Evil Star Read Free

you believe that? He killed all of them. If you ask me, there's no question about it. He needs to be punished very severely indeed."
    "I don't know where he is," Gwenda said.
    "I can tell you that. He goes to a school called Forrest Hill. It's in Yorkshire, just outside the city of York. That's not so far away."
    "What do you want me to do?" Gwenda asked. Her mouth was dry.
    The can of beans had tilted forward in her hands and cold tomato sauce was dripping into her lap.
    “You like me, don't you, Gwenda?" The television host gave her one of his special smiles. There were little wrinkles in the corners of his eyes. "You want to help me. You know what has to be done."
    Gwenda nodded. For some reason she had begun to cry. She wondered if this would be the last time Rex McKenna would talk to her. She would go to York and she wouldn't come back.
    “You go there on the train and you find him and you make sure that he never hurts anyone again. You owe it to yourself. You owe it to everyone. What do you say?"
    Gwenda couldn't speak. She nodded a second time. The tears were flowing faster.
    Rex backed away. "Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it for Gwenda Davis. She's a lovely lady and she deserves a big round of applause."
    The audience agreed. They clapped and cheered until Gwenda left the room and went upstairs.
    Brian remained where he was, sitting on the sofa, his legs slightly Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star apart, his mouth hanging open. He had been like that ever since Gwenda had stuck the kitchen knife into his chest. It was still there, jutting out of the bloodwy rag that had once been his shirt. Rex had told her to do that, too. Brian had laughed at her. He had said she was mad. She'd had to teach him a lesson he wouldn't forget.
    A few minutes later, Gwenda left the house. She'd meant to pack, but in the end she hadn't been able to find anything worth taking, apart from the ax that she once used to chop wood. She'd slipped that into the handbag that dangled from her arm.
    Gwenda locked the door behind her and walked away. She knew exactly where she was heading: Forrest Hill, a school in Yorkshire.
    She was going to see her nephew, Matt Freeman, again.
    He would certainly be surprised.

    Chapter 2 The New Boy
    It was the same dream as always.
    Matt Freeman was standing on a tower of black rock that seemed to have sprouted out of the ground like some-thing poisonous. He was high up, alone, surrounded on all sides by a sea as dead as anything he had ever seen. The waves rolled in like oil, and although the wind was howling all around him and the sea spray stung his eyes, he felt nothing . . . not even the cold. Somehow he knew that this was a place where the sun never rose or set. He wondered if he had died.
    He turned and looked toward the shoreline, knowing that he would see the other four waiting for him, separated by a stretch of water half a mile wide and many miles deep. They were always there.

    Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star Three boys and a girl, each about his age, waiting for him to make the crossing and join them.
    But this time it was different. One of the boys had some-how found a vessel to carry him across the water. It was a long, narrow, flimsy boat made of reeds that had been woven together with a prow rising up at the front, shaped like the head of a wildcat. Matt could see the waves batter-ing it, trying to send it back. But the boy was rowing with strong, rhythmic strokes. He was cutting across the water, getting closer by the minute. Now Matt could make out some of his features: brown skin, dark eyes, black, very straight hair hanging down to his neck. He was wearing torn jeans and a loose shirt with a hole in one of the elbows.
    Matt felt a surge of hope. In a few minutes the boat would reach the island. If he could just find a way down, he would at last be able to escape. He ran to the edge of the tower and that was when he saw it, reflected in the inky surface of