The Black Room Read Online Free PDF Page B

me a reason.”
    Robert stared at him. It was very still in the woods. Even Helga was quiet now. At the other end of the park some children were shouting to each other, but that was impossibly distant. The woods were another world. Another universe. The air hung around them, thick and silent, and Tom could hear the sound of his own blood beating in his ears.
    â€œI thought we were friends,” he said.
    â€œThis is different.” Robert turned his head away. “I can’t tell you—”
    Tom was even more afraid now. But it was too late to turn and walk away. He’d chosen. And with some remote, detached part of his mind, he saw how to make Robert give up his secret.
    â€œYou’ll have to tell me what’s going on,” he said. Quite calm now. “Because if you don‘t, I’ll come back with a shovel. And I’ll dig up that whole bank until I find out what you’ve got hidden there—”
    â€œ No. ”
    Robert leaped to his feet, and Tom scrambled up, too, ready to defend himself.
    â€œIt’s no good hitting me again,” he said. “That won’t stop me from finding out. Nothing will—unless you kill me.”
    He said it without any drama, laying out the clear, cold logic of the situation. Subtly, the silence changed as Robert took it in.
    â€œWell?” Tom said at last.
    Robert shook his head. “You don’t get it, Tosh.” He sounded weary now. “Even if I do tell you, it won’t do any good. You’ll never believe it.”
    That was when Tom knew he’d won. “Try me,” he said.
    Â 
    THE LIGHT FADED AND THE SKY CHANGED FROM DIRTY white to a dull, dark gray. The undergrowth lost its colors, blurring into a single shadowy mass, and darkness thickened under the trees.
    Robert kept talking. His voice went on and on, soft and even, without any sign of hesitation. Tom couldn’t see his face in the shadows—only the little movements of his head as he spoke.
    About impossible things.
    It’s got to be some kind of joke, Tom thought.
    But he knew it wasn’t. Robert was useless at teasing people, because he always cracked up and started laughing after two or three seconds. And he certainly wasn’t laughing now. He was completely serious.
    You kept asking why I was different after the summer. Well, it started on the plane coming home. I thought we’d crashed.... and then it was like being on my own in a cold jungle. Only it was much stranger than a jungle....
    It wasn’t just strange. It was totally unbelievable. A wild, elaborate fantasy. It had taken Tom quite a while to grasp what Robert was actually saying. And now that he understood, he was even more bewildered. It couldn’t be true.
    Robert stopped and looked at him. “You’re not listening!” he said.
    â€œYou’re not talking,” Tom said. Suddenly he was very angry. “I thought I was your friend. I thought you trusted me. Why can’t you tell me the truth?”
    â€œI knew you wouldn’t believe it,” Robert said. He didn’t sound triumphant. Just tired and miserable.
    Tom felt like shaking him. “How could anyone believe garbage like that?”
    The moment the words were out, he wished he hadn’t said them. It was very dark under the trees now, and Robert was just a silhouette. Tall and strange and unpredictable. Cars swept along the road beyond the woods, and their headlights threw weird, distorted shadows across his face.
    He took a sudden step forward and Helga growled deep in her throat. Tom jumped back fast, out of reach.
    â€œDon’t be a fool,” Robert said irritably. “I’m not going to hit you again. I want to show you something. Come over here.”
    He stepped across the ditch and squatted down in front of the hedge bank. Reluctantly, Tom followed him, feeling with his foot for the edge of the ditch and jumping awkwardly across. As he crouched down, he