[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.“.not a scratch on him, he’s a lucky little devil, wandering around the grounds with no shoes or socks on.It’s funny because he’s never sleepwalked before, but the doctor says it’s a childhood thing, and he should grow out of it.Imagine him opening his window fast asleep, though, and just climbing out! I’ve never seen him do that wide awake.”Maddy listened, a cold feeling settling in the pit of her stomach.The bread turned dry and lumpy in her mouth.Sleepwalking? she thought.They think Stephen was sleepwalking?“What about the boy who was outside the window last night?” she asked.“Oh sure, Maddy, you were doing a bit of sleepwalking yourself last night.You just got your dreams mixed up, that’s all.” Mrs.Forest laughed.“Faeries indeed! Your granda is going to have a hard time living that one down in the pub.”She heard heavy footsteps in the hall and the sound of men’s voices.“That’ll be the doctor,” said Mrs.Forest, before rushing into the hallway to talk to him.As the doctor and Stephen’s parents stood by the front door, Maddy quietly eased herself up from her chair and slipped into the little boy’s room.She pushed the door back, not knowing what to expect, and let out a sigh of relief when she saw Stephen’s little figure sitting up in his bed.The rain poured down the window, and it made the blue walls look as if they were underwater, as the patterns of the storm played over every surface.“Stephen?” she whispered.He didn’t look up.She walked into the room and sat on the end of his bed.“Stephen, are you OK?”He looked up at her then, and Maddy caught her breath at the sight of him.His face was thin and white, his eyes dark holes sunken into his head.His hands were little blind spiders that plucked at his duvet, so pale that every vein stood out a cold blue.It was weird.It was like he was.fading.He’s just tired, thought Maddy.“It’s OK, you know.I saw it all,” said Maddy.“I know you weren’t sleepwalking.You can tell me what happened.”The hands stopped their plucking then.Somewhere in the depths of his eye sockets were two pinpricks of light that focused on her face.He was listening to her now.“Say something, will you?” Maddy offered him a little smile.“You’re beginning to freak me out here.”The hands began to pluck again, and the little lights in his eyes shifted away into blackness.The smile died on Maddy’s face.This just wasn’t like Stephen.She leaned forward to touch his hand, and as she did so, the iron cross that hung around her neck slipped loose from her V-necked T-shirt and swung in front of Stephen’s eyes.Maddy watched in horror as his face crumpled in on itself.He opened his mouth wide and hissed at her, baring sharp yellow teeth.She froze and felt her skin go into goosebumps all over her body.She slid back cautiously.The creature in the bed began to pluck at the duvet again.“You’re not Stephen, are you?”The lights flickered in its eyes as the creature in Stephen’s bed, wearing Stephen’s favorite dinosaur pajamas, looked straight at her.Then it began to laugh, a dry, rasping wheeze that would have sounded more at home in a graveyard than in the chest of a three-year-old.The wind outside whined in sympathy.Maddy tried to look calm, but her legs shook as she got up and walked backward toward the door.She felt for the cool brass knob, keeping her eyes on the creature.Her body hummed with tension as she imagined the creature leaping for her, ready to sink those yellow teeth into her throat.But its eyes were dull again, and it stared listlessly out the window.“Don’t get too comfortable, pal.You’re not staying,” she whispered, as she wrenched the door open and bolted into the hallway, slamming it shut behind her.Maddy almost ran out of the house, eager to be gone before any of Stephen’s family stopped her.She didn’t think she could talk to any of them right now, not until she figured out what was going on.But Stephen’s father poked his head around the kitchen door as she reached for the door handle.“Are you off already, Maddy?”“Yeah, umm, I think Stephen is a bit tired.probably best if I come back later,” she said.“OK, we’ll see you soon.”She was letting herself out when she thought of something and turned back to him.“Mr.Forest, you worked on the faerie kingdom on the castle grounds, didn’t you?” she asked.“Yes.I’ve heard how much you like playing in there,” he said with a wink.“That was some time ago now—it’s held up well over the years.”“Did local people make all the stuff that’s in there?”“Some of it.Some of it was already there, like the caves.”“What about the faerie mound?”“No, no, that was already there.The grounds around the castle used to be stuffed with things like that,” said Mr.Forest.“Some even say there’s a barrow of an ancient king, stuffed with treasure.They’re always chucking out tourists who are scanning the grounds with metal detectors and trying to dig the place up.But I believe there’s a treasure there as much as I believe in the ghosts that haunt the castle.”“So no one created that mound with a backhoe then?”“No, we just put a sign on it, and the gardeners tidied it up a bit.Saved us a few days’ work, I can tell you.Why do you ask?”“No reason.” Maddy smiled at him.“Tell Stephen I’ll be coming back for him, very, very soon.”He looked puzzled—perhaps she overdid the threatening tone—but he smiled a goodbye as she closed the door.Maddy stood on the Forests’ doorstep with her head tipped back and tried to stare at the raindrops as they hurtled toward her eyeballs.She thought of the creature in the house, and that familiar, comforting feeling of anger on the boil begin to swirl lazily in her stomach.I’m getting Stephen back if it kills me, she thought [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]