactly what Mr Miacca wanted?  What if he was lying in wait, three or four streets behind them?

They got to the corner, and Natalie saw…  She thought she saw…  There might have been something she recognised, just across the road and to the left, but it was too dark to even see what it was.  Natalie wasn’t about to hang around squinting at it, though, so she just crossed the road and headed towards it.  Maybe they’d be lucky.

There were no people around here.  There weren’t even any cars on the road.  All Natalie could hear was the wind rustling through the leaves.

On the other side of the road, there was a fence that looked exactly like a cage, all metal squares from the ground to three metres in the air.  The kind of cage you’d need to keep in a monster.  All Natalie could see through the fence was a blotchy concrete floor.  There was a small building in the distance, but close by, nothing at all.

“My legs hurt,” said Steph.

“Mm,” said Natalie, keeping her eye on the fence.

“Why do we have to walk home?”

“I told you.  Mum had to stay late at work.”  They should have listened to Andrea.  They should have stayed where they were.  At least then they wouldn’t be lost.

“But why couldn’t we…”

“Wait!”  Natalie stopped walking.  For the first time since they’d started out, she stood perfectly still, because she had to get a good look at what she’d just seen up ahead.

The big yellow sign saying M&Ms.  The little pink and white notices in the window.  It was closed now, but it was definitely the sweet shop round the back of their school, the one where Natalie and Steph bought Skittles every Friday afternoon.  And the school was closer to their house than the Girls’ Brigade church was, so this proved it.  They were going the right way.

“Look, Steph!” said Natalie, pointing across the road with her free hand.

Stephanie looked over, and nodded.  “The sweet shop,” she said, cheerful but not impressed.

For a moment, Natalie thought about going down the next street and actually going into the school.  Maybe one of their teachers was working late, and maybe they’d give them a lift home.  But then she got a proper look at the next street, and changed her mind.  Too dark, and who said Mr Miacca wouldn’t live near a school?  It would be the one place where he’d be guaranteed to catch kids away from their homes and their parents.  Besides, Natalie had been to school plays and parents’ evening at her school and Andrea’s, and they were both creepy at night.  Eerie lights glowing from the windows; weird noises echoing from the other side of the building; dark, empty classrooms with the chairs stacked up on the tables.  Natalie didn’t want to go there if she could help it.

Natalie led Steph on, looking from one side of the street to the other and trying to remember exactly what she saw through the car window in the morning, when Mum drove them to school.  Her chest had loosened up a lot now that she knew more-or-less where they were, but she knew she couldn’t relax completely.  They weren’t home yet, and Mr Miacca was still out there somewhere.

She did recognise this street, but not for any good reason.  It was the one where most of the houses had furniture piled up in the front drives.  Years ago, in Year One or something. Natalie and her friend Paul had wandered close to one of those front drives to get a better look at a rusty old swing-seat, and a witchy old woman had popped out of the front porch, yelling, “This is private property!  Keep off!”  She didn’t want that happening again.  Besides, all that furniture would probably be perfect for Mr Miacca to hide behind.  Natalie walked a little faster.

Natalie looked at the houses as she passed them, trying to see if she could remember which one was the old lady’s.  Instead, she remembered something else.  The reason she’d been with her friend Paul that day was that Paul lived nearby.  On the next street, if she was remembering right.  And maybe if they found his house and knocked at the door…

OK, Paul’s mum and dad didn’t have a car, so they couldn’t give Natalie and Steph a lift home.  But they could invite them in, and phone Mum at work so that she could come and pick them up from there.  And that way, Natalie and Steph would get to spend the rest of the evening playing with Paul and his brother instead of trying to escape from Mr Miacca.

They crossed the road and, thank God, Natalie could see Paul’s house from here.  “Let’s go and see if Paul is in,” she told Stephanie, and practically ran to the door.

Paul’s house was painted white, and the door was blue.  The front garden was small and neat and didn’t have any furniture in it.  Natalie went up to the front door and knocked, thinking about what they could do once they were in there.  Paul had a Playmobil pirate ship and a Batman game on his computer.  He had a whole bunch of books that Natalie had never read.  He had…

Natalie looked at the windows, and realised that none of the lights were on.

She knocked on the door, and didn’t hear anything.  No voices, no footsteps rushing down the stairs.  There was no-one in the house.

They’re gone.  Mr Miacca’s taken them.  But Natalie knew, even as she thought it, that it wasn’t true.  Paul and his family had just gone out to dinner or something.  They were miles away, and they had no idea that Natalie and Steph desperately wanted to come in.  They had no idea that Natalie was staring at the front door, trying not to cry.

Natalie swallowed, and looked at Steph.  “Nobody’s home,” she said, trying to sound cheerful, “Come on.”  And they walked onwards.

