Underworld Read online

  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Copyright Page

  Titles In Teen Reads

  CHAPTER 1

  “I saw it!” she said. “I tell you, I saw it.”

  “Saw what?” asked Joe’s mum.

  “Some sort of animal,” said Mrs Burke.

  It was Monday morning, just after eight o’clock. Joe and his mum were leaving home. Joe was on his way to school. His mum was on her way to work at the local supermarket.

  Mrs Burke lived next door to them, at number 77. She knew their normal routine, so she was waiting on her doorstep to stop them as they left the house.

  “I just wondered if you’d seen it?” she said to Joe and his mum. “This animal?”

  “When was this?” asked Joe.

  “Last night,” said Mrs Burke. “About half past eleven. I was just going to bed. I looked out the front here. I always take a look out the front last thing at night. And I saw it. Over there.”

  She pointed across the road. Opposite the houses was a large stretch of grass. Beyond that were trees. This was Oakshot Wood. Oakshot Road, where Joe lived, snaked around the wood and led down to the centre of town.

  “By the trees?” asked Joe.

  “Yes,” said Mrs Burke. “It ran along the edge of the wood. Well, no, not ran. Not ran, exactly. It more sort of hopped.”

  “What was it, a kangaroo?” laughed Joe.

  “It’s no laughing matter,” said Mrs Burke. “It scared the life out of me. It was about a metre high. Not very tall. It was kind of stooped over.

  I was so scared because I’ve never seen anything like that before. That’s why I thought I’d ask you if you’d seen it too.”

  “It must have been a dog,” said Joe’s mum. “Something like that.”

  “No, no,” said Mrs Burke. “It was on its hind legs. It was sort of walking, sort of hopping. What’s the word I want? Lolloping, that’s it. Swaying a bit. Rather like you see monkeys walk.”

  “Well it can’t have been an ape,” said Joe’s mum. “We’d have heard if something had escaped from somewhere.”

  “And there are no zoos or wildlife parks for miles,” said Joe.

  Mrs Burke shook her head. “I don’t know. I really don’t know. It scared me half to death. It

  definitely wasn’t a monkey or a dog. I only saw its shape. It had funny-shaped ears. And its arms were kind of bent up.”

  “Sorry, we’ve got to go,” said Joe’s mum. “We’ll be late.”

  “Oh, yes, sorry Mrs Harris, I don’t want to keep you,” smiled Mrs Burke. “I just thought I’d ask.”

  Joe and his mum hurried away.

  “She must be going a bit batty,” whispered Joe’s mum.

  Joe shrugged. “Just a dog or something. After all, it was night. The street lamps aren’t exactly bright!”

  “Her eyesight must be going,” added his mum.

  They parted at the corner of Walker Street. Joe’s mum went left towards the supermarket. Joe carried on along Oakshot Road.

  A hundred metres on he came to a roadblock. Police were diverting cars. People on foot were being led around the block in small groups by police officers.

  The reason for the roadblock was a noisy demo. A large group of locals, holding placards and chanting slogans, was marching across Oakshot Road. They were heading towards the wood.

  Joe saw some pupils from his school. They were watching the protesters march while they waited for the police to escort them past the demo. Joe walked over to them.

  “Hi,” he said. “Is this about the fracking?”

  “Yes,” nodded a boy from his year group. “They’re drilling again today.”

  Joe could hear the steady whine of the drills.

  It was coming from inside Oakshot Wood. A mining company had been drilling into the ground there for more than a month. They were

  mining for shale gas by pumping water into rocks deep underground.

  Joe checked his watch. “I hope this isn’t going to take long.”

  “They’re right to protest!” said a voice behind him.

  He turned to find Sarah Jones. She also lived in Oakshot Road, a few doors along from Joe. She was in his tutor group at school, but the two of them had never got on well. Joe was a quiet, laid-back guy, with a small circle of friends. Sarah was sporty and opinionated, always first with her hand up in class.

  “OK,” shrugged Joe.

  “No, it’s not OK,” said Sarah. “Fracking is dangerous. It pollutes water supplies, for one thing.”

  “And,” said Joe, “if these test holes they’re drilling work out, it will also bring hundreds of

  jobs to the town.”

  “At the expense of the environment,” said Sarah. “Oakshot Wood is historic woodland.”

  Joe was getting cross now. He felt like arguing, just for the sake of it. “Fracking takes place all over the world. It’s no worse than coal mining or drilling for oil. You’d be the first to complain if the gas ran out and your central heating got turned off.”

  Sarah was about to reply, but didn’t. Instead she shook her head angrily and stormed off.

  “I think it’s going to be one of those days,” muttered Joe to himself.

  The police led Joe and the others around the protest. They continued on their way to school. Joe thought no more about the fracking, or about what Mrs Burke had seen.

  However, on his way home that day, he passed a horrible sight.

  CHAPTER 2

  On the edge of Oakshot Wood, opposite Joe’s house, a group of kids from the nearby primary school was gathered. Joe paid them no attention at first. Then he overheard what they were saying.

