The Hunting Ground by Cliff McNish Read Free Book Online Page B

give? Say
yes
and whatever was in the corridor might come straight inside. They weren’t ready for that. But how would it react if they said
no
?
    ‘Say no!’ Ben demanded. ‘Go on, Elliott! Hurry! Say no! Write it down!’
    Elliott scanned the room for a pen or pencil, couldn’t find one. He was still deciding what to say when the visitor, clearing its throat, said something of its own.

A IS FOR ALICE
     
    ‘A is for Alice, who fell down the stairs …’ It was a voice at last, but not the kind Elliott would have expected. It sounded like a girl, but not quite. It was gruff at the edges. And there was something truly terrifying about that when you could not see the face.
    ‘ … B is for Bobby, all dead in his chair. C is for Craig, who couldn’t stay warm …’
    The words flowed eerily, a sing-songy voice that could easily have been either a girl’s or a boy’s. Or even a man’s, Elliott realised. Yes. It could have been a man strangulating his throat to make himself sound younger.
    ‘D is for David, under the lawn. E is for Eddie, dragged and bound. F is Felicity, who never was found …’
    Fear sliced through Elliott. He couldn’t decide: was this a man contorting his voice to sound like a girl, or a girl imitating a man by pitching her voice lower? But why would a girl do something as weird as that? The longer Elliott listened the more he sensed that theymight not be dealing with a child at all. More likely something that only sounded like a child. Something that wanted them to
think
it was a little girl.
    ‘A is for Alice, who fell down the stairs …’
    Elliott recognised that name as the nine-year-old ghost-girl in Theo’s diary, but the other names were new. Had the owner been responsible for more deaths than the four mentioned in the diary? The rhymes ran sequentially through the alphabet, and Elliott steadied himself to listen.
    ‘… G is for Guy, crushed under a horse. H is for Henry, broken of course. J is for Jane, now ageless and white, and also for Jack, at the end of his fight …’
    ‘Where’s Dad?’ Ben whispered. ‘It’s him singing, isn’t it? It must be.’
    ‘Shush,’ Elliott murmured. ‘You know it’s not Dad.’
    ‘… and also for John, once quiet and tall. And L is for Leo, who gave his all. M is for …’
    Elliott didn’t wait to find out who ‘M’ was. He ran towards the door and kicked it open.
    A ghost stood outside.
    It was Eve. Although her skin was utterly grey, it was definitely her. Definitely the girl from the diary sketch. But what had happened to her? She looked wild. Her matted hair was plastered in a tangled blonde mess overher cheeks, her teeth clenched in a vast fury. Stamping the ground, she shook a tiny enraged fist at them.
    Her doll, Katerina, lay next to her on the hallway floor. Eve picked Katerina up by her feet and swung her solid plastic head at Elliott,
swoop swoop
, like a battering ram.
    Elliott barely knew what he was saying, he was so frightened. ‘It’s … it’s OK …’ he stuttered.
    Eve stared not at Elliott, but at Ben. There was a child’s curiosity contained in that stare, but it was violent too, floating in its own raw well of meaning. Yet it was unquestionably a little girl they were looking at. It was certainly Eve and, though her red dress was filthy, it was still a little girl’s dress, nothing worse. And when she dropped her angry pose and suddenly whispered a heartfelt
Help me, help me, please
, before abruptly twisting around and running off, Elliott found himself following her to see where she went.
    Eve was fast. Her feet, spilling dust, hardly touched the floorboards. With that pitiable
help me
ringing in his ears, Elliott guessed where she was heading and ran towards the East Wing. He got there just in time to see Katerina being carted through the entrance.
    ‘It’s OK!’ Elliott called out. ‘Eve, we’re not going to hurt you. Don’t go. Please …’
    Before he thought about what he was doing, he’d