Hold Your Breath Read Online Free PDF Page A

git!’ Tara leapt up and jumped on her brother. He was strong but she was quick and she caught him by surprise so she was able to stuff a cushion on his shoulders and sit on it
before he could uncurl his long body.
    There were muffled cries and then he grabbed her middle and spun her round so she was flat on the sofa. He lowered his bum towards her head. She screamed and battered at him with ineffectual
hands. He calmly flicked through television channels with the remote while she squirmed beneath him.
    ‘Say you submit, or I’ll do it. You know I’ll do it,’ said Beck.
    Tara shuddered. She knew what he was capable of in this situation. She forced her body to relax.
    ‘I submit,’ she said through gritted teeth.
    ‘I submit, god-like deity.’
    ‘
I submit, god-like deity!
’
    He rolled away and she stumbled to her feet, hair all over the place and her face sweaty and hot.
    ‘I hate you,’ she said good-naturedly as she hurriedly got out of reach. ‘And deity
means
god, moron, so you just said god-like god.’
    Beck aimed another peanut at her. She yelped and scurried into the kitchen. She was smiling a little now. Or at least her face was marginally less rigid than it had been earlier. She craved
familiarity tonight and wished Beck would somehow magically pick up on her need to talk. But as her brother generally had the empathy of an amoeba, this was a pointless wish.
    He might not be one for deep and meaningful chats, but that didn’t mean Beck didn’t care. When everything had kicked off, Beck had never judged her or said anything critical, unlike
everyone else in the world. That wasn’t to say he hadn’t looked out of his depth, and for once he hadn’t had a joke or wind-up comment to hand. She’d caught him looking at
her a few times and then smiling awkwardly, as though he didn’t really know his little sis any more. That had almost been more painful than anything. But he knew she was hurting and that hurt
him too.
    She couldn’t talk to him about this, though.
    She couldn’t talk to anyone.
    Tara made herself more tea and went off into her bedroom. She sat down at her desk and looked around. Her new bedroom was much bigger than the old one, but it still felt wrong. Moving house had
forced decisions about half the things she’d owned. She was too old to hang on to Furbies, Tamagotchis and ten-metre swimming certificates. But she hadn’t really wanted to throw them
away either.
    Tara rested her elbows on the desk, her thick black hair swishing across her face. It fell into waves no matter how much she straightened it. She’d always longed to have blond, silky hair,
despite Mum and Dad saying hers was lovely. Blond hair like Melodie’s. An immediate mental picture of Melodie’s hair caught in weeds at the bottom of the river popped into her mind. But
it was only her imagination playing tricks, she knew that. The images had been so strong before. They were entirely different.
    She gave a frustrated growl. She should leave it alone. If she started asking people about Melodie Stone, they would think she was mad. Or worse, had some kind of crush on her. She could just
imagine the mileage the Gossip Girls would get from
that.
She actually shuddered at the thought.
    The ‘vision’, or whatever it was, had felt so intense though. It felt like some knowledge was gnawing inside her; a rat with needle teeth that she couldn’t ignore. Maybe she
could just put her mind to rest. But how?
    Tara stared at her noticeboard, not seeing it, thinking hard.
    She needed proof that Melodie was safe, well and being a bitch somewhere else.
    Tara huffed out air and her fringe rippled. She picked up a pen and tapped it on the desk, trying to think. Then she started to make notes on the pad in front of her, as she always did when her
mind was unsettled.
    Tell Mum??
She crossed this through so hard, the paper beaded in a tear.
    Speak to Mr Ford?
    She quickly crossed this through too. He’d look at her with