Read Mammon for Free Online

sir. Of course.’
    Mammon smiled. ‘Of course you would.’ He lunged forward and grabbed the boy by the throat, yanking him off his feet, carrying him towards the railing. William kicked his legs; a futile, pointless act – infantile. Below, the dark waters lay in wait.
    â€˜Please, sir! Please don’t!’
    Mammon jutted out his chin, bared his teeth. ‘I liked that shirt.’ He lifted the boy higher and threw him out into the air.
    There was a brief silence, then William crashed into the water. Halphas watched the boy’s head emerge and his panicked eyes snap left and right. The old man looked to the horizon, and he knew what William was thinking: there was no land in sight. The sun was disappearing behind the earth; sea and sky merging in a suffocating blackness.
    The boy would never see home again. Within minutes he would be gulping water; the waves being so high and all. Without emotion, Halphas watched the boy become a dot in the distance.
    Mammon drew a deep breath and rolled his neck from side to side. ‘God, I love the sea air.’ He turned and made his way back into the stateroom. ‘Find me another shirt, Halphas.’

IN THE CALM of early morning, Joe was flying.
    He passed a dying star, its brilliant shards of purple light beaming out from the fiery core.
    He felt the tingle of ice particles, a ring that orbited a lonely world. Voices cried from that space, calling to him.
    Mercy.
    The dark bubble that carried him couldn’t shut out those voices. They rose from the planet’s core in dark, murky waves. He turned away, tormented by the collective agony.
    A tunnel lay ahead. Made of thunderclouds, moving, illuminated against the blackness of space by ripples of lightning that charged up and down curved walls.
    He floated at its entrance. It would take him to eternity, but he wasn’t ready to go there yet.
    And so, he woke.
    Opening his eyes, he stared ahead. The light in his room seemed strange. His limbs felt jump-started, as though electricity had coursed through them, shocking him back to the real world.
    Joe blinked again.
    Something dark and shadowy hung above. He squinted. Yes, it was something black but shimmery. It sat strangely against the pure, fresh light of dawn.
    He shot up, sitting rigidly. Gasping.
    A sphere with grey clouds as wide as the ceiling. Every few seconds, lightning rippled up and down its walls.
    He laughed. He was still dreaming.
    He sat, just staring at it as the room became lighter. The house began to hum with the whistle of the kettle, the clunk of pipes in the bathroom – but the sphere remained.
    Was it waiting . . . for him?
    Joe lifted a finger to touch the edge of the cloud. Just air. What did he expect, though? He pulled himself up on to his knees, staring up in awe. ‘What the hell is it?’ Again, his finger brushed the circle’s edge. It was like touching dust motes sitting on rays of light. He lowered his finger; the cloud wobbled and expanded like clay on a potter’s wheel, spinning, contorting, growing.
    What if it grew into something uncontrollable? Sharply pulling his hand away, he ducked his head sideways. The ceiling was still up there, on the other side.
    He jumped, startled by two loud knocks. ‘Joe! Time to get up!’
    â€˜Okay, Mum!’ He crept around the edge of the bed, almost on tiptoe, investigating the strange entity.
    Inside the sphere: darkness. Like camping in the country beneath overcast skies. An endless, gloomy path, lit up only by the slivers of lightning that danced along the walls.
    Walls! How could it have walls? It wasn’t even solid! He rolled a tennis ball between his fingers like a giant worry bead. No way was he putting his head in there.
    He stared into the black depths for a few seconds – and then threw the ball.
    It was sucked into the sphere. Joe gasped. ‘That was fast.’ Eyes still pinned on the swirling clouds, he leaned back and