The Fury by Alexander Gordon Smith Read Free Book Online Page B

his ears, probably from wearing the helmet for too long. ‘Brick? Why the hell are we standing here?’
    ‘Let’s just get inside,’ he said. ‘Before anyone sees us. I don’t want people to know I come here.’
    ‘I’m not surprised. Why do you come here?’ Lisa said as he wheeled the bike into the laurel hedge. It was cooler there, like he’d stepped into a fridge, and darker too. Just being out of the sun calmed him down a little. He could hear Lisa stepping after him, swearing as the laurel branches snagged her hair, as the fat, cool leaves brushed against her face. Then they were out, pinned between the shrubbery and the fence. The gap was dead ahead and he manoeuvred himself and the bike through it, hefting it over the rubble and the rubbish.
    Home sweet home.
    ‘Jesus, it smells like a dead dog in here,’ said Lisa. ‘There are probably vampires and stuff. Isn’t it supposed to be haunted or something?’
    ‘It’s not haunted,’ Brick said, feeling like a parent patiently trying to calm their annoying child. ‘There are no vampires or dead dogs.’
    ‘Killer vampires,’ she persisted as they walked up the side of the Boo Boo Station. ‘I bet my life on it. Come on, Brick, let’s go. Hemsby’s close to here, in’t it? We can get candyfloss and play on the machines. Brick?’
    ‘I hate Hemsby,’ he said. ‘You can’t hear yourself think over there. It’s full of chavs, no offence.’
    ‘Shut up,’ she said. They emerged out onto the plaza, the whole place drenched in silence. The big wheel stretched overhead, and behind it was the rotting wooden track of the roller coaster. A couple of seagulls were perched on the apex of the highest slope but they didn’t call out, preening each other with their bright yellow beaks. There was barely an inch of ground that wasn’t covered in ancient litter – old newspapers, empty cans that had lost their colour years ago, carrier bags pinned by rubble – and over to the left, by the main gates, was a Jenga stack of rusting dodgems that would have looked more at home in a junk yard.
    ‘Bloody hell, Brick, you really know how to impress a lady, don’t you.’
    ‘You’re no lady,’ he said.
    ‘Oi!’ she tried to clip him round the head but he dodged out of the way, jogging backwards as she came after him. ‘You stand still and take your punishment, Brick Thomas.’
    She charged again, and this time when he wheeled beneath her hand she was laughing. He turned, running to the left of the big wheel, past a boarded-up kiosk crowned with a huge plastic hot dog, making for the biggest building in the park. It was a squat, ugly box about the size of the hall back at his school, with a turquoise plastic façade that was supposed to make the roof look like rolling waves. A few of the three-metre high letters above the main door had fallen off, leaving the gap-toothed word PAV LIO . Lisa caught up with him under the decaying awning of the veranda, grabbing his elbow and spinning him round.
    ‘I told you to take your punishment,’ she grinned, then leant up and kissed him. He closed his eyes and opened his mouth, feeling her tongue flick against his. He didn’t know how much later it was when she pulled away, and it took him a moment to remember where he was. The kiss had helped his headache too, that relentless thump-thump quieter now, like distant waves. Lisa stepped back, colour breaching the bottomless layers of foundation. ‘Oh, now I see why you’ve brought me here,’ she said, smiling. ‘ You’re a killer vampire!’
    The smile was on Brick’s face before he could stop it, even though it felt uncomfortable there in front of her.
    ‘You wish,’ he said, turning and walking along the side of the building. Lisa snuck up beside him, lacing her hand through his.
    ‘You seriously come out here by yourself?’ she asked as they turned the corner. The path here was cracked and uneven, the nine crazy-golf holes to the side overgrown almost beyond