Read Online Deadly Games by Anthony Masters - Free Book Online

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    Till we’re alone.”
    The words bubbled from May’s mouth as she swam closer.
    You’re not Sid’s innocents, thought Jenny suddenly, the revelation spreading through her. You’re something else.
    â€œWe’ll rule the home
    Till we’re alone.”
    May locked her hands around Jenny’s waist and began to drag her down to the very depths of thepool. Jenny thought her lungs were going to burst. Then, to her amazement, she saw Gumbo swimming underwater, its whiskers flattened by the slipstream.
    May’s face was pressed against Jenny’s now, cold and soft. She was giggling as if all this were a friendly game in a swimming pool.
    You’re drowning me
, pleaded Jenny in her mind.
    We like this place, said the child’s voice, chuckling inside her. It’s only a bit of fun. Just fun, fun, fun, fun, fun … The word repeated itself as Jenny and May sank even lower, descending to a mass of slime at the bottom of the pool.
    I can’t breathe
, Jenny pleaded.
You must let me go. I can’t breathe
.
    Rats, said May’s voice in her mind. I like rats. We play with rats.
    Gumbo was swimming nearer. Will it really help us? wondered Jenny. She could feel blood pounding in her ears, and knew she couldn’t hold out much longer. There was a great dark red wall forming in front of her eyes and she wanted to give up, to open her mouth and let in the cold steel of the water.
    The rat swam between them and May suddenly let Jenny’s waist go. Then she began to swim in circles, trying to catch Gumbo’s tail.
    The twins emerged spluttering, straining for theglorious stale air of the tunnel. Sid’s pale, unshaven face stared down at them, wide-eyed with fear.
    â€œI thought you two was goners.”
    â€œGumbo can only hold them off for so long,” David gasped. Now he was no longer under the spell of the water, he swam decisively around the pool, searching for a foothold. Jenny joined him, conscious all the time of the possible return of May and Leslie. Had they persecuted Mrs Garland? What had she done to them? Despite her predicament, despite her frenzied shivering, the thoughts raged around Jenny’s haunted mind.
    â€œHere,” said David, suddenly triumphant, his breath coming in short gasps. “I’ve found a shelf.”
    He dragged himself up, grabbing at the steep, hard-packed earth, managing to balance precariously up to his knees in the freezing water. David was shivering violently, his lips blue, as he gazed frantically upwards. “Maybe we could get another foothold,” he muttered as Jenny pulled herself up beside him. “This bank’s got more of a slope to it.”
    Jenny gazed up doubtfully. “Not much more.”
    But the pale light was already waning and the twins both knew that they had only minutes before being plunged back into pitch darkness.
    â€œSid,” yelled David. “Where are you?”
    â€œOver here,” came the tremulous reply.
    â€œYou OK?”
    â€œI’m all right. What about you?”
    â€œAs well as could be expected after a fight with ghosts in a freezing pool,” David replied with angry sarcasm.
    â€œYou saw them?” Sid croaked, with a sentimentality that was infuriating.
    â€œThey’re
awful
!” David snapped.
    â€œNaughty kids, that’s all – that’s all they’ve ever been.” Sid was defensive.
    David and Jenny knew that they didn’t have time to argue with him, for the pallid light had almost gone. They would have to climb, taking the risk of the bank simply crumbling away and throwing them back into the deadly chill of the ghost-ridden water.
    â€œYou seen my Gumbo?” wheezed Sid.
    â€œThe rat can look after itself,” said Jenny callously, guiltily aware that it had just saved their lives.
    The climb was terrifying, for the packed earth became unstable directly the twins took hold of it. Sections crumbled away