The Hunted Read Free

she dead?
    She closed her eyes. Felt for any pain. There was none. Only a slight tiny soreness in one wrist. It was more like the memory of pain than an actual feeling. Someone must have held on to her by the wrist, pulled her. She couldn’t remember that. The last thing was …
    Ella opened her eyes in panic.
    The grown-up. The ugly one with the chewed face. Where was he? She was too scared to move anything except her eyes. She rolled them around, trying to see where she was.
    ‘It’s all right.’
    She turned towards the voice without thinking. Therewas someone next to her. Lying on the ground. She recognized the voice. It was Monkey-Boy.
    ‘Are you alive?’ Ella asked.
    ‘Yes … But it hurts.’ Monkey-Boy said this very quietly, and he sounded sad. ‘Are you hurt?’ he added.
    ‘I don’t think so.’ Ella thought of mentioning her wrist, but decided not to. It wasn’t really important.
    Monkey-Boy was just a dark shape on the ground. There was a faint line of starlight across his cheek. The last time she’d see him the grown-up had been holding him and they were still inside the hotel. Nothing made any sense to her. How had they got out here? Ella wasn’t sure she wanted to know. She was quite enjoying just lying there not hurting. Not knowing. In the dark.
    ‘He saved us,’ said Monkey-Boy.
    ‘Who?’
    ‘The grown-up.’
    ‘What? You mean the one with the mashed-up face?’
    ‘Yes. He wasn’t with the other ones.’ Monkey-Boy’s voice sounded croaky, wobbly, weak. ‘He attacked them. He saved us.’
    ‘Why?’ asked Ella and immediately wished she hadn’t. The grown-up had probably captured her and Monkey-Boy to keep them both for himself. Like a lone wolf fighting off other wolves to get to a killed deer or something.
    And now she heard herself asking the question she never wanted answered.
    ‘What happened?’
    ‘I woke up,’ said Monkey-Boy and now Ella could hear that his voice was all wheezy and bubbly as well, like he needed to clear his throat. All full of phlegm.
    ‘And then what?’
    ‘I needed a wee. I was desperate. I didn’t want to make any noise. Maeve and Robbie had told us to keep quiet, and stay hidden.’
    ‘You needed a wee?’
    ‘Yes, I was bursting. It was horrible. I didn’t want to wet the bed because you and Maeve were sleeping in it. I was embarrassed.’
    Ella wished yesterday had never happened. She wished she’d never left London and all her other friends. Maeve had promised her, though. She’d been so sure. That she’d take them to a better place, in the countryside, with fresh air and fresh food and no grown-ups. A new life. They’d only got as far as a hotel on an island in the river. Monkey Island. That had felt right, a place for the boy who loved to climb, for the Monkey-Boy.
    They found a room and settled down for the night. Just the four of them. Her and Monkey-Boy and Maeve and Robbie. Robbie who couldn’t even walk properly because of his wounded leg. What chance did they have? Stupid. Stupid. You needed an army.
    Ella fought to stop herself from crying.
    ‘I thought I was going to explode,’ Monkey-Boy went on. ‘Lying there in the bed for hour after hour. I couldn’t sleep. In the end I got up and tried to find the door for the bathroom. It’s what you call an ensuite. It means that …’
    ‘I know what “ensuite” means,’ Ella snapped. ‘It means you have a loo and bathroom right next to your bedroom. I’m not dumb.’
    ‘Sure. OK. Sorry. I thought I had the right door. Maybe I did and they were hiding in the bathroom, or maybe Iopened the door to the corridor by accident and they were waiting out there.’
    ‘Who?’
    ‘The grown-ups. They were waiting. Quiet in the dark. They came in quickly. I don’t know how many. Quickly and quietly. I couldn’t make a sound, or shout for help. They were well clever; one of them smothered my face in his stomach. It really stank. I thought I’d be sick. I did wee myself then. And he