Read Hellspawn (Book 1) for Free Online Page B

laughed, and the rest of the class joined in, until a withering look from Mrs Blume silenced the uproar.
    “What do you think you are doing, talking to Mr Sullivan during class?” she demanded, standing from her desk.
    “Miss, I wasn’t. I…” Sam blustered.
    “I saw you turned towards him, are you calling me a liar?” she questioned sarcastically, making her way around the desk.
    “No Miss, I mean I wasn’t talking to him. He stuck me with a compass, Miss. I’m bleeding,” Sam replied, his stomach fluttering with worry. He never got in trouble. He wanted the ground to swallow him up, right there and then.
    “Fucking snitch, you wait!” came the hissed whisper from behind him.
    “Oh really, then let me see,” Mrs Blume asked, as she neared the two boys. A sudden hard rap on the door brought her to a standstill. Turning on her heels, she said, “You two follow me, we will get to the bottom of this in the corridor.”
    Sam stood, and carefully put his chair back under the table.  James shot him a look of pity. He knew what was coming at the school gates this afternoon. Braiden slammed out of his chair with enough force to topple it over, before giving it a kick, which caused it to rebound on the metal desk leg with a clang. This brought a renewed bout of knocking on the classroom door.
    “BRAIDEN SULLIVAN! You are in even more trouble now, young man,” she admonished as she reached for the door handle. At that moment, the fire alarm sounded, an ear-splitting din that ensured no corner of the school building was left unaware of the danger. 
    “Ok class, leave your things and follow me in an orderly manner,” instructed the teacher, picking up the class register that was on her desk. She would use it to check off names when they reached the fire assembly area on the school grounds. Glancing around the room to check that her young charges were following her instruction, she took hold of the door handle and opened it to see who had been knocking.

Chapter 7
    The rain had completely stopped and Kurt was grateful. The landscape passed, a parade of red brick houses and bungalows with lights glowing from within. It was both a heartening vision of humanity, but also possibly a beacon for the not so human. The thought was portentous, as the very next bungalow had a figure shuffling down the well-tended, flowered path. From behind, it was obvious what it was, very thin and wet from the rain that had only recently ceased, its clothes barely in evidence, only torn scraps of fabric remaining. The noise of the van passing had not disturbed the zombie, who carried on toward the lit dwelling, intent upon the movement from within.
    His mind sharp now, Kurt looked around carefully as he approached the entrance to the school, before turning in and parking behind his wife’s silver Kia Sportage. Through the rear screen, Kurt could see that she was not in the driver’s seat or anywhere within the car. Pulling the handbrake sharply, he jumped out, felt for the reassuring weight of the hammer in his belt and took it out. He took in the scene; the brick pillars that marked the entrance were met by a chain-link fence that ran to the right and skirted the school boundary, encompassing the buildings and sports fields. Nothing moved in that direction. Looking left, he followed the high hedge that ran for one hundred yards and met the pillars of the exit gate, and saw nothing. They had parked on the crescent of road that ran parallel to the drab, concrete frontage of the school building. In the mornings, cars would be bumper to bumper here, children jumping out, waving goodbye to their parents as they headed into class. Now, there was nothing. The loneliness of the surroundings caused an involuntary shiver to run down Kurt’s spine. The panorama had taken all of five seconds to take in and without further thought, he ran to the main reception entrance to the school. The automatic doors opened, revealing Sarah, who stood in the main