IN THE CLEARING

Inspired by Anne Hamiltonbyrne’s notorious cult, The Family, this novel is full of dark and gripping twists and turns. Freya is an overly protective mum who is doing her best to keep her son safe and live a normal life. Meanwhile, Amy has only ever known life in a community known as the Clearing but her world view is about to be challenged when a new recruit arrives and appears desperate to return home. From the author of last year’s bestseller Call Me Evie, this is an edited extract from the chilling and atmospheric tale.

Amy

I feel so warm and happy. We have her.

As we near the Great Hall, where the kitchen and our classroom are, I see my brothers and sisters and the other minders burst from the building and rush towards us. Everyone knows the precious cargo we are carrying and their palms bang on the windows as we pass. My chest fills with pride. The enthusiasm of the others is infectious. Susan honks the horn, waving to the children outside and then we are heading around The Great Tree, then beyond the Burrow, where we sleep and bathe, making our way to the Shed at the south-east corner of the property.

We pass the child through the door of the van and into the waiting hands as though delivering a baby. Her small body seems to float into the Shed. We lay her down on the stained cotton cloth covering the bench. Adam had rigged a square in the sheet-metal roof on a pulley so when my brother Anton – the only child older than me – turns the wheel near the door a perfect diamond of light falls through the ceiling and across the girl. We circle her, to be close, to look at her.

“That’s enough,” Adrienne says. “We need to get to work.”

I know that soon the child will wake and when she does she will be hungry and thirsty. I know we have chores to do, but it is so hard to walk away.

I know that when we liberate a child from the world outside, the minders become tense and agitated. Susan was chewing her nails today and now, as I’m peeling potatoes, looking out the kitchen window, I watch Tamsin in the yard with the young girls. She is near the vegetable garden, squatting down and pointing at something in the earth. The children stand and watch.

The peeler catches on my knuckle and a pearl of blood seeps from the flap of skin, distracting me momentarily. When I look back up I see Tamsin rise and strike one of the younger girls. It’s so sudden, like a cat’s paw. The girl clutches her cheek as Tamsin stands over her. Tamsin slaps the child once more, then shoves her to the ground. The other children remain completely still.

I know the heat of those slaps.

I turn my gaze towards the Shed. Adam is there with our newest sister, Asha. Anton is in there, too, and Adrienne.

How different will Asha’s life be here with us in the Clearing? I think about the road she was walking along to her old house. If it was so bad there, why would she keep walking back?

But I chase the thought out of my head. That is a deviant thought, something evil. It is my duty to confess thoughts like this, to be purged, or they might burn me up inside. We only have room for the Truth. Deviant thoughts will bring about the apocalypse for our little world.

In The Clearing by J. P. Pomare (Hachette Australia), out Dec. 31, RRP $32.99.