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Chapter One
Part One

“Lyd! We’re going to be late!”

Lydia Stevens looked up from her packing and blew an errant lock of strawberry blonde hair out of her eyes. “We’ve got plenty of time, Kaz. It doesn’t start till eight. I won’t have time to pack when we get back.”

“She’s right.” Andrew snapped shut the cryptozoology book he was reading. “I’d be more worried about Dan making us late. Is it just me or is he avoiding us recently?”

“He’s not avoiding us. He’s at Karate. He griped at me earlier because I’ll be ‘off in the wilds’ instead of at his tournament.” She made one last check of her rucksack and straightened up. “That’s everything.”

“Finally!” Karen said. “Are you going to get changed?”

“I’m fine as I am,” Lydia replied.

“Khaki trousers and a tank top for an evening out is not fine,” Karen said.

Lydia looked up at the ceiling and counted to ten. “What’s the point? It’s dark in cinema, so no one can see what I’m wearing.” She just about refrained from telling her sister that her designer skinny jeans and silk blouse were overkill. “Why don’t you nag Drew to get changed?” She glanced sideways at their jeans and t-shirt clad brother who had his hand over his eyes and was shaking his head.

“He’s a guy. They don’t have to bother.”

“What?!” Lydia and Andrew exclaimed simultaneously and then looked at each other and laughed.

“That’s so bloody sexist, Kaz.” Andrew ran a hand through his blonde hair. “If I said that you’d punch me.”

“And if you didn’t I would,” Lydia added.

Karen glared at her. “I give up! Let’s wait for Dan downstairs.”

“Mum’ll accuse us of clogging up the lounge again,” Andrew said.

Lydia dusted off the knees of her trousers and shook her head. “She’s in bed – it’s a bad day. Dad won’t mind. I’ll probably have to roust him out of the study to drive us anyway.”

“And he’ll moan about that instead. I’ll be glad when we can learn to drive next year.” Karen opened the door and stopped short. She made a kind of squeaking noise and exclaimed, “What the hell?!”

“What’s wrong?” Lydia joined her sister at the door. Her mouth went dry and she had to swallow the bile which rose up and burned her throat. “Okaaaay… that’s not the landing.” She tried to sound nonchalant, but her voice shook as she looked out at a wild and windswept heath.

“Wow! Now that’s cool!” Andrew exclaimed. Lydia heard him take several shaky breaths. “It’s weird – even for us.” He stuck his head through the doorway, sniffed the air and then looked back at his sisters with sparkling eyes. “Doesn’t even smell like the house.”

Karen and Lydia looked at each other.  Her sister was as pale as Lydia felt.

“He thinks this is cool? That’s not the word I’d use.”  Karen turned and prodded him. “You’re the weirdness freak, Drew. I swear you attract this kind of stuff by reading those books! How do we fix this?”

“I’ve read about something similar,” he said. ” Try closing the door and counting to ten. It’ll go away… I think.”

“It’s worth a try, I guess.” Karen did as he’d suggested and then reopened it.

Lydia peered over her shoulder. “Nope… still there. You’re wrong for once, Drew.”

“It should have…” he trailed off at the sound of a voice from beyond the door.

“Help us! Please, you must help us!”

“Oh, bloody hell!” Lydia kicked the wall hard. “That’s why it didn’t work! Somebody wants us there.” She walked over to a window and looked out. “We won’t be getting out that way either.” She checked the other windows. “It’s all around us.” She glared at the uninviting heath, swore a couple more times and headed to their mini-fridge. “Get the fruit bowl and pass me the large holdall.” She began pulling the various snack foods out of the fridge and piling them on the floor. “Thank goodness I have my gear packed. But these aren’t my first choice of rations,” she said as Andrew brought the fruit over. She looked over at Karen. “Kaz?”

“No, y-you’re not … You aren’t really thinking of going?” Her silver-grey eyes – the one feature all four quadruplets shared – were wide.

“We don’t have much choice,” Andrew said, “unless you’re planning on staying here until we run out of food. Someone wants us.”

“Maybe we can get out when Dan arrives,” she said, but then her shoulders slumped. “No, that won’t work. They’ll be able to stop it…”

“And drag him in as well,” Lydia said. “We could try but then-” she broke off as the voice repeated it is call for help, “Well then there’s that.”

Andrew nodded. “They must think we can help ,because they’ve gone to a great deal of trouble to get our attention.”

“That’s true, but why should we care?” Karen said. “We didn’t ask for this.”

“I know,” Lydia said, “but they’ve made it our business whether we like it or not.” She fetched the large holdall herself, since Karen was still frozen.” “It’s not very polite of them to compel us like this, but they sound desperate.”

“So what?” Karen put her hands on her hips but the shake in her voice told Lydia her sister was wavering.

“So I am going.” Lydia said.

“Me too!” Andrew said.

“You can stay here – we need someone to cover for us.” Lydia carried her rucksack to the door as Andrew hefted the holdall onto his shoulder.

Karen looked from one to the other. “You’re really set on this, and nothing I say will stop you?” They shook their heads. “You’re both mad, and I am too for going along with you.” She grabbed their coats from the hook behind the door. “We’ll need these.”

“So you’re coming after all?” Lydia tried not to smirk at Andrew and could tell he was doing the same thing.

“You’d get in trouble without me. But we’re going to regret this.”

“Possibly,” Lydia said as she shrugged her coat on. “But this is important. More important than we realise. It feels like the right thing to do.” She looked down at the elegant mules on Karen’s feet. “Put your trainers on, you won’t get far in those things.”

“Yes,” Andrew said. “As soon as I heard that voice I knew we had to help. Didn’t you feel it?”

“Of course I did. We’re being manipulated. Whoever’s behind this wants us to feel it. I don’t trust feelings which aren’t my own when mine are telling me the opposite.” Karen shook her head as she changed her shoes. “If we’re going to do this, let’s go.”

“Yes, let’s.” Lydia headed down the stairs towards the dismal looking heath and heard the others following her. They emerged onto the crown of a hill. Lydia immediately began looking around for the source of the voice they’d heard.

“Crap! I knew it!” Karen’s cursing made her turn and she saw her sister looking back. There was no sign of the stairs or their attic den.

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