Free Midnight Girls by Lulu Taylor Page A

well.’ Allegra lifted her chin and gazed unflinchingly at her. ‘I mean your secret little meetings with Martha Young.’
    The colour drained from Sophie’s face. ‘What?’ she whispered. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
    ‘Yes, you do. You and Martha are
special
best friends – Does Arabella know, by the way? – and you like to get together and do what
special
best friends do.’
    ‘That’s not true!’ cried Sophie, her voice harsh. Colour flooded violently into her cheeks, staining them bright red.
    ‘You can deny it all you like, but we’ve seen you. All of us.’
    Sophie looked round at Imogen and Romily, who couldn’t meet her eyes. That was much worse than if they had faced her off, it seemed. Sophie seemed to realise all at once that she really had been seen, at her most intimate, private moment, with all that it implied. She looked sick and then her face was transformed by fury. Her lips drew back in a snarl. ‘How dare you spy on me, you horrible bitch!’ She ran at Allegra, knocking her backwards so that they both flew towards the attic window, Allegra tripping as they went and falling back against the sill. Sophie sank her fingers into Allegra’s thick blonde hair and began to pound her head against the sill. Allegra tried to escape, scrambling on to the box she’d been sitting on and flailing at Sophie with one arm while trying to dislodge the hand from her hair with the other.
    Sophie began to push her backwards on to the window sill, climbing up on to the box next to her.
    Romily took a step forward, thinking,
She’s trying to push Allegra out of the window!
She could hardly believe it was happening and started over towards them, but she seemed to be moving at half speed and could only watch with horror as Allegra was pushed back on to the sill, her bottom perched on it, her back arching out of the window itself.
    Imogen rose shakily to her feet. ‘Stop them, Rom, stop them!’ Her voice came out in a cracked whisper.
    ‘Yes, we’ve got to stop them,’ she said, as she saw Allegra struggling and wrestling with Sophie, whose anger seemed to have given her extraordinary strength. She moved quickly towards them, Imogen following close behind. Now she could see that Sophie had Allegra’s arms in such a tight grip that the skin was dead white where her fingers were digging deep into the flesh, and she was forcing Allegra back over the sill, into the yawning blue-blackness beyond.
    ‘Sophie, no!’ she cried, and grabbed at the other girl’s pyjama top, just as Imogen came up level with her and reached out too.
    At that moment, awful things happened so fast that later they could barely remember in what order they’d occurred.
    In the flurry, Sophie gave Allegra a huge shove, trying to send her weight over the edge of the sill. Allegra kicked out with her feet, knocking Sophie off balance and forcing her to release her arms. Then, and with all her strength, she grabbed Sophie’s arm and pulled it, using the other girl’s weight to counterbalance her as she hurled herself back into the attic. And as she vanished from under Sophie’s outstretched hands, the other girl flew forward.
    Romily saw what was happening and with a gasp made a desperate attempt to hold on to Sophie’s top, scrabbling at the soft slippery cotton with her fingertips. She could see shock and amazement on the other girl’s face and then, with the grisly realisation that there was no way to prevent herself from tumbling over the sill and out of the window, an awful fear covered it and her mouth opened in a scream.
    She was gone. A moment later there was a ghastly thud.
    Imogen and Romily stood frozen for an instant before turning to each other in horrified disbelief. Allegra scrambled to her feet and peered out of the window. The other two joined her and they all looked out. A body lay, white and crumpled, on the gravel far below. A dark stain was spreading over the ground by the head.
    Imogen screamed,