Troubletwisters Read Free

that had cast it. Through their shock, the twins recognised their father, but he looked like nothing they had ever seen before. Light rippled up and down his body like a gas flame, concentrating in his open hands. His hair waved like a nest of electric snakes.
    Hector Shield grabbed the lightning as if it were a rope and hauled on it as hard as he could, pulling the twins to him. They reeled into his arms, and he took the iron rod from their frozen hands without difficulty.
    The white eyes flared brighter.
    ++ No! ++ the voice cried. ++ They belong to us! They want to be with us! ++
    ‘Never!’ shouted Hector.
    He raised the iron rod. Lightning burst from its tip, chain lightning that crackled across a dozen white eyes, bursting them like trodden-on grapes. But more and more eyes kept appearing, and they grew closer and closer despite everything Hector did. The twins clung to him, not understanding what was going on but in no doubt at all that they were in mortal danger.
    ‘Get behind me!’ Hector croaked to the children. He held up the rod again, but only a flickering spark jumped out. The eyes were everywhere, drawing nearer and nearer, as if a vast creature with ten thousand eyeballs was peering down at the small, helpless group of humans. The floor beneath their feet was tilting and rising at the sides, turning into a funnel, making them slide forward, and they all had the growing sensation that hidden behind or below the multitude of eyes, there might also be a mouth.
    ‘Get . . . get behind me!’ the twins’ father called out again. ‘Then run for the stairs!’
    ++ Come to us! ++ countered the voice. It sounded very self-satisfied now, as if Hector’s words were a concession of weakness.
    The twins disobeyed both instructions. Jack stayed absolutely still, transfixed and paralysed. Jaide actually took a step forward.
    ‘No!’ she shouted back at the great cloud of eyes. ‘Go away!’
    ‘Jaide! Don’t —’ Hector yelled, dropping the iron rod and gathering the children in.
    A tide of darkness swept over the room, snuffing out the glowing eyes. At the same time, the air became hot and gusted furiously through the room. The wind tugged at Jaide, lifting her off her feet till Jack and Hector pulled her back down.
    ‘I can’t see!’ Jaide screamed as the wind tore at her again. The darkness was almost worse than the staring eyes, and the wind kept getting stronger, accompanied by terrible crashing noises all around.
    ‘Down!’ shouted Hector. He pushed them flat on the floor as something – possibly the bed – flew over their heads and smashed into the wall. Clothes whipped from the wardrobe with a sound like giant birds flapping, and then the wardrobe itself blew into matchwood. Hector started to drag the twins back through the doorway.
    The walls screamed as the roof came off and spun away. The twins screamed, too, not knowing what was making the noise.
    Then they felt their father’s hands on them, pressing them to him, holding them down.
    ‘Calm down, kids. We’ll be all right. Take slow breaths. In for five seconds . . . one . . . two . . . three . . . four . . . five – and now out for five seconds . . .’
    As he counted, the darkness lifted. Jack found himself following his father’s instructions even as his heart pounded in terror. Sunshine slowly filtered in from above, through the gaping absence where the roof had been. Jaide felt her brother grow calm, and that helped her relax, too. The wind slowed to a gentle breeze, and then stopped altogether, to be replaced by an eerie silence, as if they were in the eye of a storm.
    Behind the silence, as though behind a pane of glass that could shatter at any moment, the eyes were waiting.
    ‘That’s it,’ said Hector. ‘Nice, slow breaths . . .’
    Jack’s eyes shut for a moment. He twitched and raised his head. Suddenly he felt incredibly sleepy, as if he’d been woken in the middle of the night. He looked at Jaide, who was also nodding