Hunt and Power. Stephen Hayes

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СКАЧАТЬ Mrs. Worlker. “John, Peter, sit down, both of you. And you two sit down,” she added as Harry and Simon both rose to defend us. “And you too, Ugine.”

      I looked away from Serena and realised, with a thrill of horror, that Ugine Wilwog was standing right in front of me, blocking the storeroom. He was several inches taller than me, and more muscular than anyone I knew. When he was with Ather Hignat, his job was to beat up on anyone who tried to fight back; while the much smaller Hignat was the brains of the operation, Wilwog was the brawn.

      “You heard the teacher, Playman. Sit down like a good little boy, or I’ll have to make you,” he said, raising his fists. I cringed; why hadn’t I guessed it would come to this?

      “You wouldn’t dare,” said Serena, jumping to her feet beside me. She twisted my hand in the process, but refused to let go.

      “You wouldn’t dare,” Wilwog said, chuckling as he squinted down at her.

      But she did. She delivered a fierce right hook to his face, and as he staggered backwards, clutching his nose and looking dumbfounded (even more than usual), she delivered an equally heavy blow to his nether region.

      “That’s enough, all of you!” shouted Mrs. Worlker in a way that always made me cower. She could be a scary woman when she got fired up. “Detention for all of you! Serena, sit down; I’ll see you after class. Peter, Harry, Simon, get in your seats. John—”

      But I wasn’t listening. I let go of Serena’s hand and staggered towards the door at the back of the room. Wilwog did not try to stop me, but just as I reached the door, Peter appeared beside me.

      “I know you’re up to something,” he said quietly so that no one else could hear. “But you look so not right for it. You sure you don’t want me to come?”

      “Of course I—” But I stopped, realising just in time that this was another temptation I had to fight, as much as I didn’t want to. “Sorry, mate,” I said, “but—”

      The rest of my words were drowned as, looking up, I saw Hignat opening the front door to allow the army of Tommys to flood into the room. “Get him, everyone!” one of them shouted, and I was only just quick enough to get through the door before they reached me. Thankfully, the rest of the class slowed them down, at least by way of simply being in the way and not allowing them a direct route to the door. . I locked the door and, for a moment, listened to them attempting to bang it down like they had all the previous ones.

      Looking around, I saw that I was in another corridor, no different from the others, and, without wasting any time, I staggered along it. However, this time something caught my attention in the ceiling. There was an opening, and a ledge that looked as though it led to another corridor. I was curious to know what was up there, but it was too high for me to climb up the wall, and I was hurting too much anyway.

      I stared at it for a full minute, trying to will myself to move on, and I eventually did, knowing that I had only resisted that temptation because I had no other choice. But just as I thought it, I saw a ladder leaning against the wall up ahead. I was on the verge of grabbing it and going back when I remembered that it was a temptation, and I had to resist it. So I continued to walk on, congratulating myself for having learned my lesson.

      Eventually I stopped in front of yet another door and put my ear to it. I couldn’t hear anything, apart from the banging on the door at the other end of the corridor. I hesitated; I knew that there had to be something in there, and I really didn’t want to have to deal with more people trying to convince me that they were real, because I was worried that if Natalie reappeared, I would have exactly the same problem as I’d had the first time. And I certainly didn’t need another army of Tommys after me.

      I was still hesitating when an ear-splitting crash behind me announced the arrival of the Tommys. I pulled the door open, bolted in, and looked over my shoulder. I could see only Tommys charging towards me; Hignat, Wilwog and everyone else from the classroom had evidently stayed where they were. It looked as though I had passed that test, at least. I slammed the door on the Tommys before turning to observe the next room.

      I recognised this place too, though it made my heart sink horribly. The room was larger than the first two, and contained an in-ground swimming pool in the centre. I’d been here numerous times in the past, before I was big enough and a good enough swimmer to use the Jade River. This room was Natalie’s; it was actually part of her house. Her family were the richest people around Chopville; yet another reason why I thought I was out of her league. They were the only people around rich enough to have an actual pool in the house.

      As the hammering on the door behind me began once again, I looked carefully around for Natalie, sure that I would have to confront her again, seeing as this was her house. But I couldn’t see her anywhere. I listened carefully for any sound, but it was no use hoping to hear anything over the racket those Tommys were making. Perhaps this temptation was simply to avoid going for a swim? I doubted it, but I somehow knew to stay away from the water all the same.

      There was a door straight ahead of me which, in real life, housed nothing more than a cupboard of mops. But now I knew that would be the way on from here. I started around the pool, my footsteps hardly making a sound over what the Tommys were drumming up. But then, just as I was halfway around the pool, a voice spoke from within the water; a girl’s voice, but it wasn’t Natalie.

      “John?”

      I looked around and saw who it was. It wasn’t Natalie, or her sister, but it might as well have been because this temptation was going to be just as difficult to resist. It was Lena, gliding towards the side of the pool so she was a close as possible to where I was standing. She looked even sexier than usual in her bikini, which I couldn’t remember seeing on her before. We’d all been swimming at one point the previous week, but I could only assume that I was concentrating on other things when Lena was in the pool. That had been before she’d started bugging me.

      “Hello, Lena,” I said, taking a step forward, away from her, but still unable to take my eyes off her.

      She reached the side of the pool, looked up at me and said, licking her lips, “Wanna come for a swim?”

      I’d been expecting that and had my answer ready. “No thanks, I’m in a hurry.”

      “Aw, come on, why not?” she asked, pulling herself up on the edge of the pool and straightening up to face me.

      I backed away from her, ever closer to the door, but found it even harder to take my eyes off her than before. Now she was standing right in front of me, clearly model material, and watching me with amusement.

      “No,” I said firmly, noticing a change in the banging sounds the Tommys were making; it was sounding more and more splintered all the time, which could only mean that the door was losing the battle.

      “Oh, that’s not the answer I was looking for,” she said, reaching out and taking hold of my arm.

      I attempted to wrench it away, but she tightened her grip. “Come swim with me. You know you want to.”

      I didn’t want to, and even in real life I probably wouldn’t have, but I had to admit that while I knew it had no bearing on reality, I was hard put to say no. At the same time, I noted how difficult it was to give in to this temptation while Lena was clearly ready to drag me, kicking and screaming, into the pool. I’d never liked being pushed around. I suddenly wished it really was Natalie again; she wasn’t as strong as Lena, and was usually less persistent. Both characteristics were СКАЧАТЬ