Free Hollow Pike by James Dawson

school bag onto a shoulder and started to make her way through the jungle of bookshelves.
    Without warning, Kitty Monroe emerged from behind a bookcase and blocked her path. Lis let out a reflex yelp of surprise. Further down the aisle stood Jack and Delilah. How long had they been
there? Had they heard her conversation with Mr Gray?
    Kitty paused for a moment before smiling an electric, Cheshire Cat grin. ‘Tonight we’re going to plan how to kill Laura Rigg. Would you like to join us?’

Murder
    A bus trundled up the hill to Upper Hollow, where the grand houses looked down loftily on the rest of the village. There was only one way to get there – through the
copse, and long, wooden fingers scratched the windows of the bus, clawing at the glass. Lis leaned away from the talons, shuddering. Under the thick canopy of leaves it was so dark she could
scarcely believe it was daylight.
    It was crazy, but Lis could swear the rustling leaves were whispering her name. It was all in her head, for sure, but she found herself straining to listen. Her imagination was running wild.
There was something about the copse – it was almost as if it . . . wanted her.
    ‘Are you OK?’ Jack asked.
    ‘Yeah, fine,’ Lis replied. ‘The copse freaks me out a bit.’
    ‘Oh, God, it freaks everyone out. All those fairy tales when we were little, plus – total rapist hotspot!’
    Lis shivered, but she was enjoying Jack’s company. Away from the rest of Fulton High School, Jack could not be more different. He’d barely shut up since she’d joined him on the
bus.
    ‘By the way,’ he continued, ‘I should warn you that Kitty’s dad is the scariest man in the whole world.’
    ‘Really? Why?’
    ‘Wait and see!’
    Lis had, of course, accepted Kitty’s invite to the murder party. She assumed Kitty was kidding, but it almost didn’t matter. The social lifeline thrown to her was too tempting to
resist. From the second she’d seen them on the school bus, Lis had felt drawn to the trio. OK, the group weren’t winning any popularity contests at school, but they had their own
strange strength. They unsettled people – people like Laura Rigg. That was good enough for Lis.
    ‘How long have you known Kitty and Delilah?’ she asked Jack, distracting herself from the ‘voices’ in the trees.
    ‘Oh, ages,’ Jack replied. ‘We went to primary school together, but we didn’t really speak much until last year.’
    ‘How come?’
    Jack shrugged. ‘I was scared of them, you know, because of the witch rumours, but then one day we got chatting in RE. After that I just wanted to be around them all the time – they
get me, you know? I guess it was like destiny or something.’
    Lis had to admire his kids’ TV enthusiasm. She chuckled to herself.
    ‘What’s so funny?’
    ‘Nothing. Just you.’
    ‘Funny ha-ha, or funny strange?’
    ‘Both!’
    He laughed good-naturedly and poked her in the ribs.
    The copse cleared and the bus rolled into Kitty’s affluent neighbourhood. The houses were newer, grander and the fences higher. A few of the more ostentatious houses actually had statues
on their front lawns, hiding behind locked iron gates. Who, in Hollow Pike, actually needed gated security was beyond Lis; surely it was the quietest, safest place in England?
    ‘This is our stop,’ Jack announced, ringing the bell.
    The pair stepped off the bus and onto the damp pavement. Lis followed Jack, trying to get her bearings.
    ‘Bitchface Rigg lives down there, and just around the next corner is Danny’s place . . .’
    Lis’s stomach flipped at the fleeting mention of his name, and she mentally slapped herself around the head.
    ‘And that’s Kit’s . . .’ Jack gestured down a tree-lined cul-de-sac.
    Kitty’s house was just shy of mansion status. A huge perimeter wall occluded the whole estate, although Lis could just make out a long driveway leading to a substantial house.
    ‘Good lord, are Kitty’s parents royalty or