(To be continued)

The worst part- the worst part of the first few minutes, anyway- was when they came to the corner of the street they were on.  Mr Miacca had taken the boy in the story from the corner of his street.  As soon as they stepped away from the corner and crossed the road, they’d be in Mr Miacca’s territory.  This was their last chance to turn back and wait for Andrea like she’d told them to.

It wouldn’t be so bad… began a nervous voice in Natalie’s head, before she blocked it out, took hold of Stephanie’s hand, and led her across the road.  You couldn’t hesitate.  If they just strode forward and acted like they owned the place, they might just get away with what they were doing.

They made it to the other side, and kept on walking.  What they needed to do, Natalie decided, was go back the way they’d come and get back to the church.  They could find their way home from there a whole lot easier than they could from a dark, unfamiliar street where someone might jump out at them at any moment.  If they were really lucky, someone might still be there- the Captain or the Lieutenant, maybe, putting the chairs up and locking the equipment cupboard- and maybe that someone would be able to call their mum at work, so they wouldn’t have to walk through Mr Miacca’s territory after dark.  Maybe.  But they had to find it first.

Across the road, there was a thin fence that looked as if it was made out of cardboard, and on the fence, there were words written in white paint.  KEEP OUT.  KEEP OUT.  DANGER.  But what kind of danger?  What was behind that fence that you needed to keep away from?  And how was a fence as flimsy as that going to keep it from escaping?  Natalie moved as far as she could away from the road.  If it escaped, there were bushes they could duck behind.  There were trees they could climb.  They’d be able to get away from it.

“Why isn’t Andrea coming with us?” asked Steph.  She didn’t even sound worried.  This was just a new, interesting thing that had happened in her day.

“Because she wants to watch a film with her friends,” said Natalie, trying to keep her voice level.  Part of her wanted Stephanie to be more alert, to be on the lookout for Mr Miacca so he wouldn’t get her, but in another way, it was good to hear her sounding calm and happy.  As if Natalie needed reminding that people could still be calm and happy.  It was easy to forget, at the moment.

“Oh.”  Steph went quiet, apparently satisfied.  Natalie squeezed her hand, to make sure she was still holding it.  Her own hand had gone numb.

They walked on, quick enough to look confident, but slow enough to keep a proper eye on their surroundings.  Natalie kept looking back at the fence with the writing on it.  It still hadn’t escaped, whatever it was, but she wished they didn’t have their backs to it.  Maybe it was the kind of thing that could sneak up behind you.

Stephanie had a thought.  “Maybe…  Maybe we’ll get home, and Andrea will already be there!”  She smiled in sheer wonder.

“Mm.  Maybe.”  It was too dark here.  The sun was all the way down now, and there were too many trees on this road, blocking out the moon and the stars and anything else that might have given off light.  It made Natalie think of another book she’d read, about a girl who met an evil green troll in the middle of the forest.  Those trees could hide anything.

But then, those trees could also hide Natalie and Steph, if they needed them to.  They’d make it easier for Mr Miacca to sneak up on them, but if they saw him coming first, then the trees could help them.

In fact, now that she thought about it, the safest thing of all might be for her and Steph to climb to the top of one of them and stay there until their Mum came looking for them.  As far as she knew, Mr Miacca couldn’t climb trees.  For a moment, Natalie looked at the trunk of the nearest tree, considering it, but then she heard a noise from one of the nearby houses and hurried on.  It was too risky.  What if they were in the middle of climbing it when Mr Miacca came along?  He’d be able to pick them off the side like they were leaves.

Now that Natalie came to think of it, there were a lot of noises coming from the nearby houses.  Raised voices, from this one, like a mum and dad arguing, or telling their kids off.  It echoed out into the street, as if Natalie and Steph were being told off, too.  For not being good and waiting for their big sister like she’d told them to, even if it meant that Mr Miacca would come and get them.

Natalie saw a street sign, and wished she hadn’t.  “Butcher’s Corner.”  A butcher was just a shop on the high street that sold bacon and lamb chops, but butchering was what Mr Miacca and his wife did to the children he brought home.  That was exactly the kind of name that Mr Miacca’s street would have.

They had to get out of here.  And no sooner had Natalie thought that, than she saw a fork in the road, just up ahead.

Now, which way had they come?  Which way had they come?

Natalie felt like crying.  There was one road that went forward, and another one that went right, and she couldn’t remember which one took them back to Girls’ Brigade.  It was coming closer and closer as they walked, and she still couldn’t remember.  And she couldn’t stop to work it out.  She couldn’t hesitate for a second, or Mr Miacca would seize his chance and…

They crossed the road, and went right.

It looked familiar.  Bits of it, anyway.  Natalie went on, gripping Stephanie’s hand in hers, and left Butcher’s Corner behind.