A Monster Calls Read Free

change hadn’t come when everything started with Conor’s mum. No, it had come later, when Conor started having the nightmare, the
real
nightmare, not the stupid tree, the nightmare with the screaming and the falling, the nightmare he would never tell another living soul about. When Conor started having
that
nightmare, that’s when Harry noticed him, like a secret mark had been placed on him that only Harry could see.
    A mark that drew Harry to him like iron to a magnet.
    On the first day of the new school year, Harry had tripped Conor coming into the school grounds, sending him tumbling to the pavement.
    And so it had begun.
    And so it had continued.
    – • –
    Conor kept his back turned as Anton and Sully laughed. He ran his tongue along the inside of his lip to see how bad the bite was. Not terrible. He’d live, if he could make it to Form without anything further happening.
    But then something further happened.
    “Leave him alone!” Conor heard, wincing at the sound.
    He turned and saw Lily Andrews pushing her furious face into Harry’s, which only made Anton and Sully laugh even harder.
    “Your poodle’s here to save you,” Anton said.
    “I’m just making it a fair fight,” Lily huffed, her wiry curls bouncing around all poodle-like, no matter how tightly she’d tied them back.
    “You’re bleeding, O’Malley,” Harry said, calmly ignoring Lily.
    Conor put his hand up to his mouth too late to catch a bit of blood coming out of the corner.
    “He’ll have to get his baldy mother to kiss it better for him!” Sully crowed.
    Conor’s stomach contracted to a ball of fire, like a little sun burning him up from the inside, but before he could react, Lily did. With a cry of outrage, she pushed an astonished Sully into the shrubbery, toppling him all the way over.
    “Lillian Andrews!” came the voice of doom from halfway across the yard.
    They froze. Even Sully paused in the act of getting up. Miss Kwan, their Head of Year, was storming over to them, her scariest frown burnt into her face like a scar.
    “They started it, Miss,” Lily said, already defending herself.
    “I don’t want to hear it,” Miss Kwan said. “Are you all right, Sullivan?”
    Sully shot a quick glance at Lily, then got a pained look across his face. “I don’t know, Miss,” he said. “I might need to go home.”
    “Don’t milk it,” Miss Kwan said. “To my office, Lillian.”
    “But Miss, they were–”
    “
Now
, Lillian.”
    “They were making fun of Conor’s mother!”
    This made everyone freeze again, and the burning sun in Conor’s stomach grew hotter, ready to eat him alive.
    (–and in his mind, he felt a flash of the nightmare, of the howling wind, of the burning blackness–)
    He pushed it away.
    “Is this true, Conor?” Miss Kwan asked, her face as serious as a sermon.
    The blood on Conor’s tongue made him want to throw up. He looked over to Harry and his cronies. Anton and Sully seemed worried, but Harry just stared back at him, unruffled and calm, like he was genuinely curious as to what Conor might say.
    “No, Miss, it’s not true,” Conor said, swallowing the blood. “I just fell. They were helping me up.”
    Lily’s face turned instantly into hurt surprise. Her mouth dropped open, but she made no sound.
    “Get to your Forms,” Miss Kwan said. “Except for you, Lillian.”
    Lily kept looking back at Conor as Miss Kwan pulled her away, but Conor turned from her.
    To find Harry holding his rucksack out for him.
    “Well done, O’Malley,” Harry said.
    Conor said nothing, just took the bag from him roughly and made his way inside.

LIFE WRITING
    Stories
, Conor thought with dread as he walked home.
    It was after school, and he’d made his escape. He’d got through the rest of the day avoiding Harry and the others, though they probably knew better than to risk causing him another “accident” so soon after nearly getting caught by Miss Kwan. He’d also avoided Lily, who had returned to