Where Monsters Lie by Polly Ho-Yen

Author:Polly Ho-Yen
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781448173334
Publisher: RHCP
Published: 2016-07-07T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-three

I think I might have stopped breathing. You know when you hold your breath and your chest begins to hurt? I think that’s what happened. Only for a few dark moments, though, because suddenly the garden was illuminated by yellow light that streamed out of the kitchen window. And I saw for myself what was moving in the darkness of Buster’s grave.

The hole I’d dug was full of writhing black slugs.

Chapter Twenty-four

I screamed. So loudly that Dad ran out of the kitchen.

‘Effie! Effie! What are you doing out here?’

I closed my eyes and let my head sink onto Dad’s chest. His shirt smelled musty. It comforted me, but even when I shut my eyes, I could still see the slugs. Twisting and twisted, in one moving black mass.

‘Slugs,’ I said into his shirt so he couldn’t hear what I was saying.

‘What’s that, love?’

‘There’s slugs, Dad. In Buster’s grave.’

Dad looked over to where we had buried Buster and frowned – two lines, so deep that they looked like they would always remain on his forehead.

‘Get inside, Effie,’ he said.

‘But—’ I started to say.

‘Please, Effie, get inside. I don’t know why you’re doing this.’

I limped towards the warm light of the kitchen, feeling defeated not only by what I had seen in Buster’s grave but by Dad’s words. My body felt hunched and raw, as if I had fallen over and hurt myself, and I couldn’t stop crying.

‘Andda yooo, andda yoo, andda yoo,’ chirruped Tommi. She was still talking to her toys.

I sat down on the floor beside her. I could hear Dad shovelling the soil back into the hole I’d dug. It made a sort of whooshing sound as he scooped up a shovelful, and then a pitter, pitter, pitter as the soil was sprinkled into the hole.

Whoosh. Pitter, pitter, pitter.

Whoosh. Pitter, pitter, pitter.

Whoosh. Pitter, pitter, pitter.

All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a movement. Something was there that hadn’t been there just moments before. A shiny black slug, slowly but surely making its way over the arm of the chair, right next to Tommi.

I couldn’t stop myself. I bent over and threw up all over the floor.

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