Every Vow You Break Read Online Free PDF Page A

herself with the special tea tree gel she had packed for her own personal use, she tried not to meet her reflection in the warped mirror propped on the wall opposite her.
    The handle of the hallway door rattled.
    ‘Bella, you in there?’
    It was bloody Olly.
    ‘What?’ she asked, eyes closed, shower overhead, shampoo – matching tea tree also – streaming down her face.
    ‘I need a crap.’
    ‘I’ll be ten minutes.’
    ‘Can’t wait.’
    ‘Shit.’ Bella quickly rinsed off and threw a towel around herself.
    She barged out of the door, knocking into her brother.
    ‘Sor-ry,’ he sang as he rushed in.
    She pulled on shorts and a vest – her specially purchased smart New York wardrobe wasn’t going to get much of a showing in Trout Island, she feared – combed her hair out, slipped on her silver flip-flops and went downstairs to see if she could find her mother. Instead she found the note on the kitchen table.
    Great, Bella thought. Abandoned.
    Seeing the cereals and milk on the worktop, she remembered she felt hungry, so she helped herself to breakfast. Shortly, she heard the toilet flush and Olly loped down the stairs to join her. He stuck his hand into the cereal packet.
    ‘Whoah, peanut butter cereals!’ he said, through a mouthful of Reese’s Puffs. ‘Wanna go out and explore?’
    ‘All right,’ she said. ‘What do we do about keys?’
    ‘There aren’t any. Mum asked last night. Jimmy boy said no one locks their doors around here.’
    ‘But this is America. Isn’t it meant to be dangerous?’
    ‘I know.’ Olly shrugged.
    They wandered along Main Street, in the direction of the theatre. It was gone midday and the heat seeped through their bodies, slowing them down. They stuck to the shade of the large trees on either side of the road.
    ‘Man, it’s so old school here,’ Olly said, as Bella took a photograph of him in front of a tree bound by a faded yellow ribbon. ‘Not like I imagined.’
    ‘And where are all the people?’ Bella said, screwing her lens cap back on. Then she remembered. ‘Did you hear that air-raid alarm?’
    ‘Yeah. Woke me up.’
    ‘What’s that about?’
    ‘I reckon it’s just a practice. I read about it somewhere. All towns have them since nine eleven. In case of a terrorist attack.’
    ‘For real?’ Bella was never sure if Olly was bullshitting her or not.
    ‘Sure,’ Olly said, looking around.
    ‘So paranoid.’
    They went past what they supposed was the village school, a wide, porticoed building opposite the theatre building. The grass at the front was overlong and in need of a mow. A forlorn collection of graffitied twisted slides and rubber swings stood to the side of the school, as deserted as the rest of the place. Bella wheeled around, taking pictures: click, click, click.
    They sat on a couple of swings and dangled their feet, squeaking backwards and forwards in the heat.
    ‘And are they really suggesting we stay the whole fucking summer here?’ Olly said after a while.
    ‘I think it’s gone beyond a suggestion,’ Bella said.
    ‘And where are all the kids?’ He gestured at the deserted playground.
    ‘Away, I suppose,’ Bella said. ‘Or all slaughtered in some Satanic ritual. Oh my God, what’s that?’ She jumped off her swing and moved over to the edge of the playground, where dark oaks loomed up into the hazy sky, and thick, rank undergrowth crowded out the dusty earth. Olly came up behind her.
    ‘Yerk,’ he said as Bella leaned forward and pulled aside some foliage to reveal a gravestone.
    ‘There’s loads, look,’ she said, pointing out a second and a third,
    ‘A graveyard. By the playground,’ Olly said. ‘That’s not right.’
    ‘They’re really old, look.’ Bella read out the dates that hadn’t worn right away: ‘1876, 1899, 1840.’
    They traced the graveyard round to their left until they reached a steep ridge overlooking a vast playing field. The dusty tracks worn into the baseball pitch made the place look even more