‘It’s not just me,’ she said quietly.

Ed looked back up towards the museum entrance. ‘There’s more want to come?’ he asked, though there was no sign of anyone else. ‘We can’t fit too many more in the car. Who is it?’

‘I thought you wanted more.’

Ed sighed. ‘That was before I got the car. Who is it anyway?’

‘Come on.’ Brooke turned and walked back up the way she’d come. ‘Follow me.’

Chapter 33

33

Ed followed Brooke up to the birds gallery in the green zone. This was the room that Ed had prepared for Wormwood to live in, but lately the Twisted Kids had moved in with him. And they were all there when he arrived, sitting patiently on plastic chairs. It felt weird being in here with them all together. The stuffed birds didn’t help. Ed had always found birds a little freaky, and they had some real mad ones in the gallery – dodos, vultures with naked faces, an ostrich watching him from behind the glass with giant staring eyes, a whole bush in a cabinet, its branches filled with humming birds. And there, sitting in a semi-circle surrounded by all this, was the strangest collection of humans Ed had ever seen. They really should be in their own museum somewhere.

At the back was Wormwood, the Green Man himself, still wrapped in the blanket he’d arrived in and wearing the green bowler hat he’d picked up at Shadowman’s hideout. Otherwise he was naked. Ed wondered if it was a trick of the light, but the fuzz of green mould that covered him looked like it might be clearing up a little. Ed still didn’t trust him, though. He had a way of staring hungrily at you with his pale eyes, and clicking his long, horny fingernails together.

Next to him was his daughter, Fish-Face, with her flattened head, the eyes squeezed round to the sides. She was crushingly shy and hardly ever spoke. She sat there with her neck bent and her face turned to the floor. She wasn’t scary, but she still freaked Ed out, because she appeared to have the ability to read your thoughts. That made him twitchy and uncomfortable, as if he could actually feel her inside his head.

Then there was Skinner. Skinner didn’t spend much time with the other Twisted Kids. He’d made friends with Achilleus and Paddy. He was the most friendly of the Twisted Kids. He just wanted to get along with everyone and join in. He was always asking questions and trying to help, though his folds of loose skin made him clumsy.