The Demon Collector

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Book: Read The Demon Collector for Free Online
Authors: Jon Mayhew
opened it. Henry barked and scampered off down the corridor into the gloom.
    ‘Henry!’ Edgy called, but he had vanished. ‘Look what you’ve done now!’
    ‘Well, you shouldn’t have taken my room!’ Sally’s ice-blue eyes burned and she stood glaring, hands on hips.
    ‘I ’aven’t taken your stupid room – I’m not stoppin’.’ Edgy picked himself up from the floor. ‘But if Henry comes to any harm, you’ll wish you were properly dead!’
    Sally’s face crumpled. A sadness swept across it. She turned and stalked off down the passageway.
    ‘I already do,’ she said, without looking back. Edgy could hear the tears in her voice but he hurried in the opposite direction in search of Henry.
    If Edgy hadn’t seen the daylight through his bedroom window, he wouldn’t have known whether it was day or night in the gloomy corridors.
    ‘That dog’s got himself lost, good and proper,’ he muttered as he crept through the tangling passageways.
    Remembering that reference in the book, he tried to think his way towards Henry. He hissed with annoyance – why did the exhibition hall that Janus had talked to the imp about yesterday keep slipping into his mind?
    The corridor twisted to the left and a bulky shadow twisted its way around the curved wall. A scraping, swishing sound followed it.
    Edgy stopped dead. His heart pounded.
    The noise became louder. Swish, scrape, swish, scrape .
    Edgy started to back away from the corner.
    The swaying green bulk of Madame Lillith appeared behind the grotesque shadow, sweeping with vicious strokes as she went. She froze and glared at him.
    ‘Give ’im to me,’ she muttered, though her mouth remained a tight line in her round prune of a face.
    ‘What?’ Edgy stammered. ‘Who?’
    ‘Your dog.’ She craned her neck forward, leaned on her brush and jabbed her thumb behind her. ‘I want ’im. Give ’im to me.’
    ‘Henry?’ Edgy said. He barged past her and ran round the corner.
    A round hallway opened before him and Henry cowered in the centre, looking from right to left.
    ‘Henry!’ Edgy called, crouching to meet him as he came bounding forward. He leapt into his arms, licking his face and battering the floor with his tail. ‘That ’orrible old bat ain’t havin’ you!’
    Edgy looked up. Two enormous doors stood before him. Golden rivets held thick, polished planks together. A brass plaque shone out on the left-hand door.
    ‘ Exhibition Hall ,’ he read out loud. ‘Well, I’ll be . . .’ He thought better of finishing the sentence and gripped the huge, round handles. Dragging one of the doors open, he poked his head round it and yelled in terror.
    A huge skull with curling ram’s horns leered down at Edgy with teeth like six-inch nails. He stumbled backwards, tripping over Henry, and lay in a ball, eyes squeezed shut.
    Henry’s bark echoed around the hall but all else was silent. Edgy opened an eye. The skull hovered over him as still as a statue. Chancing both eyes, he peered up and fell flat on his back, laughing at his own cowardice.
    ‘It’s some kind of exhibit,’ he said to Henry, who cocked his leg on a statue of a dragon that flanked the door to show how concerned he had been. The wired-together bones of some long-dead demon loomed over them, claws outstretched, jaws wide. ‘It had me fooled.’
    Beyond the skeleton, rows and rows of glass cases, display cabinets, statues and vases dotted the enormous hall. Various gargoyles and fiends dangled from the ceiling, suspended by steel cable.
    ‘Fascinating, isn’t it?’ Janus said, appearing from behind a display cabinet. Edgy gave a start and put a hand to his thumping heart.
    ‘Mr Janus, you frightened me ’alf to death,’ he said, clearing his throat. ‘Look, I’m sorry an’ all that but I’ve got to go. It’s a bit . . . mad round ’ere.’
    ‘Let me show you around first.’ Janus smiled as if reading Edgy’s mind. ‘It may answer some of your questions and make more

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