Free Midnight Girls by Lulu Taylor Page B

an awful, stifled sound, stuffing her hands in her mouth, her eyes wide with shock.
    ‘Oh my God, oh my God,’ Romily said, over and over, very fast, her heart racing. ‘Oh my God, what shall we do, what shall we do …’ She looked over at Allegra, usually in control, their leader, but she was dead white, unable to speak, her whole body trembling violently.
    ‘Look,’ cried Imogen. She pointed to a figure running along the driveway towards Sophie’s prone body. ‘Someone’s coming.’
    Romily’s head was in a whirl, adrenaline and panic coursing through her. ‘It’s a security guard,’ she said abruptly.
    ‘How do you know?’ Imogen asked.
    ‘I just do. Quick. We have to get back downstairs. The guard will help her, there’s nothing more we can do.’
    ‘We have to tell someone, we have to raise the alarm!’ Imogen said, her voice growing shriller with fear.
    ‘They already know! There’s nothing we can do! Look at Allegra …’
    Allegra said nothing but began to shake harder, her teeth chattering in her head.
    ‘Help me, Midge,’ Romily said, taking control. ‘Take Allegra’s other arm. Let’s get back to bed as fast as we can. We can decide what to do in the morning. But they mustn’t find us here … they mustn’t!’

Chapter 6
    THE DREAMS WERE terrible. They woke her in the night, clammy with cold sweat and gasping. It was the look in Sophie’s eyes, begging, terrified, in the moment before she fell, that she couldn’t stand. Sometimes the broken body beneath the window got mixed up with an image of Xander lying at the bottom of the stairs after their father had kicked him there. Allegra had woken the whole boarding house one night with her jagged screams.
    ‘We have to tell,’ she said desperately to the other two as they marched endlessly round the games field, unable to sit still, needing to keep on the move. ‘I can’t bear it!’
    ‘We can’t,’ Imogen said starkly, her face pale and set. ‘Don’t you see? It’s too late. We should have told at the time. But we didn’t. We can’t tell now.’ She clutched her friend’s hand and held it tightly. ‘We didn’t even tell when Steele did her thing.’
    Romily nodded solemnly in agreement with Imogen.
    Allegra screwed her eyes shut and breathed in sharply. The interview with Miss Steele had been surreal. The night that Sophie Harcourt fell was now an awful blur in her mind but she remembered the atmosphere of panic as the lights came on, people began hurrying urgently around and an ambulance roared up the driveway, its siren wailing. Its blue light flashed across the wall of Allegra’s cubie over and over again as she lay under her duvet, shaking and wide-eyed.
    Don’t let her be dead, don’t let her be dead
, she begged, but she knew what a fall from that height had to mean. Besides, she had seen the still, broken body lying on the gravel.
    The next morning there had been wild whispers. At a sombre gathering of the entire school, Miss Steele had announced that there had been a tragic accident in the night. Sophie Harcourt was dead. A horrified gasp passed over the rows of girls and then there was a small thump. Martha Young had fallen to the floor in a faint. She was picked up by two teachers and taken to the sanatorium.
    Miss Steele had explained that school business would continue as usual, in terms of lessons and examinations, but that the annual garden party would be cancelled and a memorial service held in its place. ‘And now, you are dismissed. Except for the fifth form. I would like you all to remain behind, please.’
    Allegra had felt numb and light-headed, as though she was being deprived of oxygen, and she could tell from their white faces and frightened eyes that the other two felt the same.
    Miss Steele had taken her time before she began to speak, eying each girl with a piercing gaze as though she could see the inner workings of her mind.
    She knows, she knows, she knows
, thought Allegra, nausea churning