Necropolis by Anthony Horowitz Read Free Book Online

hated mankind. And praying to God to save us was ridiculous. God isn't interested! If He was, don't you think He'd have done something centuries ago?
    "My whole life had been devoted to an illusion. All those prayers, the same words repeated again and again. Did they really make any sense? Of course not! The cries for mercy that would never come.
    Kneeling and making signs, singing hymns while, outside in the street, people were killing each other and trying to make as much money as they could to spend on themselves and to hell with everyone else.
    Do you never read the papers? What do you see in them except for murder and lust and greed, all day, every day? Do you not see the nature of the world in which you live?
    "There is no God, Scarlett. I know that now. But there are the Old Ones. They are our natural masters.
    They deserve to rule the world because the world is evil and so are they."
    He paused for breath. Scarlett looked at him with a mixture of pity and disgust. She had already decided that this wasn't about God or about religion. It was about a man who had nothing inside him. The years had hollowed out Father Gregory until there was nothing left.
    "I will finish my story, and then you must be taken back to your cell," he said. 'You will not be staying with us very long, Scarlett. You have a long journey to make. You will not return."
    Scarlett said nothing. She knew that he was trying to frighten her. She also knew that he was succeeding.
    A long journey…where? And how would they take her there? Would they force her through another door?
    Father Gregory closed his eyes for a few seconds, then continued.
    "When I came here, there were twenty-four brothers at the Monastery of the Cry for Mercy," he explained. "Some of them, I knew, felt the same as me. They were disillusioned. Their life was hard.
    There were no rewards. The local people, the ones we were helping, weren't even grateful. Gradually, I began to sound the brothers out. I shared with them the knowledge I had discovered. How many of them would abandon their religion and turn instead to the Old Ones? In the end, there were seven of us. Seven out of twenty-four. Ready to begin a new adventure.
    "We could, of course, have left. But I already knew that was out of the question. We were here for a reason, and that reason was the door. It had been here long before the monastery existed. Indeed, why was the monastery built in this place at all? It was because the architects knew that the door was in some way magical even if they had forgotten what its true purpose was. Do you see, child? The monastery was built around the door just as you will find holy places connected to the other doors all over the world: churches, temples, burial sites, caves.
    "The seven of us agreed that we would stay here and serve the Old Ones. We would guard the door and should a child ever pass through it, we would know that we had found one of the Gatekeepers, and we would seize hold of them just as we have taken hold of you…"
    "What happened to Father Janek and the other monks?" Scarlett asked, although she wasn't sure she wanted to know.
    "I killed Father Janek. I crept into his room while he slept and cut his throat. Then we continued around the monastery and did the same to all the others. Seventeen men died that night, and in the morning, the corridors were awash with blood. But don't mourn for them. They would have died happily. They would think they were going to heaven, into the embrace of their God.
    "We have been here ever since. Of course, with so few of us, the monastery has fallen into disrepair.
    Once, the villagers brought us food because they revered us. Now they give it to us because they are afraid. We have survived a very long time, always waiting, always watching the door. Because we knew that you would come. And recently we realized that our time had come. We were expecting you."

    "How?"
    "Because the Old Ones have returned to the world. Even now, they are