Werewolf Stories to Tell in the Dark Read Online Free PDF Page A

ONLY, but it was locked; Mary rattled at another with no success. Now they were on a platform, panting, trapped, the panic surging inside them.
    â€˜We can’t go up the tunnel,’ gasped Mary. ‘The electricity might still be on.’
    â€˜Let’s move down the other end. Keep as far away from them as we can.’ But he knew their pursuers were close behind.
    They ran on, then paused at the bottom of the next flight of steps.
    â€˜I can hear something,’ said Danny. ‘Listen.’
    There was a distant vibration and a blast of hot wind.
    â€˜Could it be a train?’ whispered Mary.
    â€˜Maybe.’
    The vibration slowly began to increase until there was a distant hum on the rails.
    â€˜It
is
a train,’ said Danny with relief.
    They stared down the platform. No one was there. Where
were
the members? Could they just have wanted to give them a fright and then gone away?
    The hum turned into a roar, and as the tube train emerged from the tunnel at tremendous speed their sense of relief was overwhelming.
    The carriages flashed past, the lights on inside, the empty seats safely inviting – but within seconds the tube train had gone, leaving a trail of sparks on the line.
    Danny and Mary stood on the empty platform in thegathering silence, which was beginning to cling like a suffocating blanket around them.
    â€˜Shall we double back?’ Mary said.
    Danny shook his head. ‘They’ll be there. Waiting.’
    â€˜There
must
be another train,’ said Mary desperately. ‘They wouldn’t have kept the station open if there wasn’t.’
    â€˜Maybe someone’s forgotten to lock up,’ said Danny. ‘Or it’s been left open for the cleaners. Or something.’
    â€˜I can’t see
anyone
.’
    There wasn’t a sound anywhere either.
    â€˜OK,’ said Mary at last. ‘We won’t double back. Let’s try up this way.’
    They hurried up the steps, along the concrete passageways, the normality of the posters for films and theatres and galleries and fast food outlets and products of all kinds radiating security. How could the members of the Lycanthropy Society be threatening them when there were posters advertising Horlicks and fish fingers? The mundane normality soothed them, made Danny and Mary more and more certain that everything was going to be – must be – all right. They reverted to worrying about their parents and condemning themselves for upsetting them.
    A sign read EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY, and they climbed an iron staircase, hurrying now and beginning to run, the cold sweat clammy on their skin and a sinking feeling in the pit of their stomachs. There were no comforting advertisements here, only damp green tiles that had blackened in places. There was a shut-in smell, and a little draughty wind blew down on them.
    Danny was the first to see the fur-covered hand, but almost immediately Mary caught a glimpse of the coarse dark hair that now covered the face of the woman withthe shopping bag. The members of the Society were waiting for them on the steps.
    â€˜
But what happened?’ asked Terry feverishly. ‘Did they escape
?’
    â€˜
They got home eventually,’ replied Alice. ‘But they were never the same again
.’
    â€˜
What does lycanthropy mean?’ Terry knew now but he still wanted it spelt out
.
    â€˜
The power to change oneself into a wolf,’ replied Colin quietly
.
    There was a long silence, as the storytellers stared into the crackling flames
.
    â€˜
I think I might turn in soon,’ said Alice
.
    â€˜
Yes,’ agreed Terry. ‘I might do that too
.’
    â€˜
Wait a minute,’ interrupted Andros. ‘I’ve got a story to tell. Please listen to it
.’
    Out of respect for the refugee who had recently joined the club, the others listened
.

4
Meat
    Before we came to England, my sister and I were living in a refugee camp in Eastern Europe where