Burial Read Online Free PDF Page B

downstairs,' Bob said. 'She's wondering where the hell you've got to.'
    Nathan was bored and angered by the thought of Sara's disapproval; he imagined her tapping her foot and crossing her arms, pouting, flicking back that precisely calibrated fringe.
    While he pictured it, Bob turned to the girl and said, 'I'm Bob, by the way. Friend of Nathan's.'
    The girl was smoothing down her T-shirt, saying, 'Elise.'
    Nathan peeped at her sideways, as if properly to say hello. She peeped back. Nathan's triumphant erection was wilting away. He moaned, 'Sara's the last person I need to see.'
    'So let's keep hiding,' said Bob.
    'She'll find us.'
    At which, Elise nervously checked the door and straightened the hem of her T-shirt again.
    Bob wasn't in the mood to give up. He said, 'So let's run away.'
    Nathan thought about it for a moment - not too long, because he wanted to look decisive in Elise's eyes.
    He said, 'That may be a good idea.'
    He unlatched the bedroom window and wrenched it open - then stuck out his head, to see how far it was to the ground.
    Nathan told Elise to wait for him while he shinned down the drainpipe, in case he should slip and tumble to his destruction. But once he'd wormed his way out of the window, the descent proved straightforward; he dropped the last two metres with some elan, pleased Elise was there to witness it.
    Then she followed him, clambering down with the dexterity of a spider monkey.
    Nathan was embarrassed.
    They ran for the bushes, the distant thud of disco behind them.
    They stayed in the shadows, following the gravel drive towards the main gate. Here, they squatted in a slough of darkness so black and cold it clung to them like viscous liquid.
    After a few minutes, Bob pulled up. He was at the wheel of an old white Volvo estate.
    Nathan and Elise clambered on to the back seat, keeping low, and Bob pulled away with too much wheelspin. They passed through the gates, all three laughing.
    'Now,' said Bob, at the wheel. 'We need somewhere dark'
    Elise said, 'I know the place,' and put her hand on Nathan's thigh.
    He kissed her.
    Out of nowhere, he felt like he was having the best night of his life.
    Elise directed Bob through the small town of Socombe, past some farmland, through a village called Sutton Down, then along a road that ran parallel with a managed forest - an oak woodland. She tapped Bob's shoulder.
    'Turn left back there.'
    'Back where?'
    All he could see was trees. But he reversed until Elise told him to stop. Before them, the headlights showed a place where the entrance to a narrow lane had been occulted by the overgrowth. Bob executed a five-point turn to get the car down there - a tunnel of darkness with a hummocked asphalt surface, just wide enough for a single vehicle.
    Soon they were swallowed by it, following the headlamps.
    Nathan said, 'How do you know this place?'
    'All the local kids know it. You know about it way before you get to come down here. It's like lovers' lane or something. In the summer, anyway.'
    'Cool,' said Bob. 'So, you've been here before?'
    'Once or twice.' She glanced at Nathan. 'Except the big kids, they tell the younger ones that, you know, it's haunted. By a lady in white.'
    Bob grinned in the rear-view mirror. 'Is there a river close by?'
    'There's kind of a stream. A brook or something.'
    'There's always running water. Near haunted lanes. Supposedly haunted.'
    'Why's that?'
    'Who knows? Geothermic forces or whatever.'
    Nathan said, 'Don't get him started.'
    Bob pulled the car to the side of the road. Its nearside tyres were caked in leaf mould and humus. He turned on the CD player. Charlie Parker.
    Nathan fished out the remaining cocaine. Bob turned on the interior light. They were bathed in its sickly, intimate glow. Nathan cut out some squat, fat lines on the CD case. He snorted first and passed the CD case to Elise. As she brought it to her nose, Bob and Nathan looked at her, then at each other. She passed the CD case to Bob, who propped it on the