Bad Dreams Read Free

their sleep, you know.’
    â€˜Why can’t you just put it down, and finish it tomorrow?’

    But finally, next morning, I reached the end. Gordon was desperate to have it next, so I made its card out right away, and during library hour I put Red Rock on top of the pile of books in front of Imogen.
    â€˜Can you stick a yellow dot on this one, so Gordon can take it home today?’
    â€˜Sure,’ she said, reaching out for it. And then the blood drained from her face. It was extraordinary. I must have read the words a hundred times. ‘Her cheeks went pale.’ ‘Her face went ashen.’ ‘She turned quite white with shock.’ But I would never in a thousand years have guessed it looked like this. It was as if someone had pulled a plug in the bottom of her feet.

    I was sure she was fainting, so I stepped in close, to catch her as she fell. And that’s the only reason I was near enough to hear her whispering to the little girl on the book cover.
    â€˜No! Not that bit of rock! Don’t pick up that one, please !’
    â€˜Imogen? Imogen!’
    It can’t have been more than a moment but it seemed an age before she looked up, startled. Her face was still grey and clammy. ‘What?’
    She hadn’t realized that I’d heard what she was whispering.
    â€˜Nothing,’ I muttered. And it was true that, when it came to saying something, my mind had gone completely blank.
    But I was thinking plenty. After all, if it was ‘hot off the press’, she couldn’t possibly have read the book.
    So how could she have known what was going to happen?

CHAPTER FOUR
    T hat’s when I went to talk to Mr Hooper a second time. Don’t get me wrong. I love ghost tales as much as anyone. I adore stories in which people have weird dreams, and strange things happen. But that’s in books. Real life is supposed to be real, and I like my world to be solid around me. After all, nobody wants to find themselves suddenly trapped in the haunted house they’ve been watching on television, sensing a presence, and feeling the air going ice-cold around them.
    But I was too spooked to go about it the right way. Instead of explaining properly, I just rushed up to Mr Hooper and asked him, ‘Can I please dump Imogen now? She knows her way around, and everything.’
    He wasn’t pleased.
    â€˜Melly,’ he said to me sternly. ‘I’ve told you before, a week is only a week. Now try and be friendly. It’ll be good for you.’
    I felt like saying, ‘You can talk. You were much nicer to Jason when he was new.’ But he’d have thought I was just being cheeky, so I gave up and walked away. And since there was only one more day to go, I tried sticking it out. But it’s not easy, sitting next to someone who sees through the covers into books. You can’t ask straight out, ‘Are you some sort of witch? Do you have second sight?’ So I thought I was going about it in a pretty polite and roundabout way when, strolling back from the lunch hall, I said, all casually, ‘Imogen, do you believe in looking into the future?’
    She spun to face me. ‘Looking into the future?’
    â€˜You know,’ I said. ‘Crystal balls and stuff. Knowing about things even before they happen.’
    Now she was looking positively hunted. ‘Why are you asking?’ she demanded. ‘Have people been talking about me?’
    All the unease I’d been feeling curdled in the pit of my stomach. Either this new girl was a whole lot cleverer at teasing than I’d imagined, or the world was shifting nastily under my feet.
    â€˜Tell me you’re joking, Imogen.’
    You could see that she knew she’d made a big mistake.
    â€˜Of course I’m joking,’ she tried to backtrack. ‘I was just having you on.’
    But I could feel hairs rising on the back of my neck, because I knew she was lying.
    I looked around.