Read Online Blood Beast by Darren Shan - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Darren Shan
Tags: JUV001000
Ads: Link
on the rock. A slight bulging. A shadow grows out of it, just for a second, then disappears.
I fall backwards, stifling a scream, heart racing.
Eyes fixed to the rock, waiting for it to change again. A minute passes. Two.
I get to my feet, legs
very
shaky, and climb out of the hole, not looking back. I make for home quickly, head down, striding through the forest, ignoring the twigs, stones, and thorns that jab at my bare feet.
Trying hard not to think about what I saw (or thought I saw). But I can’t block it out. It keeps coming back, rattling round the inside of my skull like a rabid rat in a cage.
The flicker. . . the bulging. . . the shadow. . .
It might have been a trick of the light or my skittish mind, but it looked to me like a face was trying to force its way up through the rock from the other side. A human face. A
girl’s.
Hard Work
N O sign of Dervish in the morning. He’s normally an early riser, so I guess he’s still suffering from his binge drinking this weekend. I want to wake him, tell him about my inner turmoil, the magic, the howling, what happened at the hole. But instead I decide to let him sleep in and get his head together. We’ll discuss it when I come home after school, when he can think and focus clearly.
Scrubbing hard in the bathroom. The dirt doesn’t want to come off. Especially bad under my nails. Without wanting to, I think about grave diggers — their hands must be stained like this all the time.
Looking up when I’ve scraped them as clean as I can. My reflection in the mirror. Remembering the face I saw/ imagined in the rock. Something about it bugs me. It’s not just the fact that there shouldn’t have been a face in the rock at all. There’s something more. . . something else. . . .
I’m on my way out the front door when it strikes me. The face looked ever so slightly like my dead sister, Gret.
The day passes slowly, as if I’m experiencing it second-hand, watching somebody else’s body going through the motions of a normal school day. Talking with Charlie, Leon, and Shannon. Greeting Reni with a big smile when she arrives with Loch. Making light of my friends’ compliments about the party. Shrugging off the incident with the bottle — “A good magician never reveals his secrets.”
Bill-E turns up. I know he’s itching to discuss the cave with Loch and me, but we can’t speak of it in front of the others, so he slides past silently. Loch yells an insult after him, meaner than usual, maybe to cover up the fact that he’s become Bill-E’s secret ally.
Classes don’t interest me. The teachers could be ghosts for all the impression they make. Fading in and out of conversations between classes and at lunch. The major part of my mind stuck on the twists of the last few nights, the hole I’ve dug, the face in the rock, the beast I’m apparently becoming.
Heading back to class after the lunch bell. Loch and I are by ourselves. Bill-E hurries up to us and says quietly, “Still on for after school?”
“Sure,” Loch says.
“No.” Both stare at me. “Dervish wants me home,” I lie. “Not sure what it’s about. Maybe something valuable got smashed at the party.”
Loch winces. “Bad luck. Guess it’s just me and Spleenio then.” He pinches Bill-E’s cheek.
“Get off !” Bill-E yelps, pulling away, rubbing his cheek. “That hurt.”
“Sue me,” Loch laughs.
Bill-E turns his back on him. “Maybe you can come later?” he asks me.
“I doubt it.” I sigh.
Bill-E looks worried. “Perhaps I’ll cancel too, leave it till tomorrow.”
“No, you don’t,” Loch grunts. “If you back out now, you stay out. This is a joint venture. If you don’t pull your weight — and I know that’s a heavy load to pull, you chubby little freak — get lost. We don’t need free riders.”
Bill-E’s fists ball up. The rage inside him froths to the surface. I think he’s finally going to go for Loch and I silently will him on. If he fights back,
I fall backwards, stifling a scream, heart racing.
Eyes fixed to the rock, waiting for it to change again. A minute passes. Two.
I get to my feet, legs
very
shaky, and climb out of the hole, not looking back. I make for home quickly, head down, striding through the forest, ignoring the twigs, stones, and thorns that jab at my bare feet.
Trying hard not to think about what I saw (or thought I saw). But I can’t block it out. It keeps coming back, rattling round the inside of my skull like a rabid rat in a cage.
The flicker. . . the bulging. . . the shadow. . .
It might have been a trick of the light or my skittish mind, but it looked to me like a face was trying to force its way up through the rock from the other side. A human face. A
girl’s.
Hard Work
N O sign of Dervish in the morning. He’s normally an early riser, so I guess he’s still suffering from his binge drinking this weekend. I want to wake him, tell him about my inner turmoil, the magic, the howling, what happened at the hole. But instead I decide to let him sleep in and get his head together. We’ll discuss it when I come home after school, when he can think and focus clearly.
Scrubbing hard in the bathroom. The dirt doesn’t want to come off. Especially bad under my nails. Without wanting to, I think about grave diggers — their hands must be stained like this all the time.
Looking up when I’ve scraped them as clean as I can. My reflection in the mirror. Remembering the face I saw/ imagined in the rock. Something about it bugs me. It’s not just the fact that there shouldn’t have been a face in the rock at all. There’s something more. . . something else. . . .
I’m on my way out the front door when it strikes me. The face looked ever so slightly like my dead sister, Gret.
The day passes slowly, as if I’m experiencing it second-hand, watching somebody else’s body going through the motions of a normal school day. Talking with Charlie, Leon, and Shannon. Greeting Reni with a big smile when she arrives with Loch. Making light of my friends’ compliments about the party. Shrugging off the incident with the bottle — “A good magician never reveals his secrets.”
Bill-E turns up. I know he’s itching to discuss the cave with Loch and me, but we can’t speak of it in front of the others, so he slides past silently. Loch yells an insult after him, meaner than usual, maybe to cover up the fact that he’s become Bill-E’s secret ally.
Classes don’t interest me. The teachers could be ghosts for all the impression they make. Fading in and out of conversations between classes and at lunch. The major part of my mind stuck on the twists of the last few nights, the hole I’ve dug, the face in the rock, the beast I’m apparently becoming.
Heading back to class after the lunch bell. Loch and I are by ourselves. Bill-E hurries up to us and says quietly, “Still on for after school?”
“Sure,” Loch says.
“No.” Both stare at me. “Dervish wants me home,” I lie. “Not sure what it’s about. Maybe something valuable got smashed at the party.”
Loch winces. “Bad luck. Guess it’s just me and Spleenio then.” He pinches Bill-E’s cheek.
“Get off !” Bill-E yelps, pulling away, rubbing his cheek. “That hurt.”
“Sue me,” Loch laughs.
Bill-E turns his back on him. “Maybe you can come later?” he asks me.
“I doubt it.” I sigh.
Bill-E looks worried. “Perhaps I’ll cancel too, leave it till tomorrow.”
“No, you don’t,” Loch grunts. “If you back out now, you stay out. This is a joint venture. If you don’t pull your weight — and I know that’s a heavy load to pull, you chubby little freak — get lost. We don’t need free riders.”
Bill-E’s fists ball up. The rage inside him froths to the surface. I think he’s finally going to go for Loch and I silently will him on. If he fights back,
Similar Books
