Shift Read Free

part of my brain. A part that cared what these idiots thought of me, that didn’t want to look like a coward in front of them all. As the cheers got louder and the adrenaline started flowing, that stupid, pack-mentality part of my brain took over completely. No one would call me a loser once I’d conquered the Pylon. I wouldn’t be called Scotty ‘Snotty’ Tyler any more. I’d be their hero. I’d be one of them. And She would be watching.
    “What are you doing?” Hugo hissed at me. I ignored him.
    My fingers curled around the wire fence. Behind it stood the Pylon, like a stunted Eiffel Tower, calling to me. The stick-figure man on the ‘DANGER OF DEATH’ sign waved me away. Or maybe it was just his body convulsing with the current. Either way he wasn’t stopping me. I hefted myself up.
    Halfway, my trainers slipped in the loops of wire. There was a gasp as I clung by my fingers, legs pedalling in the air. A thought struck me. I could let go now and fall, what? Six feet? That wouldn’t be so bad. An inelegant end to what had been a stupid idea to start with, but at least it would be over.
    But then I heard them chanting my name. They were chanting my goddamned name! My foot found its purchase again and I pulled myself up and over the fence. Any thoughts of quitting vanished as I landed on the other side. It was just me and my personal Everest.
    I didn’t even know if I was right about the Pylon being switched off. I remembered a YouTube video of an elephant wrapping her trunk around a live wire and hitting the ground. If it could do that to a jumbo, what exactly would happen to me? Only one way to find out.
    I jumped, leaping up to grab onto the first strut. I waited for the bolts of electricity to send me flying back into the fence. Nothing. I was safe. For now. The crew had fallen into a shocked silence, watching my ascent.
    I stepped up to the next rung. And the next one.
    “OK, you’ve made your point,” I heard Hugo say. “Now come back down!”
    Before I knew what was happening, I was fifteen rungs up, only feet from the very top. A girl’s voice cried out in apparent concern. I glanced back, to see if it had been The Girl calling after me. Big mistake.
    I couldn’t move. As soon as I’d looked down to the ground, everything span and my limbs froze. Oh, now you decide to stop, I said to my treacherous legs. And the worst thing? The Girl was watching. She took a drag on her cigarette, shook her head, and turned away.
    What the hell was I doing? I wasn’t impressing anyone. The only thing I was going to do was get myself killed.
    Sweat prickled on my forehead and it felt as if something was trying to get out of my stomach. I closed my eyes and pressed myself against the metal bar. Just one more, I said, over and over, one more strut and you can go back down.
    Without opening my eyes, I stretched up a shaking hand, feeling for the metal rod above. My fingers closed around it, sharp edges cutting into my flesh. I had two hands on the final strut and I lifted my foot up.
    The snap of metal was like the sound of a coffin lid slamming shut. The broken strut slipped through my fingers and I was falling, hands grasping at air, legs kicking helplessly.
    A single thought flooded through my mind. Why? Why the hell hadn’t I given up when I had the chance? Why the hell was I such a complete and utter loser?
    Then it happened. Everything went black and I felt a flipping lurch in my stomach, like when you go over a hill in a car and it takes a few seconds for your insides to catch up with you. A strange sense of being suspended between two places at once. My head pounded and I felt hot and cold at the same time.
    When the lights came back on, I was lying on my back, gazing up at the Pylon through the fence. I wasn’t dead. I wasn’t even hurt, apart from a thudding in my backside. Sitting up, a smile stretching my face, I turned to look at the crew. They weren’t watching any more. They were sitting back on the