Free The Darkest Corners by Barry Hutchison Page B

.’
    That hurt her. Her eyes widened a little and the corners of her mouth tugged down just a fraction. She spoke, and when she did, it was in a voice on the brink of cracking.
    â€˜I didn’t want this,’ she said. ‘I didn’t want any of this.’
    â€˜Yes, you did,’ I said, turning my back on her. ‘You’ve been working towards it from the start. How many times did you try to get me to use my powers? How many times did you actually convince me, or trick me, or find some way to force me into doing it?’
    I spun back to face her, suddenly furious. ‘I’m wrong, what I said; this isn’t my fault. It’s your fault. Yours. If it hadn’t been for you none of this would be happening. If it hadn’t been for you, everyone would still be alive!’
    There was a crash from the stairs, and the grunt of something big and angry. The thing I’d seen outside was on its way up. The monsters were coming to finish me off, but I couldn’t summon the energy to care.
    Ameena glanced to the door, then back to me. ‘Want me to close it?’
    I shrugged. Maybe this was for the best. Maybe this was the way it should end. At least then it would end, one way or another.
    â€˜He tricked me too, you know?’ Ameena said. The echo of the creature’s grunts bounced further into the day room. ‘He told me he wanted to save the good ones. The kids, like me, who were stuck over there with the rest of them. He said he wanted to take us all out of there.’
    â€˜And what about when it all started?’ I snapped. ‘When you saw what he was doing? To me. To Marion. To my mum and everyone else. You still stuck with him. You still helped him!’
    Ameena nodded quickly. ‘He gets into your head. He can twist the way you think, the way you feel. It’s like he can rewire your brain. Mr Mumbles didn’t want to kill you. Not at first. Not until your dad persuaded him.’
    The sounds of the thing on the stairs were louder than ever, so loud I almost expected it to come leaping through the open door, claws flashing, teeth bared.
    â€˜So what?’ I asked. ‘You’re saying he was controlling you?’
    â€˜Yes. No. I mean, not really. He just told me everything we were doing was for the best, and he made me believe it.’ Her voice cracked and a tear ran down her cheek. ‘Every bad thing he did to you, to everyone you cared about, he made me believe it was the right thing to do and… and I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.’
    I clenched my jaw. I should hate her. I wanted to hate her. But Mr Mumbles himself had warned me my dad could get into your head and make you do things you didn’t want to. He was a manipulator, and maybe I wasn’t the only one he’d been manipulating this entire time.
    â€˜Close the door.’
    Ameena wiped her sleeve across her cheek. She pushed the door closed just as a monstrous shape reached the top of the stairs. There was a loud BANG as it hammered against the wood.
    â€˜It’ll break through,’ she warned, jamming her foot and one shoulder against the wood. ‘We don’t have long.’
    â€˜I don’t need long.’
    I hurried over to the defibrillator and studied the controls. There was a switch marked ON . That bit was simple enough. I pressed it and a little green light illuminated inside the button.
    There was a dial marked CURRENT . Again, straightforward enough. I cranked it up to full, then carefully removed the shock pads. One was marked STERNUM , the other marked APEX . The sternum was round the chest area, I knew, but what the apex was I had no idea. Still, I didn’t suppose it mattered.
    There was a button on the back of one of the pads. The word CHARGE was printed on it. I pressed it and the machine began to emit a high-pitched whine.
    I wheeled it into position across from the door. Being careful not to touch them together, I gripped both