Read Online The Twilight Prisoner by Katherine Marsh - Free Book Online Page B

Cora. “And Euri doesn’t age, right? When did she die?”
    Jack understood. “You’re right. They must be around the same age.”
    It was hard to believe that now, though, since the man’s face was lean and defined with the beginnings of a scruffy beard. Euri, in her school uniform and messy ponytail, looked half his age, but Jack knew if she were still alive she, too, would be in her early twenties. As she zoomed over to the light switch and turned it on and off, Jack wondered why the man didn’t run out screaming into the night. Instead he sat quietly with his guitar in the flickering light. Euri looked annoyed by his lack of reaction. She reached into the pocket of her jacket and threw something on the floor. It began to hiss loudly like a tiny steam pipe and then quickly scampered into a pile of dirty clothes.
    â€œWas that a cockroach?” Cora asked recoiling from the window.
    â€œA Madagascar Hissing Cockroach,” Jack corrected.
    Cora screwed up her face. “That’s nasty!”
    Jack tried to look disgusted, too, but he couldn’t suppress a smile. “I guess we know why Euri went to the museum.” He pointed to another hardy-looking roach clinging to the side of the sink and hissing furiously. “Something tells me this isn’t the first time she’s donated a specimen.”
    The living man either ignored the new cockroach or didn’t see it. He continued to sit stooped and listless over his guitar.
    â€œI hate you!” Euri screamed.
    â€œThis isn’t right,” Cora whispered. “We’ve got to stop her.”
    â€œI . . . HATE . . . YOU!” Euri shrieked, forcing Jack to cover his ears. He peered at a group of living hipsters hanging out on a stoop below. Not a single one looked up.
    â€œI... HATE ...”
    Cora let go of Jack’s hand and, before he could stop her, she opened the window and scrambled through it. Grabbing Euri by the shoulders, she spoke quietly but firmly. “Stop it!”
    Jack flinched, expecting a fight. But, to his surprise, Euri’s angry red-faced expression changed into something resembling shame. She looked down at the floor. The man on the bed stood up, turned off the gushing faucet and, with a troubled sigh, closed the window that Cora had left open. For a moment, no one spoke.
    Suddenly, a small boy flew through the closed window with a canvas bag on his back, waving a newspaper in his hand. “New Underworld Security Alert!” he shouted. “Mann Down exclusive! Read all about it in a special edition of The Underworld Times !!”
    The boy tossed a paper to each of them and then looked around at the trashed apartment. “You haven’t been haunting, have you?”
    â€œNo,” said Jack and Euri simultaneously. The newsboy winked at them and flew back through the window. “Jack,” said Cora, clutching his arm and pointing to the column.
    LIVING AVENGER ON THE LOOSE?
    A MANN DOWN EXCLUSIVE!
Mann Down has just learned that the underworld security team has issued a new alert after receiving information about a potential “living threat.”
    Is the security team finally admitting that the Living Avenger is running rampant through the underworld?
    Speaking with Mann Down earlier this evening, newly appointed Security Commissioner, Stephen Kennedy, refused to comment, instead urging the public to remain calm but vigilant. “We have stationed guards at all streams and ports of entry into and out of the underworld for the next four days,” he said.
    Cora sank to the floor. “I can’t stay here for four days!”
    â€œActually you can’t stay here for more than—”
    Before Euri could finish the sentence, Jack shot her a fierce look. Cora looked frantic enough as it was. If she found out that they would automatically be dead after more than three days in the underworld, she would really panic.
    â€œFor more than