Monster by Skuse C. J

Author:Skuse, C. J. [Skuse, C. J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Horror, Young Adult, Mystery, thriller, Contemporary, Paranormal, Fantasy
ISBN: 9781474030984
Amazon: 147403098X
Goodreads: 25025867
Publisher: MIRA Ink
Published: 2015-09-24T07:00:00+00:00

16

Dead of Night

We barely said a word at dinner. Even Maggie was quiet—I think she’d run her batteries down. But for the howling wind outside, the huge Refectory was still of our noises. Everyone seemed to be waiting for someone else to call the police about Leon Pfaff, our resident weirdo. I was thinking about Seb and how I’d barely thought of him all day. Now he merely appeared in my thoughts.

Maggie scarfed down her lasagne, as did I. Regan ate like she usually did—slow and considered, like she was counting the bites. Clarice pushed her pasta round her plate. I knew things must have shifted between us because the sight of her wasn’t making me baulk as much as usual. She was even taking orders from me without so much as a whine. Tabby had three mouthfuls before her head lolled and she fell asleep on the table. And Dianna watched me like a hawk throughout, probably afraid that at any moment I was going to call the police.

‘Thought you were still working on your thigh gap?’ Clarice said to Dianna, watching as she suddenly filled her mouth with a giant forkful.

Dianna stopped chewing, then started again, slowly. ‘I am.’

Clarice raised her eyebrows and nibbled a tiny mouthful of mince. She’d pushed all her pasta to one side of her plate.

‘Eat,’ I said. ‘All of you. There isn’t much food left in the larder and we don’t know how long we’re going to be here.’

‘But I don’t want it,’ said Clarice. ‘I don’t like pasta.’

‘It’s fuel,’ said Regan. ‘You’ll need it to keep warm and keep …’

‘I don’t care,’ said Clarice.

‘Can we watch Con Air after dinner?’ said Maggie. Nobody answered. She actually hurt. She mumbled something about girls having no taste in movies and then a sound out in the main corridor made each one of us jump in our seats.

The main phone was ringing. We all stopped eating, or sleeping, or pushing food around, and just looked at each other.

‘I’ll go,’ said Dianna.

She left to answer it and we all went back to eating and being silent again.

Mum had called me courageous in her last letter. How did you know when you had courage? I just felt scared, about everything. Scared of the phone ringing. Scared about what we’d find when we went looking for Matron tomorrow. Scared about calling the police and what might happen to us if they found Matron’s body in the snow. Scared about meeting Leon Pfaff. Scared Charlie Gossard hated me.

Tabby was snoring on the table and the rest of us were halfway through our jam sponge and custard when Regan spoke.

‘Jam sponge is nice.’

We were all suddenly visibly sad. Matron had made that sponge. It was the last thing she’d done for us, and now we were completely on our own.

‘Do you think she will come back, Nash?’ said Clarice. I think it was the first time she’d ever directly addressed me without sarcasm.

‘No, I don’t think so.’

When Dianna came back in, she’d been crying.

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