Read Online The Color of Darkness by Ruth Hatfield - Free Book Online Page B

himself.”
    â€œWhat are you going on about?”
    Danny looked at her and then at the circle of wasteland and gray sky at the end of the pipe.
    â€œSammael took my parents,” he said. “He was going to gather a massive storm and destroy everybody, but I found out and stopped him. And I thought that was it, trouble over. But of course it wasn’t. I know he’s still alive somewhere, and this is just the next thing he’s trying to do. I’m not going to fight him again. Somebody else can stop him now. You can, if you’re so worried about it.”
    He flicked a fry at Barshin. The hare declined to touch it, and it lay in the dirt at the bottom of the pipe. Waste of a fry, thought Cath.
    â€œBut Sammael’s in Chromos, ain’t he?” she said. “He ain’t here.”
    Danny’s face stopped in baffled surprise. “Where?”
    â€œChromos,” repeated Cath. “That place with all the imaginary stuff.”
    But Danny ignored the strange name. “ Have you seen him? ” he hissed, dropping the rest of his fries and pushing himself away, ready to spring into escape. “ Did he send you? ”
    â€œNah,” said Cath. “Don’t be an idiot. I don’t know nothin’ about him. What are you so scared of, anyway? If you stopped him before, he can’t be that bad.”
    Danny gave her another sharp look and then turned to the drizzly sky again.
    â€œI killed his dog,” he said. “I didn’t mean to, but I did. And he is bad, in every way you can think of. He’s making my life hell. He’s put all this stuff in my head and now I have nightmares every night, and I can’t be normal because I know too much about everything, and I know what horrible things can happen, and sometimes I make mistakes and say something weird so no one at school likes me now. And I got my parents back, but then all I could think about was that tree, so my dad got rid of all the dead wood and covered the patch in grass, but I still can’t get it out of my head. My parents keep having to come into my bedroom to wake me up because the nightmares make me scream my head off, like some stupid baby. It’s ridiculous . I hate it. But it’s in my head and I can’t get it out.”
    He turned back to Cath, his dark eyes lost. Were those tiny pinpricks of color in his black pupils?
    â€œOkay, okay,” said Cath, thinking that he sounded like a little kid whose mummy told him to go out and play with the big boys at the end of the street. “Ain’t it this guy Tom you ought to be telling that to, though?”
    Danny shook his head again. “There’s no point. He’ll just say I’m being stupid.”
    Cath gave up and turned back to Barshin. “He’s right,” she said. “There ain’t no point. He ain’t going to do anything. So I gave him your message, didn’t I? Can we go back to Chromos now?”
    â€œNo,” said Barshin. “This is important. We must persuade him to intervene with Tom. I won’t take you back to Chromos until we’ve made him understand.”
    Cath thought desperately, trying to find some small clue in what Danny had said. “What about— You said this Sammael’s mad at you because you killed his dog, right? So why don’t we go into Chromos, and you can imagine up his dog and give it to him in there. Seriously, it’s dead easy. In Chromos, you see what you really, really want, so if that’s this dog, then it’ll be there. And then if he gets his dog back, maybe he’ll let this Tom guy go in return. That okay?”
    But Danny’s face was set in the stubborn expression she’d seen when he’d punched the bus shelter.
    â€œNo way. No way am I going anywhere weird. Never. My mum and dad and me all promised each other that none of us would ever go missing again. And anyway, if it was that easy, he’d just