The Dead of Night by John Marsden Read Free Book Online Page A

patch, an unmoving round stone. I could not make out her features. I tried to see her eyes, her nose, her mouth. Not seeing them I was suddenly frightened of the black patch, as though it was not human, was not Corrie at all. I peered and peered, fighting to keep the fear in my stomach, to stop it coming up my throat and into my mouth. Was that her mouth, or just a shadow? Were those her eyes, or just black marks, tricks of the light? I wasn't aware of Lee or Mrs Slater. Not only were they not in the room; they had ceased to exist. There was just me and the shape in the bed. I slowly took three short steps towards it. And suddenly, with the different angle and the light falling differently across the bed, I found Corrie again. There she was; her soft skin, her plump face, her closed eyes. My own mouth was slightly open, in wonder, because she looked so different to the Corrie of my past friendship, and the Corrie of my fearful imaginings. She did not look gaunt and battered and bruised, but neither did she look happy and lively and talkative. She looked like a wax doll, a fully formed impression of Corrie. I could see her lips move slightly with each breath in and breath out but there was no other movement. She was alive, yet somehow not with us any more.

    I was not scared of her, but I was scared to touch her. I had meant to ask Mrs Slater if I could touch, if it was safe, but now that thought had fled my mind. So after a while I leant forward with a shivering finger and ran the
tip of it down the side of her right cheek. This was not the Corrie who I hugged and used as a pillow and beat up on, the Corrie who'd sat on my lap so often on the crowded school bus. That Corrie had slipped quietly away, leaving behind this peacefully breathing, pale replacement. I leant further forward and kissed her on the forehead, then lay my head on the pillow beside her. I didn't say anything. I didn't really think anything either. Her skin was cool, but I didn't notice that at the time, just thought about it afterwards. Through her cheek, next to mine, I could feel her breathing. I stayed like that for some time, a long time.

    Finally I got up again and whispered in her ear, "Take care out there Corrie. Look after yourself," and I slipped out into the corridor and waited for Lee. I didn't even say goodbye to Mrs Slater, which was a bit rude.
    Lee was quite a while, so I hid behind a laundry basket, but eventually he came out. I popped up and went ahead of him back to B8 to say goodbye to Nell.
    "Are you OK, love?" she asked. "Did it upset you?" But I didn't answer that. Instead I asked her a question that had been bugging me.
    "You know how you said before that Kevin was all right now'?" I asked.
    "Oh, did I?"
    "Yes, you did. What did you mean 'now'?"
    She tried to think of a reassuring lie, but she couldn't. After a minute of silence she gave in and told me.
    "They beat him up pretty bad Ellie."
    We snuck along the corridor, towards the exit. We knew from Nell where the soldiers would be—at the
nurses' station near the exit door. Hiding in the little kitchen about twenty metres away, I grabbed Lee's head and pulled it down so I could whisper in his ear.

    "I want to find a knife."
    "Why?"
    "So I can kill the soldiers."
    I felt his body give a little jerk, like he'd touched the terminals of a battery. But he didn't say anything for a minute, just stood up straight, while I continued to crouch beside him like the animal I'd become. Then he bent down again and put his mouth to my ear.
    "You can't do that Ellie."
    "Why not?"
    "There'd be reprisals against the patients."
    We didn't speak again, just waited. We were waiting for a break in the soldiers' routine, a chance to slip past their defences. We could hear them talking occasionally, in their guttural language. There was a kind of wailing music in their voices that was almost attractive. Occasionally, too, we could hear a girl's voice, low and husky, usually laughing, sometimes