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saddle was a soldier, his blue uniform bright and clear, his eyes above his broad moustache focused on Cas as he screamed at the top of his lungs and swung a cavalry sword that flashed in the sunlight.
    Cas let out a cry of horror and hurled himself away from the stallion as it crashed toward him. The cavalry sword flashed past his head with an inch to spare as Cas tumbled to the gym floor into the path of the stallion’s flying hooves.
    Cas flung his arms over his head and buried his face beneath them as the huge animal galloped clean through him and vanished through the opposite wall of the gym.
    The gym fell silent again. Cas opened one eye and peered at the featureless wall of the gym. Then, he got the impression that he was being watched. He turned his head.
    The entire class was staring at him in surprise, their mouths agape and eyes wide.
    But it was not that which surprised him the most.
    Jude, Emily and Siren had also hurled themselves clear of the phantom rider and lay scattered across the gym, all staring at the wall where the horse and rider had vanished.
    * * *

15
    ‘Something’s happened to us.’
    Cas stood on the corner of the street where the school bus had dropped Siren, Emily, Jude and himself off. The sun was getting low, casting long shadows across the street.
    ‘I’ll say,’ Jude uttered.
    The four of them had enjoyed the unprecedented luxury of having the entire rear of the school bus to themselves, largely because nobody else in the school would come near them. Even some of the teachers had cast wary glances in their direction when school had turned out. Principal Brownstone had also studiously avoided them and Cas could hardly blame her. Overnight, they had become freaks.
    ‘You’re all seeing what I’m seeing,’ Cas went on. The three of them nodded slowly. ‘How come you didn’t say anything?’
    ‘Thought I was going crazy,’ Jude replied. ‘Last night I saw a horse and carriage pull into the service station near our house and ride straight through the Taco Bell. I’m not sure if anybody put gasoline in the horse.’
    ‘I saw a church choir singing,’ Emily reported, ‘but they were all standing in the middle of a lake.’
    Cas looked at Siren, who frowned behind her sunglasses. ‘You don’t want to know,’ she said.
    ‘I do,’ Cas insisted. ‘Did you see something that looked like it might have happened in 1776?’
    Siren sighed. ‘I went out for a walk because I didn’t want to talk to my pop after all that’s happened. I was out near the river when I saw a woman being hanged from the branches of a tree. Problem is there’s not supposed to be any trees where I was walking. When I got home I checked it out on the Internet, and it turns out lots of people used to be hanged on the common before a gallows was built in 1769.’
    ‘We’re seeing the past,’ Cas said to them. ‘Whatever happened to us, it’s not gone away.’
    ‘How can that be?’ Emily asked.
    ‘I don’t know,’ Cas admitted, ‘but if it’s still happening to us…’
    ‘Then it’s still happening to your father,’ Jude realised.
    ‘Maybe,’ Cas replied. ‘One way or the other, we’ve got to report this.’
    ‘To who?’ Jude asked. ‘They won’t let us on the base so we can’t talk to anybody there and my mom’s stressed enough already without me telling her that I keep seeing dead people.’ He gestured to Siren. ‘Siren’s pa’ is a lunatic so there’s no way I’m going to ask him to help us out. He’ll as likely shoot us.’
    ‘You watch your mouth,’ Siren warned him.
    ‘He put us here,’ Jude snapped. ‘He wouldn’t shut that contraption of his down when we were hanging in the air above it, when his
own daughter
was hanging in the air above it.’
    Siren’s hand shot out and slammed into Jude’s throat as she pushed him back against a wall. Emily tried to stop her but Siren was far too strong and swatted her easily aside. Cas stepped forward and spoke