The Keeper

The Keeper Read Free Page B

Book: The Keeper Read Free
Author: Darragh Martin
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been more ready to get back to his friends and his own house.
    â€˜It’s too early to be getting dark,’ Granny Keane murmured. In the middle of June, the sun never set until after ten, and yet the station was gradually getting darker and darker.
    â€˜Probably climate change,’ Stephen said. That was what their father said whenever the weather went weird.
    â€˜No, no, it’s nothing,’ Granny Keane said quickly, standing up as if she’d suddenly realised something. ‘Come on, let’s get you a seat near the front.’
    Usually they walked along the platform because it was easier to get a seat at the front of the train, but Oisín didn’t think they needed to worry about that today. The few people at the station were leaving, whispering about the terrible state of train delays, the awful cheat of a summer where it started to get dark at five o’clock and how it was all probably something to do with the euro.
    â€˜Gran, are you sure the train’s coming?’ Oisín said, looking up to check the clock.
    The train was still twenty minutes away and the neon seconds were flickering along towards five o’clock. But as soon as Oisín looked up he saw at once what had bothered Granny Keane and what was causing the unnatural darkness. Hovering over the glass roof were several creatures, their black forms blocking all the sun from the platform. Not one, not tens, but hundreds and hundreds of ravens, all of them pecking their beaks against the glass and looking down with terrible green eyes.

Chapter 3
    The Underwater Train
    O ISÍN’s head told him to run. The problem was his legs. His legs were rooted to the platform as if they had decided it was time he learnt what scared stiff really meant. Oisín looked at his feet so he wouldn’t have to think about the ravens, but he could feel them looking down at him, could feel the hairs on his neck stand straight as soldiers. The Book of Magic could sense them too. It was squirming in his pocket as if it wanted to get out. Oisín wasn’t sure if it wanted to get away from the ravens or to join them. Stephen and Sorcha hadn’t noticed yet. Sorcha was happy with her Maltesers (she had reached the sucking-the-chocolate stage). Stephen was playing intently with his mobile phone. The air around them got colder and darker.
    Just when Oisín’s brain had almost convinced his legs that it was time to get moving, he felt Granny Keane’s hand on his shoulder. Her face was smiling tightly but he could feel her hand shaking. He had to tell her.
    â€˜Gran –’
    â€˜It’s the train!’ Granny Keane said, without hearing him.
    â€˜There’s no train,’ Oisín said. ‘The clock still says it’s twenty minutes away.’
    But when he looked at the platform, the train was right there, as if it, rather than they, had been waiting all this time. It looked like a normal DART train with the same green checked cushions and yellow stripe on the side. Something wasn’t right, though. It was eerily empty and hadn’t made a single sound as it reached the platform. Oisín was beginning to feel like he didn’t have enough hairs on the back of his neck for all this strangeness.
    Stephen didn’t seem bothered. He hurried Sorcha into the carriage and waited impatiently for Oisín. Oisín’s legs were still staying put. He couldn’t leave Granny Keane alone on the platform, even though she was planning on taking the 130 bus back to her own house in Clontarf.
    â€˜Why don’t you come with us?’ he asked.
    A flicker of longing flashed across Granny Keane’s face.
    â€˜No, dear, I’m staying here,’ she said, patting Oisín on the shoulder. ‘But you must go. Just remember –’
    â€˜Come on!’ Stephen said, yanking Oisín by the arm.
    â€˜Wait!’ Oisín said.
    â€˜Don’t worry about me,’ Granny Keane said

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