Unlucky Charms by Adam Rex

Author:Adam Rex
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Ages 11+, Speculative Fiction
ISBN: 9780062060075
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Published: 2013-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

The new address, the one Erno had found, was on a sunny little street called St. George, in Islington, in the north of London. It was lined with friendly trees and tall row houses. They’d all made it here, and they’d all converged quite naturally on this particular house without even checking the address—it was like one rotten fang among a set of otherwise fine teeth. A neglectful gray, with scabby wood and pockmarked masonry. A tiny yard that somehow gave the impression of being both dead and overgrown at the same time. A garden where all the troublemaker plants came to smoke.

They’d converged on this house because they all felt, without realizing it consciously, that they belonged in a place like this. They were home. They stood in front of their new home now, exposed and unsure how to proceed. It wasn’t even noon.

“Why is there a big sign that says TOILET?” asked Erno.

“Because you can’t read,” Emily answered. “It says TO LET.”

“Oh, right. Why is there a big sign that says TO—”

“It means for rent. The house is for rent.”

There was a phone number at the bottom of the sign. On a whim, Erno dialed it. After a moment, he held the phone to Emily. “Listen.”

It was a voice-box message from the building’s owner. He was on holiday, it said, wasn’t showing the property right now, but leave your name and number, etc.

“It’s … Dad,” said Emily. “It’s Mr. Wilson.”

“Really?” said Scott.

“Then this is definitely th’ place,” said Mick.

“Whatever place this is,” said John.

They continued to stare at it and didn’t notice the little girl approaching from behind until Finchbriton twittered.

“’S haunted,” the girl said, her tone letting them know that haunted houses bored her personally, but she thought maybe these nice people with their bird and cat might be interested.

“It does look pretty scary, doesn’t it?” John turned and said, smiling.

“These squatters?” said the girl. “Were squatting in it. That means they were living there for free. And one of them? Turned into a stag. So the other squatters ran out screaming, ‘HE TURNED INTO A BLOODY GREAT STAG,’ and no one’s been in since.”

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.