Free Paintshark by Kingsley Pilgrim Page A

haste and fumbled with her phone.
    “Shall we call our parents?”
    “No, we’ll keep them out of this until we know what’s going on, I don’t even know who to tell, THIS THING IS CRAZY!”
    Kimberley wiped her eyes still red from crying.
    “Ok, let’s go to yours.”
    The two locked hands and started to run to the direction of Cassandra’s house, as they raced around restaurants with their heart pounding, they managed to keep their heads up until they both ran headlong into Felcey.
    All three of the classmates lay sprawled out on the ground, Cassandra pulled Kimberley to her and looked at the guy who literary swept them off their feet.
    “FELCY!” Cassandra yelled. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?”
    The scruffy comic collector rubbed his arm, for once not because of the itching but because he had fallen awkwardly on to it. “I came out to get some fresh air and to get some dinner from the ‘Chicken Shack’, my stepdad ate mine.”
    “You should look where you’re going, Felcey,” Cassandra glared.
    “My arm hurts,” was his reply.
    Kimberley got to her feet and pulled the sleeves down from her top, since she boiled the water in the swimming baths her itching had stopped, she rubbed her aching back and smiled for the first time that evening.
    “Hey Felcey, are you hurt?”
    “Hi Kimberley.” He muttered under his breath about his arm being broken. “I’m fine.”
    Cassandra slapped her forehead a couple of times. “BUGGER! I forgot my library book.”
    Kimberley threw her hands in the air. “Is this really the time to be worrying about a library book?”
    Before Cassandra could answer, armed police following proper procedures swarmed around the alleyway. Kimberley whirled around to see loads of men in uniform aiming guns at the three of them, her face dazed with confusion at the oncoming officers. The first line of policemen moved closer to the teenagers with their weapons aimed high, the officer at the front barked an order.
    “ARMED POLICE, STAY WHERE YOU ARE AND PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR.”
    Terrified and confused, all three of them did so. The people who were about to dine out for the evening ran away or were shepherded away by police.
    Felcey stood absolutely still but managed a glare at Cassandra. “So this library book…how late is it?”
    The door on the cubicle rattled again. “Are you ok in there?” Sabrina knocked once more. “Aphrodite are you coming out?”
    A few people in the ladies’ toilets laughed at something, which made Sabrina turn her head for a moment. Realising that they weren’t basing their merriment on her, she focused on the locked door again. “Are you feeling sick?”
    From inside the cubicle Aphrodite pulled the sleeve from her wrist and looked at the redness on her arm, it had been scratched red raw from the early hours of that morning right through till now.
    Shuffling footsteps, the young girls giggling and the revolving door of the bar toilets made Aphrodite stay in the cubicle longer than she would have wanted, she was always very self-conscious, but it was the appearance of the hideous rash on her arms that was the reason she was wearing sleeves in the still hot evening.
    Sabrina’s knocking continued. “Aphrodite, open the door.”
    She finally answered. “ALRIGHT, I’M COMING.”
    The latch on the door clicked and Aphrodite, wriggling her nose, emerged. “I’m fine, just a bit tired that’s all.”
    Sabrina moved aside and let her friend pass, as she did so it gave her a chance to scratch her own arm which like Aphrodite’s was itching, but unlike hers it wasn’t red but green. Sabrina walked behind her friend still feeling her arm, it wasn’t just turning green but small scales had started to appear, Sabrina gave them another rub before pulling down her sleeve and walking beside Aphrodite.
    She couldn’t take the itching and pulled Aphrodite to a corner in the bar. “Listen, I have something to show you, I should have told you earlier but I