Free Raggy Maggie by Barry Hutchison

nobody here but me.
    Nevertheless, I felt my pace quicken and my heartbeat race to keep up. I was halfway along the corridor now. It felt too narrow, claustrophobic; closing in. I couldn’t wait to be out of it.
    Just a few seconds, I told myself, fighting to ignore therising feeling of panic in my gut. I glanced back again, and this time saw something vaguely spider-like moving across the floor and up the wall. A shadow. Definitely a shadow.
    But a shadow of what?
    I broke into a fast jog, scanning the corridor behind me for any more signs of life. Nothing moved. Nothing scuttled. Nothing there.
    I turned and faced ahead just in time to see a dark shape step out of the final classroom and directly into my path.
    My arms flailed as I back-pedalled wildly, trying to stop before I crashed into the looming figure. I cursed myself for getting spooked into running. I was going to run right into them. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
    ‘There you are,’ said the girl blocking my way. ‘Been looking for you everywhere.’
    ‘Ameena?’ I wheezed, managing to bring my run to a stumbling end right in front of her. I was so relieved I almostcheered. ‘It’s you! I thought you were…something horrible.’
    ‘Oh. Thanks for that,’ she replied, raising her thin eyebrows. ‘Very nice of you to say so.’
    ‘No,’ I said, hurriedly explaining. ‘I saw…I mean, I thought I saw something behind me, and…’ Her puzzled, vaguely amused expression suddenly made me feel like an idiot and I let the sentence fall away. ‘What are you doing here, anyway?’
    ‘Came looking for you,’ she shrugged. ‘Glad I did,’ she said after a pause. ‘You look kind of freaked out.’ Her eyes fell on the black and blue splodge on my cheek. ‘And what happened to your face?’
    ‘Headmistress with a hockey stick, but I’m fine.’ I took a breath, preparing to tell her it all. Billy. Mrs Milton. Caddie. Every detail.
    Before I could, the overhead lights dimmed to a dull glow, plunging the corridor into near darkness. ‘OK, now I’m freaked out,’ I admitted. ‘Come on. Let’s get out of here.’
    I moved to go past her, but she caught me by the arm. Her grip was strong – much stronger than I’d expected.
    ‘Why, what’s going on?’ she demanded. She peered through the gloom behind me. ‘What did you see back there?’
    ‘Just shadows.’ I tried to pull my arm away, but she had it held tight. Her eyes bored into me, searching for answers. ‘Look, I’ll explain everything,’ I promised, ‘but can we please get out of the dark first?’
    Her grip relaxed and I took my arm back. ‘Fine,’ she said. ‘But stop getting so freaked out. What kind of superhero gets scared by his own shadow?’
    I was halfway through telling her I was no superhero when the darkness took her. It unfurled from the wall at her back, like a giant bat opening its leathery wings. In an instant it had snapped shut. Swallowing her. Devouring her whole.
    The black shape that had been Ameena writhed and thrashed furiously. I could only watch, numb with shock, too stunned to help her. All around us, warped, deformed shadows began to skulk across the walls, across the floor, across the ceiling and the doors and the poorly painted windows.
    Vicious, brutal shapes, they were. Spiders. Wolves. Flapping bats. Demented, demonic shadow puppets, seeping from the woodwork until every surface of the corridor moved and ebbed. A tide of pure liquid black.
    At either end of the corridor the darkness on the ceiling poured down to meet the darkness on the floor. It hung there at either end, two curtains of night, cutting off any chance of escape.
    A muffled scream from Ameena snapped me out of my daze. I sprang forward, ripping and clawing at the shadows that smothered her. They were thick and gloopy and cold to the touch. They came away in long stringythreads as I fought to uncover her face.
    Her eyes were revealed first. They were bulging and bloodshot, the pupils dilated in