The Hidden World by Graham Masterton Read Free Book Online Page A

their voices sounded oddly flat.
    Jessica was wearing a shaggy red woolen hat, a white puffa jacket and red woolen tights. Epiphany wore a yellow jacket so bright that Jessica said it would melt the ice. They had been collected from the house by the mother of one of Epiphany’s best friends, Dianna, in her brand-new Jeep. On the way to the pond, Jessica had sat in the front passenger seat next to Dianna’s mother while Epiphany, Dianna and another friend, Whitney, had giggled in the back.
    Dianna’s mother was very slim and elegant, with a fake-leopardskin coat, long red fingernails and lots of gold rings, and she smelled of Giorgio. ‘That your grandmother?’ she asked as Jessica waved goodbye.
    Jessica nodded. ‘My parents were killed in a car accident. It was a year ago next month.’
    â€˜I’m so sorry to hear that. You must miss them dreadfully.’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜I lost my mother in the summer, you know, and I miss her, too. But do you know something? I feel like she’s never very far away. I don’t know whether you feel the same.’
    â€˜Sometimes.’
    â€˜I was upstairs in the bedroom yesterday and I was straightening the bed when I felt her lay a hand on my shoulder. I knew it was her. I turned around, and I was almost expecting to see her standing there, but of course she wasn’t.’
    Jessica didn’t answer. They had almost reached the pond, and Dianna’s mother was slowing down. Then, as she was just about to park, Jessica said, ‘Last night, my mother stroked my hair.’
    Dianna’s mother stopped the Jeep and stared at her. ‘You really felt it?’
    Jessica nodded.
    â€˜Then it’s true, isn’t it?’ said Dianna’s mother. ‘They’re not very far away, are they? They’re still with us, you know. They’re still so close!’
    They skated close together, the four of them, chattering and laughing. Even though Epiphany and her friends were only thirteen, they accepted Jessica into their circle immediately, as long as she didn’t mind talking about the latest Barbie accessories, and how cool it was to have a cellphone, and which boys in the eighth grade were really dreamy.
    They skated all the way across the pond and under the trees, flashing from sunshine to shadow and back into sunshine. Jessica skated faster and faster, swooping around Epiphany and her friends and then spinning on the points of her skates. On the ice, it didn’t matter if she had a limp, and she had always been a good skater. Her father used to take her skating regularly at Rockefeller Center.
    She took hold of Epiphany’s hand and helped her to pick up speed across the pond, and whirled her around like an ice-ballerina. Then she made all of the girls hold hands together, and they skated in a circle, faster and faster, round and round, all the way across the pond, until Epiphany tripped and they all tumbled over on the ice, laughing.
    Jessica knelt on the ice on her hands and knees, gasping for breath. But as she tried to stand up, she thought she glimpsed something under the ice, something pale.
    â€˜Jessica! Come on, Jessica!’ called Epiphany. ‘Let’s do it again!’
    But Jessica was staring in growing horror at the blurred, oval shape that she could see beneath the ice. It looked like a face – a face that was wide-eyed with panic.
    â€˜Help me.’
    She heard the words as distinctly as if they were being whispered right into her ear, even with all the shouting, laughing and whooping from the other skaters on the pond.
    â€˜Help me. It’s coming to get us. It’s going to take us all.’
    Urgently, Jessica scraped away the fine crust of snow on top of the ice to clear a window. She looked down again, and the face was still there, pleading with her. And with a shiver, she recognized who it was. It was the same face that she had discovered in the attic, the boy with the