Room 13 (14 page)

Lisa nodded. ‘You can say that again. I’m glad we did it, though. We made things better, didn’t we, Fliss – I could sort of feel it this morning.’

‘Oh, so could I. Everybody could, I think. Mr Wilkinson, whistling. And the driver. Drivers are usually a bit narky when they’ve got a coachload of kids, but this one isn’t. Look at him, grinning in the mirror.’

The coach swooped down into Sleights, then toiled up the road to the moors. Halfway up, Fliss slapped her knee and cried, ‘Drat!’

Lisa looked at her. ‘What’s up?’

‘I’ve just remembered – that picture I got for my mum. I put it on top of the wardrobe and I’ve left it there.’

‘Oh, Fliss! Why did you put it there, and not in your case?’

‘I had other things to think about, didn’t I? Vampires, for instance. I just shoved it any old where and forgot about it.’

‘Maybe Mrs Wilkinson’ll find it – send it on.’

‘How can she? She won’t know it’s mine. It might have been there weeks for all she knows.’ She sighed. ‘Poor Mum – no pressy.’

They were on the moors now. Sun and sky, wind and heather. Mr Hepworth stood up. ‘If you look back now,’ he said, ‘you’ll get a glimpse of the abbey.’

Everybody stood or knelt, looking back. There it was, a black, dramatic silhouette against the shining sea. As Fliss gazed at it, somebody touched her elbow. She turned, and saw Ellie-May with a little flat package in her hand. ‘I heard what you said,’ she whispered, ‘about your mum’s picture. I want you to have this.’

‘What is it, Ellie-May?’

‘A picture. A Sutcliffe, like the one you lost. I saw you with it yesterday.’

‘Well, don’t you want it? Didn’t you buy it for someone?’

‘I bought it for me, Fliss. It was a present from me to myself.’ She smiled. ‘I bring myself presents all the time. Or rather, I did. I was my favourite person, you see. Now you are – you and Lisa and Gary and Trot – because I know what you did. Here – take it.’

Fliss took the package. She smiled at Ellie-May. ‘Thanks.’

‘Thank you, Fliss.’ Nobody had seen her give Fliss the picture. Everybody was busy looking at the abbey. She slipped back to her seat.

Fliss looked along the coach at Ellie-May, then down at the little package. She smiled.

‘So long, Dracula,’ she whispered. ‘Hi, felicity.’

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robert Swindells
left school at fifteen and worked as a copyholder on a local newspaper. At seventeen he joined the RAF for three years, two of which he served in Germany. He then worked as a clerk, an engineer and a printer before training and working as a teacher. He is now a full-time writer and lives on the Yorkshire moors.

He has written many books for young readers, including many for the Transworld children’s lists, his first of which,
Room 13
won the 1990 Children’s Book Award, whilst his latest,
Abomination
, won the 1999 Stockport Children’s Book Award and the Sheffield Children’s Book Award and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize, the Lancashire Children’s Book Award
and
the 1999 Children’s Book Award. His books for older readers include
Stone Cold
, which won the 1994 Carnegie Medal, as well as the award-winning
Brother in the Land
. As well as writing, Robert Swindells enjoys keeping fit, travelling and reading.

Also available by Robert Swindells
and published by Doubleday/Corgi Yearling Books:

ABOMINATION

BLITZED

HYDRA

INSIDE THE WORM

INVISIBLE!

JACQUELINE HYDE

NIGHTMARE STAIRS

RUBY TANYA

THE THOUSAND EYES OF NIGHT

TIMESNATCH

A WISH FOR WINGS

INSIDE THE WORM

Robert Swindells

The worm was close now. So close Fliss could smell the putrid stench of its breath. Its slavering jaws gaped to engulf her
…

Everyone in Elsworth knows the local legend about the monstrous worm that once terrorised the village. But it never
really
happened. Or did it? For when Fliss and her friends are chosen to re-enact the legend for the village Festival, something very sinister begins to happen.

Hidden within the framework of the worm costume, the four who are to play the part of the worm dance as one across the ground. And as they sense the exhilaration of awesome power, an intense excitement that tempts them to turn beauty into ugliness, good into evil, Fliss begins to feel real fear. Somehow, the worm itself is returning – with a thousand-year hunger in its belly, and vengeance in its brain …

A compelling, fast-paced and spine-chilling new thriller, featuring Fliss and her friends from the award-winning
Room 13
.

0 440 86464X

CORGI YEARLING BOOKS

ROOM 13
AN RHCB DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 448 10019 4

Published in Great Britain by RHCB Digital,
an imprint of Random House Children’s Books
A Random House Group Company

This ebook edition published 2011

Copyright © Robert Swindells, 1989
Illustrations copyright © 1989 by Jon Riley

First Published in Great Britain

Doubleday 1989

The right of Robert Swindells to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.