Read Online Bad Dreams by Anne Fine - Free Book Online

wear?’
    â€˜Well, we were in posh seats. So I wore my blue top and red velvet skirt.’
    â€˜What about jewellery?’
    She thought back. ‘Earrings. And my necklace, of course, because I’d just been given that. Oh, yes. And my swirly snake ring.’
    â€˜If there’s time, check twice ,’ says Mr Hooper. So on the way out of my cubicle, I pulled my new library book out of my bag and rested it on top, ready. Then I made sure that when Mum undid her handbag, I was at her side.
    â€˜Here you are, Mel,’ she said, holding my watch out. But I ignored it totally, and slipped my hand inside her bag, to fish out the necklace.
    Again, it was cold, and almost too slinky to the touch. I didn’t drop it, though. I kept a grip as I held it out towards Imogen and pretended to stumble. And, as I fell, I laid my hand flat on the library book.
    Wolf!

    Such a howling! I could barely hear for baying in my ears. And sounds of yelping and snapping. It was horrible .
    â€˜Mel? Sweetheart?’
    I’d sunk to my knees, my hand still flat on the book. Mum offered me the water bottle she was holding.
    â€˜You look quite faint, love. Have a sip of this.’
    She pushed the water closer and I went berserk. Flailing out wildly, I dashed the plastic bottle from her hand and sent it rolling over the tiles.

    â€˜No!’ I screamed. ‘No! Get it away from me!’
    â€˜Mel, what’s the matter ?’
    Mum’s face was close, her arms were tight, and though they’ve told me since that I was screaming, inside my head it didn’t sound like proper screams. More like a howling.
    Mum kicked my bag away to drop beside me on the floor. ‘Mel? Mel!’
    At once, the shaking lessened. The awful noises in my ears began to fade. Imogen insisted after that it was only a few seconds at most before my echoing screams turned into sobs. I wouldn’t know. The only way that I remember it, there were no sobs at all, just a horrible whining and whimpering, and, as I gradually realized that Mum was holding me and I was safe, the most peculiar leftover feeling of sick unease.
    Mum pushed my hair from my face. ‘Melly? Are you all right now? Can you walk?’
    I shook off the last pricklings of terror.
    â€˜I’ll be fine. Really.’
    Imogen reached for my bag. ‘I’ll carry this.’
    I nodded, and thrust the hateful necklace into her hand. ‘Here, take this too.’
    â€˜Thanks.’
    She rushed ahead to push at the revolving door. Mum kept her arm around me as I stumbled through. And I was glad that Imogen had already spilled out of the doorway into the car park, safely out of hearing, when Mum, still very worried, said to me, ‘Mel, that was terrifying . You looked positively haunted .’
    That night, still feeling shaky, I pulled Wolf! out of my bag and settled down to it. You don’t have to be the greatest reader in the world to know what’s coming. It was about a pack of wolves during the summer one of them caught hydrophobia – a mortal fear of water. Even as I was reading, I could hear echoes of the ghastly howling deep in my head.

    â€˜ And, if it’s really important ,’ Mr Hooper says, ‘ and you have time, check it a third time .’ So maybe I really should have found some way to get the necklace in my hand again, and touch a photo, to see if, out of nowhere, I suddenly knew something I shouldn’t.
    But I couldn’t face it. For one thing, it was obvious the necklace worked even more fiercely on strangers than on the people who owned it. When I touched Wolf! , it had whipped up a storm of a vision. If it had ever worked even one half as vividly for Mrs Tate or Imogen, they would have realized its powers in a flash.
    Or . . .
    It was the creepiest thought yet. Maybe the necklace recognized its enemies. Maybe it sensed when someone hated it and thought the whole idea of seeing the future was sick