Read Online Hello Darkness by Anthony McGowan - Free Book Online Page A

hot as phosphorous. “They’ll say it was me. They’ll say it’s happening again, they’ll say it’s because I’m a…”
    “You’re no witch. Any more than I’m a psycho. OK, then, we need some time to think this over. Lock the door. We can—”
    And then I heard something that I should have been expecting, given the way things were going.
    “LOCKER INSPECTION!”

CHAPTER TWELVE
A N A CT OF G ALLANTRY
    A couple of times a term the Shank would prowl down the locker corridor, looking for trouble. He had a master key to all the lockers, but he liked to pick on some poor, furtive, sweating kid, and get him or her to open their own locker. The Shank would almost look disappointed if he didn’t find something nasty in there. And if he did find some contraband – a dirty book, maybe, or some of the unhealthy snacks he’d banned from the school – then the victim would get the full blast of his wrath. There was a story that the Shank had once made a kid lick his locker clean when he found it grimed with football-field mud and mouldy cake crumbs.
    The Shank was still at the far end of the corridor. Kids quailed and melted before him, avoiding eye contact, lest he pick on them. He walked on, ignoring them all, his tread heavy and ominous. There were three prefects with him – Funt and Bosola, of course, plus a creepy, lanky kid called Spode. They smacked heads and kicked butts behind the Shank’s back.
    Then he saw me, and the hard lines of a frown burnt themselves into his forehead. I knew there was more to his presence here than mere coincidence.
    “Shut your locker and get behind me,” I said to Zofia, hardly moving my lips. Her hands fumbled with the key. She was a tough cookie, but the Shank ate souls. I took the key from her, and she slipped back between me and the lockers, brushing my body and filling my head with her scent.
    On marched the Shank. I made myself meet his eye. It was like staring at the sun.
    Suddenly, about ten lockers away, he stopped, and turned upon a bird-like creature who was cowering against the yellow metal doors.
    “You, girl! Open up.”
    There was something odd about this. There was no relish or anticipation in the Shank’s manner. He was just going through the motions. The girl opened the locker and stood back, but the Shank hardly looked inside.
    “Tidy that up,” he said with a wave, and on he came.
    Behind him, Bosola added a little wave of his own – a backhand slap that knocked the girl against the wall. Spode grinned his creepy grin. When he smiled all you could see was wet gum.
    This was no random check. It was obvious that the Shank had been tipped off. It was equally obvious that it was me he was after. Even though I was clean, and there was nothing in my locker, I felt the panic rise in my gorge, like a bad curry. Innocence wasn’t always a defence against the Shank.
    Then I thought of Zofia. Maybe this wasn’t about me. It could be that she had enemies of her own. The Shank hated the goths and the emos. He wasn’t the only one. She needed a friend. I had to protect her.
    I put my back against the lockers, not even glancing at Zofia, and I believe I may well have started to whistle. I was trying to look like someone who was trying to look innocent. Meaning someone who had something to hide. My thinking was to draw the Shank to my locker and away from Zofia’s.
    It worked. The Shank walked right up to me. Then he ran his eyes over a printed sheet in his hands. It was a list of names and numbers. He had that grim little executioner’s smile on his face. For the first time I noticed that he was a couple of inches shorter than me.
    “You,” he said. “What a surprise.”
    “Life’s full of them.”
    “Open up.”
    “There’s n–nothing in there,” I said, trying to sound scared.
    Funt and Bosola bared their teeth like jackals. They were expecting meat. Spode showed his gums.
    “You open that locker this instant, sonny,” said the Shank, excitement and