The Darkest Corners by Barry Hutchison Read Free Book Online Page A

croaked, holding an arm up.
    â€˜You might not believe it, but this’ll hurt me more than it hurts you, son,’ he said, bringing the bat up to shoulder height. ‘I don’t want to do this. I want you to stop me. I’m counting on you stopping me.’ He stared at me expectantly. ‘I will smash you up,’ he warned, and flecks of foam formed at the corners of his mouth. ‘I will break you in half and grind your bones to make my bread.’
    Veins stood out across his forehead. His eyes were bloodshot and bulging. They watched me as I shakily got to my feet.
    â€˜OK,’ I said.
    He frowned. ‘OK?’
    â€˜Kill me.’
    He laughed at that, my dad. He actually laughed. Then he stopped as suddenly as he had started.
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜Do it. Kill me. You’ll be doing me a favour.’
    He seemed to consider this, then he shrugged. ‘Fair enough.’
    The sparks flickered all through me. They danced behind my eyes, lighting up the world, begging – demanding – I put them to use. I saw the bat draw back again, as if in slow motion. I saw the look of demented glee on my dad’s face as his grip shifted and he took aim at my head.
    And then I saw Ameena. She caught him by the shoulder, stopping him before he could swing. I realised for the first time she was wearing the brown robe, but with the hood down.
    â€˜Wait,’ she said. ‘You’ll kill him.’
    My dad looked from her to me. ‘And?’
    Ameena glanced at me. Was that pity I saw in her eyes? Sadness? Regret? ‘He’s no use to us dead,’ she said gruffly.
    Probably none of those things then.
    â€˜The plan,’ she reminded him. ‘The plan to save everyone. To bring them through here.’
    â€˜Ameena, Ameena, Ameena. There are many plans,’ my dad said. ‘Plan A, yes, in an ideal world, would involve us breaking down the barrier and turning this world into the Darkest Corners, thereby saving the poor unfortunate souls trapped over there.’ He scowled at me. ‘But my darling son is proving to be more stubborn than I thought, so we may have to move on to Plan B.’
    â€˜What’s Plan B?’ Ameena asked.
    â€˜I beat him to death with this cricket bat.’ He looked at her coldly. ‘Do you have a problem with that?’
    She hesitated, just for a moment, then shook her head. ‘No.’
    â€˜Good. Because Plan C involved torturing you while he watched. I bet he still cares about you enough to want to stop that happening.’
    He laughed at the look of shock on Ameena’s face. ‘Just kidding,’ he said with a wink. ‘You see the thing is, between you, me and my boy here, I’ve never really cared about saving anyone.’
    â€˜What?’ Ameena frowned. ‘But… but you said…’
    â€˜I know what I said. But it was all just an excuse, really. I wanted free. Me . And not just for a few minutes or a few hours like I can do at the moment. Free. Truly free. For ever.
    â€˜And I wanted him to suffer, of course,’ he continued. ‘Suffer like I did, stuck in there, rotting away in the Darkest Corners. I wanted him to feel pain like I had, feel loss like I had.’
    He gave a self-satisfied smirk. He was looking straight at me, but talking as if I wasn’t even in the room. ‘I’ve killed everyone he loves, and I’ve made him feel that he’s the one to blame. I’ve stolen his whole life away, just like he did to me. Oh, sure, having him break down the barrier and bring about the end of the world would have been a nice touch. A really fitting finale. But we can’t have everything, right? So I’ll settle for beating him to death. Maybe he’ll man up and try to stop me. Maybe he won’t. Either way, I’m chalking it up as a win.’
    He raised the bat again.
    â€˜I get all that. It’s just... after all the planning,’ Ameena