Hidden Among Us by Katy Moran Read Free Book Online

felt his breath on my face: a warm, sweet smell that made me feel dizzy and terrified at the same time. “Please,” he whispered again; his eyes were so dark but I saw fear in them: real dread.
    It’s all right
, I wanted to say.
Don’t be afraid. I’ll help you—
    Suddenly I thought of Mum. She would be frantic. What was I doing here with these people I’d never met before in my life? Wasn’t I in enough trouble already?
    And in that second I knew that if I wanted to leave, I would have to run.
    Shrugging out of his cloak, I turned and scrambled away. Suddenly, I was visible. They were all looking at me. I ran, bumping into dancers, tangled in the woolly, smokey folds of their clothes, touched by their cold pale hands, ignoring the whispering music of their voices beneath the pounding drums, the bright high pipes.
    As I reached the clearing’s edge and started running through the trees, I sensed another shift in the mood, felt the heat of their eyes on me, all of them at once. A pack of beasts turning to look as one. I don’t know how to explain it but somehow a deep ancient part of me knew that if they chose, these tall strange people, then I would be hunted.
    Some part of me that remembered how it felt to be prey.

10
Joe
    “Nick!” Miriam came into the sitting room with red eyes like she’d been crying. I wished I wasn’t there. “Lissy’s run off— I’ve got to find a torch, I’ll have to go after her and it’s dark now—”
    “I’ll help you find her, I’ve got a torch in the car. She can’t have gone far.” Dad turned to me, looking really worried. “Joe, you stay here in case she comes back. Listen out for Connie, too.”
    We were in the middle of the countryside, not a war zone. Fair enough to mind Connie but Miriam was acting like Lissy was four, not fourteen.
    I watched Miriam follow Dad into the kitchen. She’d better not try treating me like a bloody four year old. I’d already decided the only way to survive this holiday would be to keep my head down and hope Dad didn’t decide to marry Miriam or anything stupid like that. I could do without a stepmother who thought that taking a train on your own was potentially lethal. I sighed. I’m not the world’s most intuitive person but that was blatantly the real reason we were all at Hopesay Reach. Dad and Miriam were serious.
The next thing I know
, I thought,
they’ll be telling everyone they’re moving in together
.
    I went to stand by the fire; it was warm against my back and I was relieved to get five minutes’ peace and quiet. I was starting to feel claustrophobic, penned in. When I’m with Dad, normally it’s just me and him. Now there were all these hysterical women everywhere. And somewhere in the house or out in the woods,
he
was hanging around. Miles. Probably down the nearest pub – he had the lairy and unpredictable look of the seasoned piss-head about him. I’d been back to check on the gun cabinet. Miles might’ve told me to stay out of there but he could jog on. You don’t leave shotguns lying around for anyone to pick up. The cabinet was locked again now, but he’d disappeared again, leaving just those vicious steel traps hanging on the wall.
    Great.
    I kicked a burning log with the toe of my boot, watching the flames flare up. Miriam had told me this was the oldest room in the house, that the fire in here had never gone out for centuries, lit each morning from last night’s embers, even in the middle of summer. On either side of the fireplace, set back into the ancient, thick wall, there were two long narrow stones left unplastered and one lying across the top of them, like a mini Stonehenge. It was as if the original priory had been built right around some kind of monument. They did that in the old days, though, didn’t they? Put churches and stuff on pagan sites, encouraging people to forget about their old beliefs. I’d read about stuff like that. I’d never heard of a church being built right over a