Another Me Read Online Free PDF Page A

moving further and further away. Too afraid to glance back, too afraid that those footsteps would catch up with me.
    They were closing in on me, coming nearer and nearer. I was sure I could feel something, a hand almost brushing against my back. I threw myself forward. It mustn’t touch me. Somehow, I knew I mustn’t let it touch me.
    Fear got the better of me. I couldn’t take it anymore, and I screamed. I screamed at the top of my voice.
    â€˜Help me! Somebody help me!’
    I fell through the swing doors and landed in a heap, scattering the contents of Donald’s briefcase everywhere.
    The corridor was suddenly filled with people swarming out of the auditorium. Kaylie and Dawn were there first. They looked shocked when they saw me, lying breathlessly against the wall, crying. I pointed to thedarkened corridor, beyond the still swinging doors. ‘There. In there,’ I gasped.
    They looked baffled.
    â€˜Someone’s after me. The lights all went out. They were behind me.’
    â€˜Who was?’ Dawn asked.
    I shook my head, as baffled as they were. ‘I don’t know. Somebody. I was so scared.’
    The swing doors flew open again. I covered my face with my hands, and let out a yell. I was afraid to look.
    â€˜Who’s been tampering wi’ my lights?’ It was Mr Gray, the school janitor. He thought the school was his private property.
    My words came out in a sob when I answered him. ‘I didn’t touch your lights.’ I peered behind him into the shadows. ‘Someone was after me.’
    â€˜Aye! Me!’ he snapped, and his attention turned to Donald, who was standing watching me. ‘Are you lot nearly finished in here?’
    Donald looked at me with something close to annoyance. ‘Yes, Mr Gray. I think we’ll be calling it a night quite soon.’
    I wanted to make him understand. ‘It wasn’t Mr Gray who was after me, sir. It was someone else.’
    â€˜It was only your imagination, Fay,’ Donald said softly.
    Why wouldn’t anyone believe me? Why were they looking at me as if I had made it all up? I yelled back at him: ‘It wasn’t my imagination. Somebody was running after me . . . and it wasn’t him!’ I jabbed a finger towards the janitor.
    Donald patted me on the shoulder. ‘There, there, calm down, Fay.’ He said it as if I was a bad-tempered little girl. I could have screamed at him.
    â€˜What’s all this commotion?’ Monica stepped out of the girls’ toilets behind me. She took the situation in and sneered at me. ‘You causing more trouble? Like to be the centre of attention now, don’t you?’ She pushed past me in disgust and strode back to the auditorium.
    â€˜How long was she in the toilets?’ I asked Kaylie.
    She shrugged. ‘Ages. Left just after you . . . takes her that long to make herself beautiful.’
    Dawn laughed, wanted me to laugh too. But I couldn’t. I was still shaking.
    â€˜What I don’t understand is,’ Kaylie said, ‘if you were so scared why did you go back down the corridor?’
    Something in me shivered. ‘What do you mean, go back down the corridor?’
    â€˜You stood at the door of the theatre, and just stoodthere staring into space . . . as if you were in a dream.’
    â€˜Yes,’ Dawn tutted. ‘You didn’t even answer me when I called to you. You just turned round and went back down the corridor. I thought you must have forgotten something.’
    Now I was shaking. Shaking so hard I couldn’t stop. ‘No, no! That wasn’t me.’
    I was beginning to annoy my friends. ‘Of course it was you, Fay.’
    â€˜Are you trying to make out we’re daft, or something?’
    Suddenly, I was yelling again, yelling so loudly I could have awakened the dead. Everyone stopped to stare at me. Monica turned and just looked, with a satisfied smirk on her face.
    â€˜That wasn’t