Hidden Among Us by Katy Moran Read Free Book Online Page B

She wasn’t even wearing a coat. Raindrops hung in her hair like tiny pearls.
    “
Maman,
Mum!” We clashed together into a clumsy hug, both sobbing. Hounds. Those tall strange people in the woods. What would I tell her? Nothing. Nothing, of course.
    Take notice of your breathing,
Miss Coder always tells us in yoga – and I did, balancing myself, breathing in and out. It was OK. Everything was going to be fine. I’d just met some strange people, and that was all. She didn’t need to know about any of it.
    “Oh, my God, Lissy.” Mum held me so close I could hardly breathe. “Please don’t— I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to you.” I felt her tears running down my neck and she was shaking. “Your teachers really wanted you to go on that Shakespeare trip, but I didn’t want you to, not now, it was the worst possible time but they—” She started sobbing again, and I wished I’d never even set foot on that stupid train. I’d ruined my one chance of independence.
    “I just want to be like other girls,” I said. “Why can’t you let me be like everyone else?”
    Mum just stared at me, unable to speak, silent tears streaming down her face.
    This isn’t right
, I thought, hugging her, patting her back.
I don’t blame her for being angry but this is not
normal: she’s not even furious – she’s just really, really scared
.
    I was the one comforting my mother, rather than the other way round. I didn’t like it.
    “It’s OK,” I said. “It’s going to be all right, Mum.”
    Mum pulled away to look at my face as if she couldn’t believe I was really there, making an obvious effort to get a grip and take control of the situation. “Nick’s right: you got here in one piece. That’s the most important thing.”
    Whoever the boy was, he had gone and so had his friends. So had the dogs. I shivered, walking slowly beside Mum, back across the rain-swept yard, trying to ignore the little voice at the back of my mind saying,
Not whoever he was
. What
ever
.
    By the time we reached the house my hands were burning, a deep fiery pain that brought tears to my eyes. When we got into the hall I glanced down at my palms when Mum wasn’t looking. They were blistered raw. Nettle stings. Those weeds I’d grabbed hold off, pulling myself out of the ditch, panicking – they were stinging nettles.
    I hadn’t even noticed.

12
Joe
    At dinner, they all made out nothing had happened.
    Miriam attacked me with an embarrassing hug for being “such a star” with Connie (now finally asleep and dosed with paracetamol). Dad heated up spaghetti Bolognese and Miriam produced a lemon tart.
    “I’m sorry Miles isn’t here,” Miriam said, glancing out the window. What was the matter with her? She was permanently distracted. “He had plans already – something long-standing I think.”
    Yeah right. A long-standing plan to visit the pub, more like.
    So I didn’t say anything about the white-haired girl. Again. There was a moment when I could have, when Miriam and Lissy were both upstairs, and it would’ve been easy to bring it up with Dad as he stirred Bolognese sauce on the stove.
    But I kept her to myself. Miriam was crazy enough. And a skinny lass like that: all scrawny and pale. She couldn’t do any harm. Connie was safe inside now, so what did it matter?
    It didn’t.
    Lissy helped out with plates and cutlery, moving around the kitchen without speaking a word. Her red hair had got wet in the rain.
    “Your favourite, Joe,” Dad said, when we started on the lemon tart. Silence. He gave me a look but I didn’t know what to say, and he let it go.
    Lissy sat staring down at her plate, holding onto a silver fork; her fingers were so long and ice-white. A strand of dark red hair clung to her neck, sending drips of rain water sliding down towards her collarbone.
    She looked up at me. Oh, shit. Her eyes were really dark, and when she glanced sideways into the light I saw they were blue, almost black, like sky before