Read The Hunting Ground for Free Online Page B

Whenever, that is, he gets close enough for the ghosts to hear his whisper.’
    While I tried to take this in, Janey pointed at the perimeter walls.
    ‘I’d like to be able to walk across the Glebe estate without gathering ghosts around me all day long,’ she said grimly. ‘But that won’t happen until the hunter in the East Wing is stopped. The ghost children aren’t pining to be alive, Theo. They don’t wish to be with us at all. They should be elsewhere. The dead are meant to be dead. They’ve stayed behind on this spot because of what’s inside Glebe House. To stop the owner who killed them fromkilling anyone else. Right now – to stop him from killing you and Eve.’
    ‘That’s it,’ Elliott said, laying the last sheet down.
    ‘What? The diary ends there?’ Ben groaned. ‘You’re kidding! There’re no more pages?’
    ‘I know. I can’t believe it, either,’ Elliott said, ‘but it’s all Dad could find.’ He re-read the last entries. ‘The original owner,’ he murmured. ‘Janey was telling Theo that he’s still here in the house.’
    ‘The same man who did the portraits?’
    ‘Mm.’
    Ben kneaded his bruise. ‘Load of rubbish,’ he grunted. ‘This whole diary thing is made up. Has to be. Something Theo left behind as a laugh. Pretty clever, if you think about it.’
    ‘Yeah, maybe,’ Elliott said doubtfully, needing time to think.
    ‘It’s a story,’ Ben insisted. ‘It’s got to be. Anything else is just stupid.’ He stood up.
    ‘Where are you going?’ Elliott asked.
    ‘To the bathroom. If I’m not back in five minutes you might want to check, though.’
    ‘Check what?’
    ‘That I’m still in there,’ Ben said, grinning. ‘
Still alive
, I mean. Whoooooooooh!’
    Ben laughed, but Elliott didn’t join in, and after hisbrother walked off Elliott sat on the edge of his mattress, still reeling from the diary revelations. Had Theo really made the whole thing up? Was it just the fact that he’d seen the older version of Janey Roberts, Theo’s neighbour in the 1960s, that made the diary feel so real? Elliott wanted to believe that, but only because the alternative wasn’t something he wanted to believe at all. Because if Theo was telling the truth, fifty years ago his little sister Eve had repeatedly gone into the East Wing. She’d become so obsessed with the owner’s portraits that she’d gone as far as to smash her way inside. And now the same thing was happening to Ben. How likely a coincidence was that?
    And something else was bothering Elliott. He didn’t like to admit it, but he’d been drawn to the owner’s portraits himself. He kept finding his gaze flicking up to them. In fact, knowing that the pike portrait was buried under all those magazines in his bedroom had been bothering him all the time he’d been reading the diary. He had a strong desire to return the painting to its proper place on the wall. The urge kept itching at him.
    He was busy gathering together all the diary pages to show Dad when a sharp cry came from across the hall. Seconds later Ben came crashing into his room, running full-tilt. He arrived breathless and pale, but also fizzing with excitement.
    ‘You’re never going to believe this,’ he gasped.
    ‘Believe what?’
    ‘No point telling you. It’s amazing. Come and look.’

DO YOU WANT TO PLAY?
     
    Ben was so eager to haul him into his room that when he got there Elliott expected to see, well, nothing less than a ghost. Instead, Ben’s room seemed no different from normal. Elliott tried to keep himself calm while his eyes swept the room.
    ‘It’s Old Albert,’ Ben said, as if only a blind man could miss it. He pointed at a big teddy bear sitting squarely in the middle of the bed.
    ‘I didn’t know you still had that ancient thing,’ Elliott said.
    ‘I haven’t been playing with him, you idiot,’ Ben said scathingly. ‘He was in the box downstairs with all our old toys. I haven’t touched him for years.’
    ‘So