LIFE OR DEATH

Lloyd was not naïve to the fact that the plan – his plan – could end up going disastrously wrong. His 'foolproof' plan was risky and potentially full of holes. Timing was key and if any of the key players slipped up, then their plan would definitely fail. They needed to work together and see his plan through to fruition.

His plan wasn't based on a game. They had to succeed, otherwise their lives were over.

"Harvey? Are you awake?"

The lights may be off, and the bed may be occupied by a small bundled up figure, but Lloyd knew his brother, and knew that he was awake. The bedroom was plunged into darkness, the landing was shrouded in darkness, the only source of light being Lloyd's miniature torch, obtained by buying a comic book. The light was concentrating on the foot of his brother's bed – he didn't want to flash the light in Harvey's face, cue a startled interruption and disgruntled younger sibling – and as he slowly moved the torch light up towards Harvey, he saw him pushing himself up into a seated position, hugging his knees to his chest.

"Yeah." Harvey muttered miserably. "Lloyd, I've been thinking…"

He anticipated the words that were coming, attempting to muster up a snide insult about Harvey's ability to think or a poor joke about his tendency to overthink every situation. Instead, Lloyd plonked himself down at the end of the bed and angled the torch up to illuminate his brother's face, similar to when they were little and would tell each other ghost stories.

"H, you have the floor."

A slight smile broke the wall of misery encapsulating Harvey at his brother's tendency to revert into his leader role. He could sense, see, Lloyd's panic in the way the torch wobbled and the slight inflection of fear in his voice.

"I'm w-worried…" Harvey's smile dropped and his bottom lip was worried by his front teeth. "W-What if we don't… you know… win? Your plan is brilliant, I could never think of it, not in a billion years… but what if it goes wrong?" He winced. "Your plans never go wrong, Lloyd! I know that!" His chin lowered to rest on top of his knees, his shadow smothering the light. "This is the Demon Headmaster we're fighting against. We need to be prepared."

A look of steely determination lit up his eyes and Harvey raised his head up, the light illuminating his face once again. "We need to have a plan B, in case your plan doesn't work."

Lloyd was surprised. Firstly, his younger brother had questioned his 'foolproof' plan, and secondly, Harvey was showing his courage in questioning the plan. The consequences of their failure were too dire to dwell on, and Lloyd had rushed past these very same consequences when Mandy had brought them up at their last meeting.

He had always known, and acknowledged, that Harvey was brave despite Harvey's own self-doubts, and the constant barrage of hateful and crippling abuse he received on a nearly daily basis. Chest puffing out in a mixture of faux confidence and pride, Lloyd scooted closer to his brother, grip on the torch tightening to steady both his nerves and the flickering light, that very light illuminating both faces.

"Okay," Lloyd wrapped his arm around Harvey and squeezed his shoulder. "Let's run through Plan B."

The reassuring gesture was enough for Harvey to surge forwards, his confidence rapidly waning. "If he wins… he'll be in charge of the country. He'll come after us, he'll throw us in prison… What if he… if he?..."

The words were too difficult to say, and Lloyd didn't have to be telepathic to guess the unspoken. "Don't think about that. If he wins… we'll have an escape plan. A foolproof escape plan." Lloyd forced his mind to think of the feared consequences, pushing down the shudder that threatened to shake his spine. "We can escape, even if he sends all of Them after us. The real issue is… Dinah."

A couple of weeks ago, that statement would have been presented as a boast. Boasting about the awful girl, who had invaded their home, sent to 'spy' by their nightmare of a nemesis. His pride was important to him, and his ego had taken a bashing to have to admit that Dinah wasn't all that bad, and like them, she was a victim.

"You think… she'll be hypnotised?"

"Of course." Lloyd scoffed, immediately regretting his action. "I mean, he'll hypnotise her to use her for her big brain power… and maybe she'll be part of the group chasing us… We have to make sure she doesn't look at him, look into his eyes. Maybe we could form a circle round her, keep her in the middle, hidden."

"Hey, how about a blindfold?" Harvey split a jovial grin. "If she's wearing that, then she can't see anything!"

"That's a good idea." Lloyd said slowly. "As long as she can't see those bloody eyes, she'll be fine. We need to be fast-" He stared at Harvey and said grimly. "You'll need to run fast, H. Have your asthma pump in your hand. I-" His voice cracked slightly, embarrassing him. He cleared his throat and murmured: "I know you might struggle and I don't want to see you having an asthma attack, but…"

"It's alright, I get it." Harvey shrugged. "I'll use it, I know how to use it. I'm ten in one month."

"I know!" Lloyd exclaimed in frustration. A creak was heard outside and both boys stilled, knowing they would be in trouble if either one or both of their parents crashed their impromptu meeting. Thirty seconds passed, thirty beats of silence, before they ploughed on with their life-changing decisions.

"I'll have my pump out and in my hand, okay?"

"Yeah. Look, if it gets really bad, get Ian to give you a piggyback. He's a fast runner."

"He won't slow down with me, will he?"

"No, Harv, he won't. We need to think about where to go."

"The shed." Harvey said confidently. "The shed is the best place, and we w-wait. We wait if we split up."

'If we've been split up. They'll try and split us up. They'll think we're powerless if we're not together.'

"The shed is our headquarters, so I guess it makes sense."

"It's a safe space."

"It's not very safe though, H. They could easily knock it down. There's no locks."

"It's safe. Very safe." The hesitation was evident in his voice, but Lloyd chose not to address it.

"We'll meet at the shed and we'll make sure everyone is there before our next plan of action. We'll have to be quick though, especially if they're on our tail. I doubt the Headmaster will let us swan off into the sunset."

"What?"

"It's an expression, H. We're not going to turn into literal swans."

"That'd be cool. We could peck the Headmaster's face off."

Lloyd snickered. "Or make him hypnotise himself into believing he is a swan."

"Imagine he starts honking!"

They burst into smothered giggles, the torch light bouncing off the walls. Lloyd managed to control his laughter before Harvey, nudging him to quieten down before they were caught and chastised for being up so late on a school night.

"Did you manage to complete your maths homework for tomorrow?"

Hiccupping under cupped hands, Harvey nodded. He sucked in a huge breath, cheeks puffing out in an attempt to swallow down the hiccups. Cheeks reddening, he suddenly blew out the air and breathlessly whispered:

"Lloyd, what if Mum watches the Great School Quiz? If we can't stop the Headmaster before the Quiz happens, if Mum watches…"

Dread settled into Lloyd's stomach. The thought had occurred and tragically, the possibility of their Mum tuning in to see her children's school on the Eddy Hair Show, to potentially watch her foster daughter's involvement in the Great School Quiz, could lead to disaster. He didn't want to see his Mum be hypnotised and have her freewill stolen away from her. That would be too much pain for them to handle, particularly if she were chasing them, intent on stopping her new Leader's worst enemies.

"She won't." He decided, with a strong nod to himself. "We'll tell her to tape it, to watch it later with us. If she asks why, say we'll watch it together as a family. We'll wait for Dad to get in, something like that… we better tell the rest of SPLAT to tell their parents the same. We have to assume they can be hypnotised. All of them."

"Okay," Harvey whispered quietly, leaning into his older brother's side. "I'm scared, Llo."

Pulling him closer with both arms, allowing the light of the torch to waver down, Lloyd muttered: "Me too, H, me too."