Read Online Vengeance Child by Simon Clark - Free Book Online Page B

near darkness. With the gloom came silence. All he heard was the thump of his feet and the rush of his breath through his mouth. Every so often he caught a glimpse of gold fur. The animal fluidly weaved around the tree trunks. Oddly, it had the appearance of sliding along the earth rather than running.
    â€˜Here, boy, here, boy.’ Archer panted the words as if calling a dog. ‘Then ready with the mighty spear, O warrior.’ He laughed as he recited a line from a comic he’d once read. ‘I will smite you . . .’ Then in a darker, more savage voice, he added, ‘I’ll rip off your face and stuff it down your throat.’
    The deer bolted down a tunnel made out of tangled bushes. Archer followed. When he saw what was there he cried out. What was more, when he stopped dead he tumbled forward on to his knees. Instantly, the excitement bled out of him. Archer no longer felt like the powerful warrior – all muscly arms and fierce as a lion. From where he knelt he stared in shock at a face that gazed at him from the shadows. Its eyes possessed hard, glittery flashes that radiated pure menace.
    â€˜Archer.’
    Archer forgot all about hunting the Saban.
    â€˜Archer.’
    The boy shuffled round as part of his plan to run away, only his legs had gone so watery he couldn’t stand. The face got closer. It seemed to drift out of the shadows, disconnected from any body. A fiery face with burning eyes. A terrifying ghost face.
    â€˜Archer.’
    â€˜Jay, don’t keep saying my name.’ Archer pulled his knees up to his chest. ‘Don’t you dare!’
    â€˜I’m going to show you something.’ Jay’s voice didn’t even seem to issue out of those pale lips. Instead it oozed out of the earth. Or so it seemed to Archer. ‘You’ve got to come with me for a little walk.’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜Archer . . .’
    â€˜I told you not to say my name . . . you witch. I know when you keep saying someone’s name over and over, then something rotten happens to them. Look what you did to Maureen. She’s dead. You killed her.’
    â€˜We’re going for a little walk.’ Jay spoke in a dull, lifeless way. The face had no expression. It hung there in the gloom. Archer wanted to run back to the farm. He needed to be back with his friends so much he ached inside. Because he knew Jay would do something that would be so horrible that he, Archer, would be sick with terror. Jay took a step forward. Now there was enough light to reveal the boy’s delicate build. His arms hung loose. The fingers seemed so long that they stretched down toward his knees in a way that couldn’t be natural. Archer knew that Jay wasn’t normal. Then he had no doubt that Jay wasn’t even human. Those ghastly things he did to people. He repeated their name one day then the person would suffer an accident the next, or go so crazy like Tod that the police locked him up.
    Jay gazed down at Archer. ‘You never told me about your dad.’
    â€˜Why should I?’ Then he added with a desperate attempt at defiance, ‘Witch.’
    â€˜You told the others.’
    â€˜I’m not saying anything to you. Creep.’
    â€˜Archer. You hate me.’
    â€˜That’s dead right. Now, I’m going back to the others.’
    Jay shook his head. ‘We’ve got to go for a walk first.’
    â€˜No!’
    Jay didn’t seem put out by the refusal. ‘Your father died.’
    Archer got more angry than scared. ‘He got shot by his friends. They robbed money from a bank to buy drugs. My dad cheated them. They came to the house. When he opened the door they –’ Archer pointed his finger at Jay’s face – ‘blam-blam. Satisfied?’
    For a moment there was silence. Neither of them moved. The gloom grew more intense, the smell of damp soil became stifling. Archer found himself suddenly