Werewolf Stories to Tell in the Dark Read Online Free Page B

‘We must go home. Think what a state –’
    â€˜It’ll only take a few seconds. If I don’t find out
now
– I’ll spend the rest of my life wondering.’
    Mary knew he was right. So would she.
    â€˜What are you going to do?’
    â€˜Open one of these doors.’
    â€˜You
can’t
do that.’
    â€˜No? Watch me.’ Before Danny had a chance to change his mind, he went up to one of the doors and gently, very gently, began to open it, chink by chink.
    Mary had joined him now, and she suppressed a gaspas she saw the woman lying on her back on the bed. A handbag and a shopping basket were on the floor beside her.
    â€˜Well?’ whispered Mary. ‘Are you any the wiser?’
    â€˜No.’ Danny reluctantly closed the door. It was a pity that he bumped into his sister as he turned round and an even greater pity that she lost her balance and fell sprawling on to the floor. The noise seemed even louder than the relentless ticking of the clock downstairs.
    Mary leapt quickly to her feet and they both froze; something – someone – was moving in one of the adjoining cubicles. A door flew open and a man in a pinstriped suit came out.
    Before he could challenge them, Danny and Mary ran for the stairs and hurtled down them towards the front door. As they rattled at it in vain, footsteps began to rap out sharply on the stairs.
    â€˜It’s locked,’ Mary yelled.
    The clock began to strike the hour, and the noise once again pounded their ears as if it were a count-down to their eventual capture by the inhabitants of the cubicle-like rooms. Mary shuddered, her imagination running riot.
    Danny was rattling and pulling now but the door remained obstinately shut. ‘It
is
locked,’ he shouted, his voice shrill with panic.
    â€˜Wait a minute!’ Mary was struggling to keep calm. ‘Let me try again.’
    At last the front door opened, just as a voice shouted, ‘Stop! Stop now!’
    But Danny and Mary were on their way out.
    The booking hall of the Underground was empty – and there was no one at the barrier.
    â€˜We haven’t got a ticket,’ Mary gasped.
    â€˜Too bad,’ panted Danny. ‘We’ll get them at the other end.’
    â€˜Are the trains still running?’ she demanded.
    â€˜Should be. It’s not that late.’ But the emptiness of their surroundings was ominous. Then Danny vaguely remembered something he had heard on the television. A strike? A go-slow? He was just about to tell his sister when he saw a group of people standing by the entrance. The woman with the shopping bag, the tall man in the pinstripe suit, an older man leaning on a stick, a couple of young women in tracksuits, a girl in her late teens, and several others crowding behind them. Their eyes were menacing, full of anger and loathing, as they gazed at Danny and Mary with an intensity that terrified them.
    For a moment both groups just stood there, staring at each other, the tepid neon lights flickering sporadically. Then, as one body, the members of the Society of Lycanthropy slowly advanced.
    Mary and Danny ran down the silent, unmoving escalator.
    â€˜I think there’s a strike on,’ yelled Danny. ‘There won’t be any trains. What are we going to do?’
    â€˜
Now
you tell me!’
    â€˜We couldn’t have got past them. We’ll have to hide somewhere down here.’
    They ran on until they reached the bottom, where all they could hear was the humming of electricity. Gazing fearfully up at the escalator, they saw the members of the Society purposefully walking down towards them. Then one of the tracksuited young women began to run, lightly, easily, the anger shining in her eyes.
    *
    Danny and Mary ran down a long concrete passage to the platforms below, praying for the sound of a train but knowing they were going to be unlucky. Where
could
they hide, they both wondered? Danny tried a door that said STAFF