Danny lunges after her, grabbing her by the ankle. She lets out a terrified scream, her fingernails scraping through the dirt as he yanks her backwards.
‘What the hell!’ Meg pulls away from me, crossing the small clearing in a dozen strides. She crouches beside Honor and gathers her into her arms. She strokes her hair away from her face and makes soft, sympathetic noises, telling her everything’s going to be OK.
‘Get off her!’ Danny grabs the back of Meg’s T-shirt and hauls her away. ‘Don’t you dare touch her.’
‘Danny!’ I shout, but it’s as though he’s forgotten I even exist. All his attention is focused on Meg. His cheeks are flushed, his eyes are dark and he’s muttering something I can’t hear.
‘Get off me!’ Meg twists sharply and thumps at his arm with a clenched fist. ‘Get your filthy hands off me!’
As Danny slackens his grip on Meg’s T-shirt I let out a sigh of relief. The next second he grabs a handful of her hair and yanks her to her feet.
As she screams in pain I leap forward. ‘Danny!’ I shout. ‘What the—’
I stop in my tracks as he pulls a knife – the one Jefferson lost – out of the pocket of his shorts and holds it to Meg’s throat. Honor, curled up in a ball on the ground, whimpers with fear.
‘Danny…’ A cold chill runs through me, paralysing my limbs and freezing my brain. I can’t make sense of what I’m seeing. Meg’s clawing at the arm around her throat and Honor’s feet are bound with tape.
‘It’s OK, Honor,’ Danny coos. ‘It’s OK, babe. You’re safe. She can’t hurt you now.’
‘Danny… you need to let Meg go.’
He jolts at the sound of my voice, but when he looks in my direction it’s as though he’s staring straight through me.
‘Danny,’ I say again. ‘You’re hurting Meg. Let her go.’
He shakes his head, pulling her closer. She squeals in pain and grabs at his arm, digging her fingernails into his tanned skin. Danny doesn’t react.
I look from his impassive expression to Honor’s tear-streaked face to Meg’s bewildered, terrified eyes. I feel like I’m in a nightmare but no amount of telling myself to wake up is going to make it stop.
‘It was Meg,’ Danny says. ‘It was always Meg.’
‘What was?’ she screams. ‘What was me?’
‘Sssh. Sssh. Sssh. Sssh.’ He angles the knife so the sharp tip dents the soft skin of her neck. She whimpers but says nothing. She stares at me imploringly, silently begging me to help her.
‘Meg made all the phobias come true,’ Danny says. ‘I couldn’t work out why but then she explained it. She wanted to punish us for leaving her out of the group and—’
‘I didn’t,’ Meg gasps. ‘I didn’t punish anyone. I haven’t done any—’
‘Sssh.’ A shallow pool of blood appears around the knife edge and she moans in fear.
My heart’s beating so quickly I feel sick. ‘Danny, put the knife down. Please, you’re hurting her.’
‘Good. She was going to kill Honor.’
The blank look in his eyes has been replaced by a new, manic intensity. I don’t know if he’s eaten something poisonous by accident or if he’s ill but something’s very, very wrong with him. Whatever he thinks Meg has done he utterly believes it. My only hope of talking him out of hurting her is to go along with it. If he thinks I’m on his side, that I believe him, he might listen to me.
‘Is this about the phobias?’ I ask. ‘Remember we talked about them… the spiders and the snake in the pit?’
Danny’s expression shifts the tiniest bit, from anger to relief. He wants – needs – an ally. Whatever it is he believes he needs someone else to back him up.
‘I got it wrong,’ he says, ‘when I blamed Jeffers. It was Meg all along.’
‘Meg hasn’t done anything wrong,’ Honor says from the ground. Without either of us noticing she’s shifted away so she’s out of Danny’s reach.
The light in his eyes goes out instantly. ‘She tricked you,’ he says. ‘She tricked all of us. She put that monkey’s head in her bag and thought that would make her look innocent.’
Honor and I share a look. The horror I feel is reflected in her eyes.
‘She had it all planned,’ Danny continues. ‘From the moment we set foot on the island she—’
‘WHAT THE HELL?’
Milo explodes out of the jungle, his eyes dark and furious. Jeffers follows, a split second behind.
‘Milo, no!’ I run towards him, blocking his route to Danny. If he attacks him Meg will get hurt. Or worse. God only knows what Danny’s capable of right now. ‘Jeffers, stop him! Stop him!’
The panic in my scream has an immediate effect on Jeffers. He launches himself at Milo like a rugby player, whipping his legs out from beneath him, sending him sprawling to the ground.
‘He’s not well!’ I shout as Milo kicks out at Jefferson. ‘Danny’s not well. Don’t… please… don’t…’
Milo glances at me and, for one horrible second, I feel the full force of his rage – I’m defending the boy who’s got a knife to his sister’s throat – but then he looks away sharply and gets to his feet.
‘Let her go.’ His whole body shakes as he stares at Danny. It’s taking every ounce of willpower he’s got not to launch himself at him, fists flying.
‘Tell them, Danny,’ I shout. ‘Tell them what Meg’s done.’
Milo snaps round to look at me and it’s back, the anger and recrimination behind his eyes. Trust me, I will him, please, just trust me. Jefferson, standing beside him, nursing his elbow shoots me a confused look.
‘Go on,’ I say. ‘Tell them about the phobias.’
Danny’s gaze doesn’t shift from Milo. The air is charged with tension. There’s so much hostility and anger it feels like a nuclear bomb, waiting to go off. If it does it will devastate us all.
‘He’s not going to do anything,’ I say. ‘Are you, Milo?’
A tendon pulses in his jaw. ‘I’ll listen if he lowers the knife.’ As he speaks a bead of blood dribbles down Meg’s neck towards the top of her T-shirt.
‘Danny,’ I say. ‘Can you do that? Move the knife away from Meg’s neck? She’s not going to go anywhere or try anything. Are you, Meg?’
Her skin is pale and clammy and her knuckles are white from clinging on to Danny’s arm, but the terror in her eyes has been replaced by cold defiance. Now the shock of being grabbed has died away she’s ready to fight back.
‘Meg?’ I say again.
She gives me a long look. ‘I hope you know what you’re doing, Jess.’
‘Is that a yes?’
She presses her lips together, struggling with the decision. ‘I won’t run.’
For a couple of seconds Danny does nothing, but then he slowly relaxes his grip on Meg’s throat and the tip of the knife lifts from her skin.
‘The phobias,’ I remind him. ‘Tell the others what you know.’
‘Meg’s been trying to punish us,’ he says, ‘by making our phobias come true.’