Читать книгу Demon Dentist - David Walliams, Quentin Blake, David Walliams - Страница 17

The next morning at school Alfie opened his locker to find a note that had been slipped under the door. It had been made from letters cut out of a newspaper, and there was no name at the bottom.

The boiler room was deep within the vaults of the school. It was strictly out of bounds to all children. Alfie looked behind him to check no one saw him, as he sneaked down the spiral staircase that led to it from the playground.

…read the sign. Slowly Alfie turned the handle and pushed open the heavy door. It creaked. It was dark inside, and the hiss and gurgle of the giant boiler was so loud no one upstairs could hear you. Not even if you screamed. Realising this suddenly, Alfie felt a shadow of fear passing over him. He was afraid. Perhaps being lured down here was some kind of trap. From behind the boiler, out stepped a figure. A short figure with dreadlocks.

“Gabz!” said Alfie, as he breathed a sigh of relief. “Why are we meeting down here? We could get into big trouble if a teacher found us.”

“Keep your voice down!” hushed the girl. “You don’t know who could be listening. Now, quickly, wedge that old blackboard up against the door so no one can come in…”

Alfie did what he was told. Gabz double-checked the door was secure, and then rolled out a huge piece of paper she was carrying on the damp and dirty floor. They knelt down to study it. Soon Alfie realised this was a giant map of the town. Gabz had drawn it in some detail, and had written notes in coloured pens by certain homes. Urgently she pointed out places on the map as she spoke:

“Two weeks ago. November 10^th. Jack Brown, a wasps’ nest. November 12^th. Lily Candy, cat poo. Same night. Eddie Larter, a dirty old verruca sock…”

Alfie was bemused. “What is all this…?” he asked.

“November 13^th. A Friday. That was a busy night. Criss-crossed all over town. Rian Skinner, a dead adder.

Twin sisters Jessie and Nell Godwin, a giant scab. Origin unknown. Might not have been human.

Hardeep Singh, flying ants’ eggs. Woke up to his bedroom buzzing with thousands of them…”

“I don’t understand,” said Alfie.

“And last night it got me. My tooth fell out, well, after I waggled it for weeks, so I put it under my pillow as I always do. What do you think I woke up to find?”

“I, er, um, don’t know.”

“A bat’s wing!”

“No!”

“Yes. Still flapping. Must have just been ripped off the poor beast.”

Alfie couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The girl was gathering pace now. There was no stopping her.

“So I started asking around the school first thing this morning, and realised it was happening all over town. Kids here, here, here and here…” said Gabz, as she pointed out a number of houses or flats on the map, “…were all targeted last night. And the calling cards got worse. Much worse. A badger’s paw, a snail that had had its shell pulled off, hundreds of centipedes creeping and crawling under some poor girl’s pillow, a filthy, sticking plaster, sodden with pus…”

The boy couldn’t help but shudder. “That’s disgusting!”

“Whatever’s happening, this is just the beginning…”

“Who is doing this?” asked Alfie.

The little girl shook her head. Her dreadlocks followed soon after. “Nobody knows. None of the kids I have spoken to saw or heard a thing. First they knew of it was when they woke up in the morning expecting to find a shiny new coin.”