Cracks Read Online Free PDF Page B

wreckage? Even if every last person was killed inside, there are shops and
houses round the school. Why aren’t there people rushing out to help or even just to rubberneck? The headache comes back suddenly. There’s a dull knocking inside my skull that makes me
groan and put my fingers to my forehead. Did something hit me in the earthquake? I can’t feel any bumps. The birthmark on my hand though . . . it’s even clearer than usual. Darker and
brighter all at once.
    Maybe this is all some kind of massive joke and in a minute someone with a camera is going to jump out and then put me on YouTube. A hysterical barking laugh comes out of me and I force my mouth
closed, because I sound nuts.
    I walk down the road a bit further and jump at the sight of a black and white cat on a wall, licking its paws and staring right at me. It’s the one I saw before. I rub under its chin and
it vibrates all over like it’s motorised.
    ‘What now, puss?’ I’m shaking hard and my teeth are chattering. I want to hold the cat close and curl into a ball until someone makes things normal again. I won’t
complain any more, I promise. Des and Pigface can boot me all over the place and I won’t moan. I just want this weirdness to stop. I walk around in a circle for a moment, thinking. Where to
go? Where to go?
    I catch sight of an ugly grey building in the distance. It’s the only thing on the horizon now the school and factory have gone. My feet start taking me towards it.
    I don’t know why I’m heading to Riley Hall. It’s the place that scares me most. But I can’t seem to stop myself. It’s like I’m going to find an answer there;
an answer to a question I don’t even know yet.
    I walk past silent houses and shops and cafés where lights are on and music plays but no one is home. The cat follows, jumping from one gate post to the next and then padding along behind
me with its little white-socked paws. I stop and rub its warm head, grateful for its heartbeat and warm, furry life.
    The main gate to Riley Hall is wide open. I thought I’d lost the capacity to be shocked today but once I step through, the gate slams closed behind me and I nearly wet my
pants. The cat mewls at me from outside the gate.
    ‘Sorry, puss.’
    Leaving it behind feels like the worst thing I’ve ever done. I have to bite on my hand to stop the violent shivers shuddering through me like electric shocks. I walk up to the main
building. The door’s open, of course. Inside, I think I can hear echoes – ghostly voices and clanging of metal doors, shouts, snatches of radio but then . . . silence.
    It looks different from last time. There’s no open plan area now. Instead it’s made up of long corridors with closed doors, just like in my dreams. I walk slowly down the first
corridor and somewhere I can hear beep, beep, beep in the distance. I look up and jump because the boy I saw before is standing at the end of the corridor, his hood pulled low over his face.
He turns and walks quickly away from me.
    ‘Hey!’
    But he ignores me and just hurries on, head bent. A noise behind makes me spin round. The wall is painted a dirty light green and pockmarked all over with graffiti and small holes but now a
crack’s formed that spreads and branches out all over. I stumble away from it as the wall groans and a huge hole appears in the middle. I can hear the wind whistling through the gap but I
feel like I’m stuck to the ground. A hand appears around the side of the hole and a face appears, grinning.
    It’s Pigface. His eyes are devil red and his grinning mouth is bigger and wider than any human mouth should be. ‘I’ve come to get you,’ he says and his voice is so deep
it rumbles through my whole body.
    I cry out and start running down the corridor. I can hear the bricks falling as he climbs through the hole and I’m running harder than I’ve ever run before. I get round the corner
and see the hoodie boy again.
    ‘Hey,’ I shout, ‘help