Underworld (23 page)

Everyone, except Ivy Toner. Perhaps that was what made her notice Katie, single her out for her special kind of attention.

And usually by Ivy's side were her two mates, Lindy Harkins and Michelle Thomson. But Katie didn't fear them. They didn't look her way unless Ivy was with them.

‘You shouldn't show them that you're afraid,' her father had told her. ‘Stand up to them. That's what these people don't understand. You'd have no more trouble.'

It was all right for him. He didn't have to go to school every day, alone. Never knowing when you were going to turn a corner and find them waiting for you.

They had trapped her in the girls' toilet one day. No one else there, except Ivy and her cronies … and Katie. She remembered the day bitterly, with shame. Ivy, trying to force her head down the toilet until Katie admitted, tears streaming down her face, that Ivy was a princess. Princess Ivy … and that she, Katie, was her slave.

She had run, crying, to the teacher, when they'd finally let her go. Though they had sworn the worst sort of vengeance if she ever told anyone about the incident. And that had only made things worse.

Ivy had denied any such involvement, providing witnesses to prove she was somewhere else at the time. Nevertheless, her reputation as a bully was well known, and she was given a final warning to leave Katie alone.

Now she did, mostly, but only at school. She was clever enough to know that the school could do nothing about what happened outside its jurisdiction.

Now she lay in wait for Katie as she walked home, as
she left school. And now, to make matters even worse, Katie was a ‘grass' to be despised. Even others in the school turned from her, as if she was the one who had done something wrong.

She had never been so unhappy or alone in all her life.

She stamped the ground angrily and cried out. ‘But I'm not even fourteen yet. It's not fair!'

And it wasn't. She didn't know how to handle all this. her teachers, her parents, her friends, none of them really understood what she was going through. None of them could do anything to help her.

She was alone.

Here on the dump she could cry and scream and vent her anger. There was no one to hear her. Here on the dump, she was safe.

At least, she had been until now.

‘So this is where you've been getting to?'

Katie whirled around, wiping her tears with her sleeve as she did.

That voice chilled her. It was Ivy's.

There she stood, her dumpy bulk outlined against the grey sky, her lank black hair hanging over the collar of her jacket. Behind her, as always, Lindy and Michelle.

‘Hidin' frae us, are you?'

Katie's throat went dry as she tried to speak. She felt clammy perspiration on her brow.

‘I wish I wasn't so afraid,' she thought. If Ivy was ever alone she would at least try to fight her, but Ivy was never alone.

‘You picked a nice quiet place anyway,' Ivy said, and the words sent another chill through Katie. Her eyes darted around her. Isolated, and deserted. What was it she had thought only a moment ago?

Here on the dump there was no one to hear her.

The realization of how alone she was made her gasp. The dump was no longer the safe haven it had once been. It never would be again.

Why had she come here? Katie took one step backwards. Ivy sneered. She looked all around the dump, lifted her hands and shrugged.

‘There's no' anywhere you can hide here, hen.'

She took one menacing step towards her and Katie turned and ran.

‘Get her!' Ivy screamed, and Lindy and Michelle began running too.

Katie darted one quick glance behind her. She'd never get away from them. There was nowhere to run, and when they caught her …

She let out a scream as she lost her footing, toppling down a bank of bin bags and rubbish and broken bits of furniture. She rolled over and over and finally landed at the bottom, sandwiched between the bags.

She could hear their voices, their footsteps thundering towards her. Any moment now, they would reach her. Any moment now, they would find her. She was done for.

Nothing could save her now.

Suddenly, a cardboard box nearby moved into life. All Katie could make out written on it were the words … Zan … Automatic Washing Machine. It was definitely moving.

Rats, thought Katie, there are rats here. As if Ivy wasn't enough. There were other rats here too. Only she wasn't so afraid of the four-legged kind.

And then, suddenly, out of the cardboard box,
she
emerged. As if by magic.

A girl, her hair almost the same colour as Katie's but without her healthy sheen. This girl's hair was matted, her face smudged with dirt. She was wearing a red shirt and trousers much too big for her … and a long overcoat. A man's overcoat.

Katie gasped …

OUT NOW!

To order direct from Bloomsbury Publishing visit
www.bloomsbury.com

Special thanks to 7K 2002–2003

All Saints Catholic High, Kirkby, Liverpool

Run, Zan, Run

Missing

Bad Company

Dark Waters

Fighting Back

Another Me

Roxy's Baby

Worse Than Boys

Grass

Out of the Depths

Secret of the Shadows

The Nemesis Series

Into the Shadows

The Beast Within

Sinister Intent

Ride of Death

Copyright © Catherine MacPhail 2004

Bloomsbury Publishing, London, Berlin, New York and Sydney

First published in Great Britain in June 2004
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square,
London, WC1B 3DP

This electronic edition published in 2012 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
The moral right of the author has been asserted

All rights reserved
You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise
make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means
(including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying,
printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the
publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

eISBN: 978 1 4088 1662 2

www.cathymacphail.com

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