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.Go away and never come back.At least she still had Mum.Yes, Mum was still alive.It would be hard: would they ever get over this? They would just have to try.Ginnumarra was thinking these thoughts when a single gunshot shattered her world.Flicking her head, she saw Mum on the ground, lying still.And then, as two of the ghosts strolled towards their horses, the third strolled towards Ginnumarra.He raised his rifle.Ginnumarra sucked in breath, squeezed her eyes shut, and waited.Hoped the amulet that old Mandu the medicine man had given her years ago would protect her.The gun went off with a crack and it felt like fire shooting into her chest.All air was sucked out of her body as she tumbled backwards.Water enveloped her.As she fell through the lake, feeling water enter her lungs, she thought:I can’t die like this.Mum, Dad, Grandma, Moodoo—they will be found and given a proper burial; but what about me? I’ll be stuck in this lake.My soul will be trapped…Those men, they need to be punished…all ghosts need to be punished.And as she felt her life draining away, she saw a light, then darkness, then red…* * *The closer Ray got to the lake, the more the blurry mess of colour grew clearer, until finally the lake and its surrounds snapped into focus.The lake was brimming with life.Scores of green bushy trees and striking plants blooming orange, red and yellow sprouted out of the muddy water.Seeing such life in the midst of death was beautiful, invigorating.It almost didn’t seem real; it was like an oasis in the middle of a desert.Ray knelt by the edge of the lake.The water had a foul odour, like rotten meat.He touched the rust-coloured water; definitely real.It was also surprisingly warm.How is this possible? Ray wondered.The girl?It had to be.Ginnumarra was somewhere at the bottom of the lake, so it made sense that all the life she had drained from the forest had been dumped into her watery home.All he had to do now was find the body; hopefully the amulet would be with it.If not, then it was going to be especially difficult finding a necklace that had been under water for over a hundred and fifty years.Ray slipped on the goggles, but left the mouthpiece hanging; where he was going he wouldn’t need it.He stepped forward and waded into the murky lake.When the water was lapping at his chest, he dived forward.He paddled around trees and plants and when he was roughly in the middle of the lake, he sucked in fetid air and then dove under.He feebly kicked his legs and with his frail arms scooped at the water.With a great deal of effort, he plunged deeper, his hands knocking into submerged tree trunks on his way down.When he touched something slimy, he panicked, drew in a mouthful of water and scrambled through the murkiness back towards the top.When he broke the surface, he gasped in air and moments later, vomited up the water he had swallowed.Once he had gotten his breath back, he dived back under, the thick reddish-brown water enveloping him.He slapped his hands against the tree trunks again and this time when he touched the slimy object, he told himself it was just an underwater plant.The water was less cloudy the deeper he went and soon he was able to see the bottom of the lake.It was worse than he had imagined.The bottom was a maze of tree trunks and thick roots snaking along the sand; locating the amulet—or even the body—was going to be difficult.Topping off the strange underwater scene was an unusual similarity with the trunks—they all had a large split at their base, most large enough to fit a person inside.Ray swam over to the closest trunk.Gripped the edges of the large opening and tentatively ducked his head inside the tree.The rancid stench of the lake was multiplied ten-fold.Looking up, he could see a round disc of afternoon light.Completely hollow.Were all the trees in the lake like this one?With the light spilling down the shaft, Ray noticed that the interior walls of the tree trunk were coated with a thick, slimy red and yellow paste.The glistening goo was smeared everywhere.The goo was like nothing he had ever seen: it certainly wasn’t sap, nor was it a rich golden colour.Instead it was like a dirty mixture of tomato sauce and mustard.Ray noticed something poking out of the wall of slime, something thin and white.Curious, he pulled it out.Icy-cold shivers swam through his body as he realised what it was.It was a sliver of bone.He let go of the bit of skeleton.Something foul and acidic burned in his throat.He now knew what the goo around him was, why the trees in the lake were so full of life; they had a special kind of nutrient keeping them blooming.Blood and bone of the human variety.His lungs starting to burn, Ray swam back up and made it to the surface before his chest exploded.He took another few moments to catch his breath before going back down.He repeated the cycle again and again.Soon each dive blurred into one another.As he feared, having to swim up and down continuously, dodging the rotted tree trunks took its toll on his body.He wasn’t sure how much longer he could continue.It was late in the day, he had searched half the lake, when, kicking through the water, his foot was caught, jerking him to a stop.Ray thought he had caught his foot in the crack of a tree or got it tangled up in one of the plants.He ducked his head under the water and looked down.Through the murk he saw a plump, greyish hand clasping his ankle.He screamed a wet, bubbly scream, and then lifted his head out of the water, gasping for air.Ray had only managed to suck in a few gulps of air when he was pulled under the water with frightening ease.He clawed at the water, trying desperately to break free from the thing that had a hold of him.But it was no use; either he was too weak or the hand’s grasp was too strong.Peering down, he saw the owner of the hand.The body was bloated, its skin grey and slimy; it looked like a chicken that had been left boiling in a pot for about thirty years.Yet even with all the years of decay Ray could tell it was a girl.Her long black hair floated around her head like a halo of seaweed.Her face was puffy, her eyes bulged in its sockets.She seemed to be grinning at him, revealing teeth like black pebbles.Ginnumarra?It had to be—but how could she still be alive? And why was she intent on killing him?He had no answers for either question [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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