Read Online The Power of Five Oblivion by Anthony Horowitz - Free Book Online

box had been left behind and it was alien, like a visitor from a forgotten world. I had been in the forest loads of times and I was amazed that I had never seen it, but then, I had never come this way. How had Miss Keyland known it was there? Could it possibly be still connected?
    We watched her go in. She opened and shut the heavy door behind her. Some of the little square panes of glass were broken but we were too far away to hear what she said. She dialled a number and began to talk. The conversation couldn’t have lasted more than a couple of minutes and then she hung up and came out again, retracing her steps and passing so close to us that I was certain she would see us. But her thoughts must have been on what she had just done. She was inches away from us but she didn’t look down or stop.
    We waited until we were sure she had gone.
    “I knew it,” Jamie said. “She’s told them I’m here.”
    “Told who?”
    “The police. The Old Ones. It doesn’t matter. They could be the same.”
    “What now?” I asked, although I already knew the answer.
    “They’ll come for me. Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow. I can’t stay in the village.” He looked at me and I was shaken to see how scared he was. “They’ll punish you for taking me in, Holly. You, Rita, John and George. They’ll punish the whole village.”
    “We didn’t do anything wrong.”
    “You don’t know them.” Jamie closed his eyes, suddenly tired. He opened them again. “I should go now.”
    “You can’t!” I said. “You’ll never find your way through the forest. Even in the day it’s hard enough.” I looked up. The sun was already dipping. Why did the days have to be so short? Already the treetops seemed to be closing in on us and if we didn’t go back to the village soon, we’d be stuck out here ourselves.
    “I don’t want to bring trouble to you,” Jamie said.
    He sounded so sad that I made up my mind. “Wait here,” I said.
    “Where are you going?”
    “We don’t know that the telephone is connected. And if it is, how do we know she called the police? I’m not even sure there are any police any more.”
    “No, Holly!”
    But he was too late. I had already got to my feet and was making my way over to the telephone box. I could feel my heart pounding. It was such an ordinary thing … or at least, it had been. But at the same time there was something strange and horrible about it – the thick, mottled glass, the bright crimson paint. As I approached, it could have been a spaceship that had landed here and was waiting to swallow me up and carry me away.
    I opened the door. It was even heavier than I had imagined. The floor was a slab of concrete. There was a black telephone clinging to a panel above a box with a narrow slot to take a credit card, the little pieces of plastic that people had once used instead of money. A thick wire curled down from the handset. I didn’t want to touch any of it. I couldn’t even remember the last time I had made a telephone call – if I ever had. All I wanted to do was see if the phone was working.
    I picked up the receiver, solid and strange in my hand. One end for the ear, the other for the mouth. I held it against my head but there was no sound. What now? There were buttons marked one to nine with a zero beneath. Once there might have been instructions but someone had taken them away. I looked through the window and saw Jamie waiting for me anxiously. The glass twisted him out of focus. It was as if he were bleeding into the forest around him.
    What number was I meant to dial? The receiver was still pressed against my ear. Of course … it was 999. Everyone knew that. But before I had a chance to do anything, a voice spoke to me … a woman’s voice, not old, not young. She sounded almost bored.
    “Hello?” There was a pause. “Who is this?”
    I didn’t know what to say. Already I was wishing that I had listened to Jamie and hadn’t gone into the kiosk. I wanted to put the phone