Follow the Leader

"Shh!"
Jack stared at Anouk, who was crouching on the unpolished floorboards, ready to pounce, with her finger at her lips. It was hard to see, for it had already grown dark and they'd resorted to torches but in the dim beams Jack could see she had a look of utter concentration on her face, which Jack was surprised to find. Anouk was the one with her Head in the Clouds. She was The DayDream Believer
and home-coming Queen
not the Strategist but here she was, focused and ready to catch...something
"Anouk, what are we doing?" stagewhispered Dolly. At least that was what Jack thought she said. With that blasted doll's hand in her mouth, she mumbled and it came out more like;
"'Nook, warrwee 'ooin'?"
Jack rolled his eyes. The Leader did not turn to answer but kept her eyes on the object sitting innocently on the polished wood.
"We're catching a Darkling."
Oh yes, that's what it was. A Darkling. Yesterday it was Nee-mod's, today it's Darklings. He rolled his eyes again and flicked his head to move his dark hair from his eyes. It needed cutting.
"Dark-ing?" Jack shuddered at Dolly's garbled questioning and turned to Anouk's bait.
A Fairycake.
He could just about see it in the darkness. Sat proudly on a cracked china plate in the middle of his bedroom was a bluddy Fairycake.
Yesterday had been baking day in LarkRise, a day of terror for its inhabitants due to the frustrated Cook trying to cook at least five different pasteries at once. She often took the stress, self-inflicted stress Jack added, on Dolly, who would never answer back and take a verbal lashing, though it happened less and less once Anouk arrived.
Anyway's, Anouk had managed to sneak off one of Cook's beloved sweets for tonight's hunt. It was a ghastly shade of pink, due to the thick frosting and even had sprinkles of all things, thickly deposited on top. He had to admit, when Cook baked, she went the whole hog.
Anouk had proudly produced it around five this afternoon, with various "Battle scars", to use Anouk's own words i.e. splatterings of cake mixtures, chocolate sauce and the odd snowy flour patch sitting on the tip of her nose.
"Our bait," she had announced happily, placing it on a small china plate with utmost care. Jack would have asked her what for but she often seemed to answer him without prompt. Increasingly so.
Odd.
Movement shook Jack from his thoughts. His eyes had adjusted to the dark and he could see Anouk fidgeting, leaning her weight on each foot alternatively. He could almost see her bearing a spear, the perfect hunter. She was ready. Though ready for what exactly Jack was wasnt sure. With Anouk, he never was.
Jack grabbed his torch. Whatever it was, he wasn't missing it. He was not staying up until freaking Eleven to miss it, whatever it was. He could hear Dolly shifting behind him on the bed. She, at the beginning, was the most eager and had been practically bouncing, whispering to that creepy doll excitedly through it's yellow curls but it was late, so late and no matter how she tried, no matter how much she wanted to please Anouk, she was drifting. So was Jack to be honest. It was late and he had homework and
Suddenly Anouk was right next to him and was hissing through gritted teeth in his ear. The warm air made him shiver but the urgency in her voice made him concentrate. "Can you hear it?"
Jack sat still as possible, straining to hear Anouk's noise. He could still feel huffs of warm air on his cheek and found it quite hard to concentrate. He couldn't hear it, nothing
There.
Yes, there.
He could hear it, something at least. Like a scratching, scuffling. An odd noise, like tapping, like fingers tapping on an old cracked china plate...
Anouk grasped Jacks hand and both, almost on impulse really, switched on their torches in the direction of the bait.
It all happened in a flash, suddenly there was light, two beams of light, almost thick with the dust in the air, almost solid. Jack thought it must have been his eyes adjusting but he could swear he saw something dark flash across the beams a split second after they were lit. Jack eagerly stared at the plate.
Nothing.
Not a sausage, as Alison would say.
Just a God damn Fairycake on a cracked china plate.
Jack slumped back against the bed and huffed. All for nothing. In the torchlight, he watched from under his halfclosed eyelids as Anouk slowly approached the so-called bait.
He snorted. She acted as if something would jump out at her. Nothing had happened. They may as well just go back to bed and get a good nights rest cause they may as well get something out of this
"Jack"
Something about her voice made Jacks eyes open fully, but he was too stubborn and lazy to get up properly. She was standing in the torchlight with the cupcake held carefully in one palm.
She looked pretty like this, Jack noted sleepily. Not properly pretty, not what the mass celebrity obsessed population would call pretty, no. But she had, she had a certain charm nontheless. Something. Just. Something. Her pale hair and skin made her almost glow in the dusty thick light. Her eyes positively burned in her white face. And she looked old, so very old with her burning eyes and wandering hair and
Jack squirmed slightly. Anouk had been staring at him this whole time, waiting for a response.
"Hmm?" he murmured, trying to keep his eyes open. Only polite to.
She knelt before him, holding the cake almost reverently.
"Look."
He did.
If he had the breath to gasp he would have.
In that ghastly icing, there was a definite, no denying that there was, there was certainly, undeniable dent.
He looked at Anouk, then back to the blasted thing and back to her grim face.
Someone, or something, had taken a huge bite out of the cake, exposing the soft sponge beneath.
Anouk beamed.
"Told'ja"

Anouk here, you know the rules
I know the shadows here are crappity but i like how it looks. I DO know how to do light positioning but CBA Beautiful texure form hyar [link]