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“SETTLE DOWN GUYS, settle down.”
It was first period. Science. The teacher, Mr Franks, swaggered into the classroom, one hand shoved casually in his trouser pocket. In the other hand he carried a sheet of paper that he studied as he crossed to his desk. He half sat, half leaned on the table, facing the assembled class, still reading the note.
“Stop mucking about with that gas tap, Kara,” he muttered, without looking up. “They’re not for playing with.”
Near the back of the class, Drake gazed absent-mindedly out of the window. The events at the shed yesterday evening were replaying over and over in his mind. He should have told his mum about the men again. She could have called the police and had all three of them arrested.
Then again, if she hadn’t believed him, he’d be back at the child psychologist, and she’d be worried sick. Besides, she seemed so tired when she’d finally arrived home. He’d slipped off to bed without saying anything soon after that. And, he only now realised, he never did get that pizza.
He’d just have to stay out of the garden for a while, that was all. For ever, if possible. Life was complicated enough without a freak show trying to recruit him as their ringmaster.
Getting lost in the grass so many times had been weird, though. He was still convinced there was a perfectly rational explanation for it all. He just couldn’t for the life of him figure out what it was. Still, it was bound to come to him eventually.
“Right, listen up, everyone,” said Mr Franks. The low murmur of the class died down, as all eyes turned to the teacher.
“Billy Sharp, Michael Ash and James Bing didn’t return home from school yesterday. The police are searching for them, but as of this morning I’m sorry to say they still haven’t been found.”
A low wave of chatter swelled across the room, sweeping from pupil to pupil as they turned to each other and began to guess what could have happened to their missing schoolmates.
“Can anyone remember seeing any of them after lunchtime yesterday?” Mr Franks continued. “If so, it’s very important you let me know now.” His gaze washed over the class. “Anyone?”
Drake watched the other pupils with interest. He had no idea who the three missing kids were, so he couldn’t be of any help, but he hoped someone would know something. Their parents had to be worried sick.
“OK, then,” said Mr Franks. “If any of you do remember anything, then let me or one of the other teachers know. Right away. I can’t stress that enough.”
He sat the paper down on his desk, then stood up straight. His eyes locked on to Drake and his mouth curved into a friendly smile.
“You must be Drake,” he said.
“Um... yeah,” Drake confirmed.
“Good to meet you. I’m Mr Franks, but everyone here knows my first name. Doesn’t bother me. It’s Darren, OK? Write that down if you want, so you remember. D-A-double-R-E-N. I’m not into that whole teacher-pupil thing. I like to think that we’re all friends here, just sharing knowledge. That’s all. We’ve all got knowledge and we’re just sharing it around. Sound good?”
Drake nodded. “Um... OK.”
“I thought it might,” said the teacher, smiling broadly. “I’m quite new here too, so I know it can be a bit daunting.” He looked around at the class. “But we’re a pretty good bunch, I think. We won’t see you stuck. If you need anything, just give me a shout.”
“Thanks,” Drake said.
“No bother,” Mr Franks replied. He had just started to say “Right, let’s crack on,” when a knock at the door interrupted him.
“Come in.”
The door opened slowly and a younger girl scurried a few paces into the class, then stopped, like a rabbit caught in headlights. Without a word, she thrust a note in Mr Franks’s direction.
“Thank you,” he said, taking it from her and reading it over. “You can go back to class,” he told her, and she retreated gratefully into the corridor.
“Looks like you’re already in demand, Drake,” he said.
Drake blinked. “Um... what?”
“Dr Black wants to see you,” the teacher said.
“He does? Why?”
“Doesn’t say,” Mr Franks replied. He looked down at the note again, in case he’d missed something. “Just says he wants to see you in his classroom as soon as possible.”
Drake realised every eye in the room was trained on him. A summoning to Dr Black’s classroom, he guessed, was not something that happened every day. A few rows away, he saw Mel looking back at him. She smiled encouragingly. For some reason, this made him even more nervous.
The legs of his chair scraped noisily in the sudden silence as he stood up.
“You’d better hurry,” Mr Franks said, as Drake made for the door. “It’s not a good idea to keep him waiting.”
Drake’s footfalls echoed eerily along the empty corridor. He turned over and over in his hands the photocopied map of the school that Mr Franks had given him, trying to figure out where in the twisting black and white labyrinth he was supposed to be. But he was coming to the conclusion that the map was a complete waste of time. He folded it neatly in half, stuck it in his back pocket, and went off in search of anything that might look familiar.
Why did the history teacher want to see him? That was the thought that occupied him as he wandered through the bewildering maze of corridors and passageways. Was he in trouble? He hadn’t done anything, so he didn’t think so.
Unless those three bullies had said something about him peeing on them, of course.
He walked on, up a flight of stairs that he vaguely remembered from yesterday. He felt himself becoming more anxious with every step. It had to be about the incident in the toilets. Why else would Dr Black call for him.
Self-defence, that would be his argument. It was a desperate, last-ditch attempt at avoiding a beating, and he wouldn’t, of course, even contemplate urinating on anyone again.
He stopped outside a gloss-painted door and read the little brass disc screwed into the wood. D9. This was the place.
Self-defence, he reminded himself, as he knocked once, then reached for the door handle. Dr Black would understand. He was probably a reasonable enough man, deep down.
Drake drew in a breath, assured himself there was nothing to worry about, then pushed open the door.
He paused with the door half open and stared in wonder. A sphere, about the size of a large beach ball, lay on the floor. Its surface shone like polished chrome. Drake saw a distorted reflection of himself as he leaned in closer to get a better look.
SNIKT!
Two blades extended suddenly from hidden compartments within the ball. Drake leaped back, as the sphere rose into the air, and the blades began to spin.
Drake’s blood pitter-pattered on the scuffed vinyl floor in perfect time with his frantic footsteps. He sprinted along a corridor, trying desperately to escape the ball and its blades as they sliced through the air somewhere behind him.
He wiped his sleeve across a deep, bloody scratch on his cheek as he skidded round a corner and two-at-a-timed down a flight of stairs. The ball could easily outpace him on the straights, but it had to slow down for the bends, he’d quickly discovered. If he could find enough corners he could put some real distance between him and it.
“Help!” he tried for the fourth or fifth time. “Someone help me, please!” Once again, no one answered his plea. It was almost as if the school had been emptied of everything but the armoured sphere and himself.
Drake stumbled to a stop outside a classroom. Twisting the dull metal handle he shoved against the door with his shoulder, throwing it wide open. Staggering inside, he slammed the door shut again behind him, then turned to find something to block it with.
A strangled yelp of shock escaped his lips. Instead of a classroom, he found himself in a corridor. Not just any corridor, either. His trail of blood spots led directly up to the door he had just closed. Somehow he’d ended up back in the same corridor he’d just tried to escape from. How was that possible?
His mind raced back to the garden yesterday afternoon. A reality loop, they’d called it. And now it was happening again. They were trying to kill him. Those nutjobs were trying to kill him!
