Read Online The Death House by Sarah Pinborough - Free Book Online
Authors: Sarah Pinborough
Ads: Link
school,’ I say, wanting to change the subject. ‘I heard your dad is a Black Suit.’
‘Oh, my school was definitely posh,’ she says. She plays with a strand of her hair, pulling it straight upwards. It’s so long her pale arm is nearly straight. ‘One of the very best, of course. But I didn’t board there. You can’t control someone if you send them away and I had to be the perfect daughter. If they’d sent me away I’d have been free to be myself.’ She smiles. ‘That’s bitten them on the arse now, hasn’t it? I’m locked away and Defective. My poor father. You should have seen his face when they came. It was almost worth it. I think he was already wondering how he could contain the information. He’s probably told the world I’ve died in some tragic accident. And convinced himself it’s true.’
There’s a pause after that. I had imagined her life to be fairy-tale-princess spoiled.
‘He sounds like a bit of a wanker,’ I say, eventually.
‘He’s a politician. They all are, aren’t they?’ She sighs. ‘He wasn’t always that bad. He was fine until I was about five; they both were. They just wanted too much for me.’ I glance at her and her face is taut and serious in the memory for a moment and then the furrows in her brow disappear. ‘What was your school like?’ she asks.
‘Pretty average,’ I say. Jonesy and Billy and Julie McKendrick rise up in my mind like ghosts. ‘Normal. Boring, mainly.’ I don’t want to think about it. Long, hot days playing football and dicking around. In the cold night, even with Clara beside me and my stomach flipping and tingling in ways I wish I could control, I’d give everything to go back to that. I’d walk away and leave them all to die here without a second thought if I could just go home, whole and healthy. Their names would be forgotten in days.
They say it makes your eyes bleed.
I think there’s been a mistake.
From outside we can still hear the engine running and people crossing the gravel. ‘That truck must have come here by boat, like we did,’ I say. ‘If there was a road, we’d have taken it. Louis reckons we’re on an island. He’s probably right.’
‘We should explore it one night. Go over the wall.’
This time it’s me who turns my head to stare. ‘Yeah, right.’
‘I’m serious.’ She looks back at me, her eyes sparkling. ‘Why not? Who’s going to know?’
‘Didn’t you listen to what Jake said happened to the two boys who tried to run away?’
‘Yes, but we won’t be running away. We’ll just be going out for a while and then we’ll come back. And we won’t get caught.’
Our faces are so close that our noses are almost touching and my stomach flips again, dipping down into my groin. I know what’s happening there and will it to stop. She’s just an ordinary girl. Not even hot like Julie McKendrick. Until two hours ago I didn’t even like her much. I’m still not sure I do. She’s like a creature at the bottom of a motionless ocean, dredging up the mud as she moves through it, making everything hard to see. Life at the house was clear-cut until she arrived. She’s changing things.
‘We should go tomorrow night.’ She looks back up at the ceiling, decided. ‘There’s no time like the present, is there? Live for the moment and all that.’
‘You’re crazy,’ I say.
We lie there in silence for a while, and soon we both drift into a doze. When I next open my eyes, grey light is washing the sky and the truck is gone. The house is quiet. I creep out of the bed, not wanting to wake Clara, and as an afterthought I turn around and rearrange the covers so she’ll stay warm. She half-smiles then, sleepily, as she snuggles down, her eyes closed.
‘I told you,’ she slurs quietly.
‘Told me what?’ I whisper.
‘That it would be more fun together.’
I leave her there and creep back to my dorm. If the nurses and Matron are still awake there’s no sign of it, nor of their nocturnal
‘Oh, my school was definitely posh,’ she says. She plays with a strand of her hair, pulling it straight upwards. It’s so long her pale arm is nearly straight. ‘One of the very best, of course. But I didn’t board there. You can’t control someone if you send them away and I had to be the perfect daughter. If they’d sent me away I’d have been free to be myself.’ She smiles. ‘That’s bitten them on the arse now, hasn’t it? I’m locked away and Defective. My poor father. You should have seen his face when they came. It was almost worth it. I think he was already wondering how he could contain the information. He’s probably told the world I’ve died in some tragic accident. And convinced himself it’s true.’
There’s a pause after that. I had imagined her life to be fairy-tale-princess spoiled.
‘He sounds like a bit of a wanker,’ I say, eventually.
‘He’s a politician. They all are, aren’t they?’ She sighs. ‘He wasn’t always that bad. He was fine until I was about five; they both were. They just wanted too much for me.’ I glance at her and her face is taut and serious in the memory for a moment and then the furrows in her brow disappear. ‘What was your school like?’ she asks.
‘Pretty average,’ I say. Jonesy and Billy and Julie McKendrick rise up in my mind like ghosts. ‘Normal. Boring, mainly.’ I don’t want to think about it. Long, hot days playing football and dicking around. In the cold night, even with Clara beside me and my stomach flipping and tingling in ways I wish I could control, I’d give everything to go back to that. I’d walk away and leave them all to die here without a second thought if I could just go home, whole and healthy. Their names would be forgotten in days.
They say it makes your eyes bleed.
I think there’s been a mistake.
From outside we can still hear the engine running and people crossing the gravel. ‘That truck must have come here by boat, like we did,’ I say. ‘If there was a road, we’d have taken it. Louis reckons we’re on an island. He’s probably right.’
‘We should explore it one night. Go over the wall.’
This time it’s me who turns my head to stare. ‘Yeah, right.’
‘I’m serious.’ She looks back at me, her eyes sparkling. ‘Why not? Who’s going to know?’
‘Didn’t you listen to what Jake said happened to the two boys who tried to run away?’
‘Yes, but we won’t be running away. We’ll just be going out for a while and then we’ll come back. And we won’t get caught.’
Our faces are so close that our noses are almost touching and my stomach flips again, dipping down into my groin. I know what’s happening there and will it to stop. She’s just an ordinary girl. Not even hot like Julie McKendrick. Until two hours ago I didn’t even like her much. I’m still not sure I do. She’s like a creature at the bottom of a motionless ocean, dredging up the mud as she moves through it, making everything hard to see. Life at the house was clear-cut until she arrived. She’s changing things.
‘We should go tomorrow night.’ She looks back up at the ceiling, decided. ‘There’s no time like the present, is there? Live for the moment and all that.’
‘You’re crazy,’ I say.
We lie there in silence for a while, and soon we both drift into a doze. When I next open my eyes, grey light is washing the sky and the truck is gone. The house is quiet. I creep out of the bed, not wanting to wake Clara, and as an afterthought I turn around and rearrange the covers so she’ll stay warm. She half-smiles then, sleepily, as she snuggles down, her eyes closed.
‘I told you,’ she slurs quietly.
‘Told me what?’ I whisper.
‘That it would be more fun together.’
I leave her there and creep back to my dorm. If the nurses and Matron are still awake there’s no sign of it, nor of their nocturnal
Similar Books
