Read Demon Storm for Free Online Page B

found you,’ he gasped.
    ‘As often as I can, I’ll be here with you.’
    She was walking slowly backwards, into the shadows at the edge of the lake.
    ‘Wait! Where are you going? Where will you be? Where have you been? When will I see you again?’
    Ben ran to catch her. But Sam was shaking her head, biting back the tears. Swallowed up by thedarkness under the willow trees by the path.
    ‘I’m sorry, Ben. But I’m glad – so glad I saw you on our special day. Our promise day. And I promise. I promise I’ll always be here for you, whatever happens. Remember that. Believe that.’
    Ben stood in the rain, straining to see his sister’s pale face in the growing darkness, barely able to make out her silhouette. The movement of her hair as she turned and ran away down the path.
    ‘Happy birthday, Ben. I’ll see you soon.’
    He thought he could hear her crying. Maybe that was why she had to leave. She always turned away or hid when she wanted to cry. She never let him see the tears or hear the sobs.
    ‘Wait!’ Ben yelled. He was running after her, through the shadows, under the drip-drip of the rain off the willow branches. ‘Wait, Sam! I promise too. Always – we’ll be together always, whatever happens.’
    The path was sludge under his feet. The tears were rain in his eyes. And Ben was a shadow in the darkness, running alone.

7
    T HE ONLY WAY BEN COULD DISCOVER WHAT had happened to Sam was to find whoever had taken her that night. Miss Haining had known, but now she knew nothing at all. The man in the suit who’d brought the box might know, though. Miss Haining had been spying on him and Mr Magill – perhaps to find out how much they did know. He should have told Mr Magill, but the chance had gone now – as had Mr Magill. He’d left for his new job just before Ben’s birthday.
    Ben couldn’t think of any way to track down the fair-haired, lopsided man he’d seen on the night Miss Haining was attacked. So the man in the suit was his only lead. And his only way of finding him was to go to Mr Magill. Sam was out there somewhere. He didn’t understand why she’d runaway from him, why she’d left him on his own by the lake. But he’d find out.
    Discovering where Mr Magill had gone was easier than he expected. He just asked. And Mrs Alten, who was covering the maths teaching, told him.
    ‘Oh, I think he went to a boarding school near Bristol somewhere. Did you want to write to him? How thoughtful. If you give the letter to me I’ll pass it on to the office and I’m sure they’ll send it for you.’
    She probably didn’t know the address, or even the name of the school, Ben thought. He considered writing to ask Mr Magill to come and visit him. If he said he knew where Sam was, would that bring Mr Magill and the man with the suit? He thought about it for a long time, then he wrote a short note saying how much he missed Mr Magill and hoped he was enjoying his new job and that Mrs Alten was very nice but didn’t give out lollipops.
    Ben sealed the note in an envelope he got from Big Jim. The envelope was a distinctive pale blue, but to be sure Ben wrote Mr Magill’s name is spiky capitals on the front.
    Mrs Alten was as good as her word. The post going out from the home was left in a special tray on the desk in the main office. Ben thought ofseveral different excuses to go to the office during the day. But he needed only one. The corner of a small blue envelope poked out from under a pile of official-looking large brown ones in the tray.
    ‘I think it’s Charlie’s birthday this week,’ Ben told Mrs Trundall. ‘I’d like to give him a card, but I want to be sure I get the right day.’
    ‘Why don’t you just ask him when it is? Or one of the other boys?’
    ‘I want it to be a surprise.’
    Mrs Trundall smiled. ‘That’s very sweet, Ben. Wait a moment and I’ll check for you.’
    As soon as she turned away to open the filing cabinet, Ben lifted the brown envelopes. Sure enough, the blue