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Back Timberdark Save as PDF
Chapters (44)
  1. Title Page
  2. Contents
  3. Dedication
  4. Praise for Wranglestone
  5. Epigraph
  6. Map
  7. Part I
  8. Prologue
  9. 1
  10. 2
  11. 3
  12. 4
  13. 5
  14. 6
  15. 7
  16. 8
  17. Part II
  18. 9
  19. 10
  20. 11
  21. 12
  22. 13
  23. 14
  24. 15
  25. 16
  26. 17
  27. 18
  28. 19
  29. 20
  30. 21
  31. 22
  32. 23
  33. 24
  34. 25
  35. 26
  36. Part III
  37. 27
  38. 28
  39. 29
  40. 30
  41. 31
  42. 5 Years Later
  43. Acknowledgements
  44. About the Author

Peter sat upright and the word Timberdark stirred from its hiding place in the darkness. It knew Peter was there. It knew he was close now. He pushed the duvet aside, bringing both feet down to the floor and stood. He was going to do it. His body had already made the decision for him. His breathing became heavy. Uncontainable. He opened his mouth, but every exhalation seemed louder than the last and enough now to wake Cooper. Peter hooked his finger through the hoop, lifting the rucksack from the floor and waited. The springs of Cooper’s mattress didn’t creak. He didn’t even stir. But there was something else, just at Peter’s side near the foot of the bed where the bedroom door would be. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, alerting him to the presence of danger and he turned. Inside the darkness of the doorway, came breathing.

18

Cooper was watching from the darkness. There was no silhouette to mark his body out from the door, or any source of light to spark a glint in his eyes, but Peter could feel them on him all the same. He lowered the rucksack to the floor as if preparing for the argument that would follow now Cooper had caught him with it. But he knew it wasn’t that Cooper he was alone with right now. The Cooper watching him from the darkness wasn’t going to express anger or disappointment in Pete for betraying his trust. This Cooper didn’t know those things. But any relief Peter had felt that his actions had gone unnoticed didn’t last. He was with Cooper but he wasn’t with Cooper at all. Like in the supermarket, he was alone with something else entirely.

Peter inched back until the bedframe tapped his calves. He pictured himself scrambling underneath it for safety just like he used to do whenever the Dead would pass beneath the tree house when wandering from one part of the forest to the other. When he was growing up, his dad did everything he could to reassure him that they had no ability to climb ladders let alone open doors. But that didn’t stop him from spending whole nights underneath the bed praying he wouldn’t hear that familiar shuffle of their feet across the floor.

Peter dropped to his knees. He felt for the frilly valance covering the bed frame, patting the floor underneath just in case any boxes had been stored there to block his hiding place. There was nothing. He was about to crawl under when Peter was struck by a strange absence. He couldn’t hear Cooper’s breathing any more.