The End Read Online Free PDF

Ella. Like my sister.’
    ‘Not a good idea,’ said Maxie.
    Sam looked at her, sadness in his eyes.
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘Imagine when she comes back,’ said Maxie. ‘Finds out she’s got the same name as Paddy’s dog. How weird would that be?’
    Sam smiled. ‘I just want somethingto remember her by,’ he said, and his lip trembled.
    ‘Hey.’ Maxie squatted down to his level. ‘I didn’t say if she comes back, did I? I said when . OK?’
    Sam nodded, holding back the tears. ‘Ed should’ve let me go with him,’ he said. ‘She’s my sister. I want to see her again. That all I’ve been doing – trying to get back to her. And now Ed’s gone off without me. I feel wrongbeing here, not looking for her, not helping her. I was supposed to look after her. I promised her I would.’
    ‘Hey, hey, hey,’ said Maxie. ‘Slow down. Ed did the right thing. OK? Trust me. You’re safe here.’
    ‘How do you know?’ said Sam. ‘What if Ella did the right thing? What if she’s safe and we’re all in danger? What if we get attacked and Ed comes back with Ella andI’m dead? She’ll be sad.’
    ‘Look out there, shrimp,’ said Blue, pointing to the empty road. ‘Does that look dangerous to you?’
    ‘To tell you the truth,’ said Sam, ‘everything looks dangerous to me.’

6
    David was getting impatient. Was this ever going to work? He very much doubted it. Right now he wanted to hit the strange, sick-looking boy. What a waste of space he was. Paul Channing. He’d turned up from the Natural History Museum, babbling on about how he could talk to grown-ups, or strangers, as David called them. Paul had claimed he could even control them. Yeah, right . Every time he tried to demonstrate his amazing abilities it ended like this. A ridiculous failure.
    Talk to them? They were all just ignoring him.
    David had his own captive strangers here at the palace. The remains of the royal family. A diseased and rotting bunch of ratbags who lived in a room at the top of the palace where their stink wasn’t as noticeable. David hatedcoming in here. So, to be constantly dragged up here by Paul – ‘This time it’s going to work, I promise you!’ – was a right royal pain in the arse. He kept a handkerchief clamped over his nose and mouth. It had been soaked in rosemary oil, but the stench of the captive royal family got through. They had no standards of personal hygiene. They sat there dumbly in their tattered, rottingball gowns and dinner suits, leaking into the furniture. It stank worse than the elephant house at the zoo. At least they’d stoppeddoing their stupid statue thing. For days they’d just stood there like scarecrows, arms outstretched, faces turned to the ceiling, not moving.
    Since then, though, they’d been more lifeless than ever. David wasn’t sure how much longer he could keepthese vile specimens alive. Bits kept falling off. One minor princess had lost most of her face. All the flesh had been eaten away, leaving her thin, boil-studded skin stretched over her skull. Her blue eyes staring out, lidless and weeping.
    They’d been his great hope. He’d wanted to show them off, parade them in front of other kids, to show that he was the right man to ruleLondon.
    ‘Look at me, folks, I’ve got the royal family! I’m the rightful heir to the throne of England!’ But they were worse than a joke now. On top of it all, they’d been let out recently and a couple of the more lively ones had been killed before they’d been safely rounded up.
    That had not been a good night.
    He’d really been hoping that things were going his way when Jesterhad turned up at the palace with a small army of tough north London kids. David had wanted them to fight for him and help him make his point about being in charge. But they’d wanted none of it, and after eating half his food they’d just left one night, freeing the royal family on their way out. They were on his shit list. Right at the top. One day, when he was in