Read Online Dead Angels by Tim O'Rourke - Free Book Online Page B

“You’ll forgive me, won’t you, holy-girl?” he laughed, and then slapped Melody’s cheek hard with the back of his right hand. Looking at his friends, he said, “C’mon, you two.”
    I watched the three of them skulk away down the alley, making whooping noises and slapping one another across the back. All the while, Melody just stared ahead, her back flat against the wall, her hands knotted by her sides.
    When they had gone, Melody bent down onto the knees of her dress and started to gather up the beads. I watched her for a moment or two, not knowing whether I should leave my hiding place or not. Would it bother her if she thought I had seen everything that had happened? Would she be embarrassed? But watching Melody silently crawl along the ground in search of the beads made me feel weird. I felt sad for her. Why? I didn’t even know her. She meant nothing to me.
    Just watching the plain-looking girl in the plain-looking dress crawling around on all fours wasn’t right, and what they had done to her wasn’t right, either. So, creeping from behind the rubbish bins, I bent down on all fours and started to gather the beads. They were black in colour and about the same size as peas. Each of them was shiny and had a hole through the middle where they had been attached to the chain. I picked up all that I could find and took them to Melody, who was still on her hands and knees some way down the alleyway.
    “Here you go,” I said, holding my hand out.
    Melody didn’t say anything back to me. She didn’t even stop searching for the remainder of the beads.
    “I’ve got some of your beads,” I told her, and again she said nothing. So placing the beads in a neat pile on the ground, I said, “Suit yourself.”
    I turned my back on her and walked away.
     
    I made my way back through the town, wondering what else I might see. Not wanting to go too far on my very first day above ground, just in case I couldn’t find my way back to the grate in the woods, it wasn’t long before I was heading back down the road and out of town. I couldn’t be sure of the exact place that I had stepped from in the woods and onto the road, so finding a narrow path on my right, I followed it. Trees stretched up on either side of me, and I wandered slowly, taking in the sounds and the smells that were all new to me. After walking for some time, the trees thinned out and I found myself standing on the shore of a giant lake.
    There was a short stretch of sand with an outcrop of rocks that jutted out into the water like a giant finger. I didn’t know exactly where I was, but I guessed this was Lake Lure. As I stood on the brown coloured sand, I looked out across the flat, dark surface of the lake and towards a jagged row of mountains in the distance, their peaks flecked with snow.
    It was quiet there; I could have been the only person alive. I decided to stay for a while, and sat down on the stretch of sand. As I sat and stared out across the lake, I felt bad for Melody and what had happened to her. Taking a handful of stones, I picked out the smoothest ones and skimmed them across the surface of the lake. And as I watched the last of them bounce across the water, I heard a noise in the trees behind me. Turning, I saw Melody looking back at me from just inside the tree line. At first she startled me, and I wondered what she was doing there. I stood up, brushed the sand from the seat of my trousers, and started to walk away in the opposite direction.
    I’d only taken a few steps when I heard her call after me.
    “Wait! Don’t go,” she said.
    I stopped, and turning, I looked at her.
    She stepped clear of the tree line and into the light of the fading sun and made her way up the shore towards me. When she was just a few feet away, Melody put her hands into the deep pocket on the front of her apron. She looked uncomfortable, and a few stringy wisps of hair that had escaped from her bun tossed back and forth in the breeze. She didn’t look