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

said. ‘When you’re so close to getting everything you dreamed of. It just seems like, I dunno, you’re giving up. Admitting you can’t break him.’
    A twitch of anger flitted across my dad’s face. For a moment I thought he really was going to turn the bat on Ameena, but he simply glared at her until she stepped aside.
    He grinned at me and shifted his grip on the bat’s handle. ‘This will not be a pretty death,’ he said. ‘It won’t be heroic. It won’t be noble. It’ll be all broken bones and missing teeth and you giving it “Stop, no, please, stop!”.’ His eyes blazed. ‘But I won’t. I’ll never stop. I want you to be very clear on that.’
    I swallowed. I straightened my back and held my head high and thought of my mum.
    â€˜Get a move on,’ I said. ‘I haven’t got all day.’
    He roared. His muscles tightened.
    And he swung.

T he bat whummed by just centimetres above my head.
    I exhaled.
    My dad was staring at me. He was still holding on to the bat with both hands, but it pointed down towards the floor now.
    From the corner of my eye I could make out shapes in the darkness, half-formed apparitions lurking in the gloom. The things from the Darkest Corners were gathering, watching and waiting, preparing for the moment when the wall would come tumbling down.
    I inhaled.
    Ameena had her back against the wall, not looking at me. She was focusing on my dad and the weapon in his hands.
    I exhaled.
    â€˜He didn’t flinch,’ my dad said, and it sounded as if he was talking to himself. ‘He didn’t even flinch.’
    The sparks crawled like ants inside me now, no longer rushing, no longer zipping furiously around. They had finally accepted – I had finally accepted – that I was not going to put them to use.
    He had gone too far, pushed too hard. Everything, every part of me, was numb. It no longer mattered what my dad did to me, or what any of them did to me. I was done. I was spent. I had seen all the horrors the world had to offer, and I was too sick and tired to see any more.
    â€˜You’re bolder than I gave you credit for, kiddo,’ he said. He smiled, flashing his teeth. ‘Of course, you get that off your dad.’
    â€˜But you’re not my dad.’ He opened his mouth to argue, but I jumped in first. ‘My father, maybe. But not my dad. Never my dad.’
    Silence filled the hall. They were both watching me, waiting to see what I’d do next, but I just stood there and told it like it was.
    â€˜I can see them, you know? Over there in the Darkest Corners. I can feel them too, waiting for the wall to come down. Waiting to come through here and run riot over this world. I can hear them, and I hope they can hear me too. If they can, I want them to listen because I want them to know something.’ I turned my head to the ghostly shapes and raised my voice. ‘I want them to know that this is as close as they’re ever going to get.’
    I raised my gaze to my dad. His face was in shadow, but I could see the rage building behind his eyes. ‘You can’t do anything more to me,’ I told him. ‘You can try – I’m sure you’ll try – but there’s nothing you can do that’s worse than what you’ve already done. There’s nothing left you can take away from me.’ I allowed myself a grim smile. Despite everything, it was a smile of victory.
    â€˜You’ve lost,’ I told him. ‘Even if you kill me, you’ve lost.’
    I braced myself for an explosion of anger that never came. Instead, my dad slowly turned his head to Ameena and nodded. When he turned back to me his face had changed. Softened somehow.
    â€˜In that case,’ he told me, ‘I think you’re ready.’
    That caught me off-guard. ‘Ready?’ I asked. ‘Ready for what?’
    His head twitched in the direction of the