Dream Paris Read Online Free Page B

you. I’m warning you. And as for what could happen to you, well, why not ask Anna?”
    More cruelty. He knew how to push people’s buttons. Petrina took hold of my arm.
    “What could happen to me, Anna?” she pleaded.
    “I don’t know! Have you eaten any street food? Anything from the stalls? Some of it is left over from Dream London. People live on it for weeks, and then whatever it was in the food that was holding it to this world just slips away. The food vanishes and so do the nutrients in your body. A couple of months ago a boy in our school starved to death in front of his classmates’ eyes.”
    Petrina kneaded the top of her bag, squeezed the knitted material between her fists. “I’ve only been here a week or so. I’ve mostly eaten in my digs.”
    “Do you know where the food comes from? Never mind that. There are other ways. Sometimes buildings just collapse. Whatever it was that was holding them together just vanishes. Or maybe a hole will open in the ground. That happened to a whole family. Their son was in my year. There was a crashing noise in the night and the next day the whole house had gone, vanished down a sinkhole.”
    Petrina looked down at the stone flagged floor.
    “You think the floor will open beneath me and me alone? What if I came and sat by you?”
    “You know they found metal creatures in the soil?” said Mr Twelvetrees “Like squids with spears for arms, frozen in place as they swam to the surface?”
    “It’s true,” I said, unhappily. “They keep digging them up. A whole army of them, they were almost at the surface when Dream London ended.”
    Petrina was looking at the floor in horror. “Anna, whose side are you on? You must see I’m only trying to help you!”
    “I know that, Petrina!” I felt close to tears. Darkness had gathered outside. This safe, ordered, quiet place that I had built was no match for the horror of the outside world. “I know that! But I’m trying to help you, too! You don’t know what it’s like, Petrina! You don’t know what it was like back then! I don’t want to go back to all of that! And yet it says that I will, right here on this piece of paper. It’s not that I have a choice, it’s going to happen!”
    “Five minutes to go!” Mr Twelvetrees held up his watch.
    “I don’t care,” snapped Petrina. “I’m staying. I don’t care what you say, Mr Twelvetrees, this poor girl is terrified.”
    “And so are you,” smiled Mr Twelvetrees.
    “Yes, I am. But I’m not leaving.”
    No matter how wrong-headed she was, the woman was brave. Petrina took hold of my hand.
    “Don’t worry, dear. I’m staying with you.” You could hear only the faintest tremor in her voice.
    “Four minutes.”
    “You still haven’t said why you’re here, Mr Twelvetrees. Why bring Anna that scroll?”
    “Her Majesty’s Government needs people like Anna. It wants to find out what happened in Dream London, it wants to prevent such incursions happening again.”
    “And what’s your part in this?”
    “A number of people still remain unaccounted for after the changes. It’s known that most of the people who sailed down the rivers to other lands never returned when the changes came to an end. Many soldiers and spies have been sent to look for them, few have returned.”
    “My parents,” I said. “You’re looking for people like my parents.”
    “Precisely. See, Petrina? I’m not such a bad person. I’m here to help Anna.”
    “It sounds more like she’s helping you.”
    “Where’s Dream Paris?” I asked. “I’ve heard the news. There’s been no mention of any changes happening in Paris.”
    “There haven’t been, so far as we know,” said Mr Twelvetrees. “I think Dream Paris is a different place from our Paris.”
    A different place.
    “You think? Don’t you know?”
    “We know very little. You’ll need to find a way back into the Dream World.”
    I shivered as he said the words.
    “Dream Paris will be in there somewhere. We