  “Eugh, that’s gross!”

  “It must have been dead for days!”

  Puzzled, he crossed the grass and approached them. “What’s up?” he asked.

  The kids parted to reveal a stinking carcass.

  It was a large, ginger cat. It had been ripped open from neck to tail. Most of its innards had gone. Its eyes stared glassily and its mouth hung open.

  “Oh yuk!” cried Joe. “Where did that come from?”

  “Samson dragged it out of the wood!” said one of the kids. A border collie sat panting at the boy’s feet. “He didn’t kill it, he just found it. Where do you think its guts have gone?”

  “Maybe a badger ate them,” said Joe, wrinkling his nose. He turned away from the blood and the smell and went home.

  The dead cat stayed on his mind all evening. What would have slashed the poor creature like that? It looked as if it had been opened up like a school lunchbox!

  *

  Two things happened in the next few days. Both of them made Joe think about the cat, and also about the strange ‘animal’ that Mrs Burke had said she’d spotted. The first was a report in the local paper. Joe’s mum pointed it out to him. It said:

  Oakshot Woods resident claims ‘goblin’ sighting

  Locals living in the Oakshot Woods area have already complained of noise and disruption caused by the current controversial fracking operation. Now they have a new nuisance to contend with: a mysterious ‘goblin’ sighted by Hillside Grove resident Mr John Spears.

  Mr Spears, 45, claims he saw a strange creature going through his bin on Tuesday night.

  “I heard a noise in the alley behind the house shortly before midnight,” he states. “I went out there, thinking I’d have to scare a fox away. But I found a hideous, dwarfish creature rooting through the waste food wheelie bin.”

  He continues: “When I disturbed it, it looked straight at me. It had an evil-looking face, with big, pointed ears and large, white eyes. It was horrible. Then it ran o
ff into the dark.”

  Mr Spears, an employee at SuperSave, claims he’dhad nothing to drink. He also claims he is not prone to imagination or to seeing things. “I know what I saw,” he asserts. “It looked just like some kind of storybook goblin.”

  “That guy’s in charge of the cooked meat counter at work,” said his mum. “He’s been talking about this thing for days.”

  “It must be the same animal Mrs Burke saw,” said Joe. “Weird.”

  “It seems she was right after all. I wonder what it was?” said his mum.

  “I bet someone around here has got some sort of exotic pet,” said Joe. “A sloth or some sort of small primate that has got out of its cage. Probably illegal, which is why it hasn’t been reported missing.”

  The second thing that happened was that Sarah Jones called at Joe’s house the following evening. She’d hardly spoken to him since Monday morning so he was amazed to see her on his doorstep. She was handing out A4 photocopies.

  “Our dog’s gone missing,” she said. She handed Joe one of the photocopies. It showed a photo of a black Labrador and details of a reward. “Have you seen her wandering around?”

  “No, sorry,” said Joe.

  Sarah seemed very upset. Joe felt sorry for her.

  “Has she gone missing before?” he asked.

  “No, never,” said Sarah. “That’s what’s so strange. She’s a very calm, loyal dog. She never wanders off. She was in her kennel in the garden overnight on Tuesday. Next morning she was gone. My parents say they heard a noise in the night, like scuffling, but didn’t think anything of it.”

  “Was the garden secure?”

  “There’s a locked gate and a high fence,” said Sarah. “Neither was damaged. She couldn’t have jumped over them, it’s impossible, they’re far too high. She’d have to be carried over.”

  “Weird,” said Joe.

  “Our neighbour’s cat has vanished too,” said Sarah. “A big, old ginger thing. That disappeared last week.”

  Joe frowned. He didn’t tell Sarah about what those kids had found. “Would you like me to help look for your dog?”

  Now it was Sarah’s turn to frown. “You? Why?”

  Joe felt embarrassed. “There are some odd things happening around here. I just want to help.”

  At first, Sarah was wary of his offer. She wasn’t sure if he was being straight with her or not.

  In the end her concern for her missing dog overcame her doubts.

  “OK, you can help me put these photocopies through a few doors,” she said. “And I was going to take a look in Oakshot Woods. We often took her for a walk in there.”

  It was getting dark. The dull streetlights blinked on.

  Joe and Sarah gave out the rest of the photocopies. Some of them they stuck to lampposts with sticky tape. They called at the corner shop and had one put in the window.

  By the time they got around to visiting Oakshot Woods, the sun had been set for over an hour. It was gloomy on the grass beside Oakshot Road, but inside the wood itself was almost pitch black. Joe and Sarah could barely see more than a few metres ahead.

  “Let’s go back,” said Joe.

  “No,” said Sarah. “We’re here now, scaredy cat.”

  “Why don’t we come back with flashlights?” suggested Joe.

  “We’ll just go a little bit further.”

  Twigs cracked under their shoes. Joe could smell rotting leaves and decayed bark. Soon they came to a long, wire fence. Behind it, a large area had been cleared of trees.

  “That’s where the fracking’s happening,” said Joe. “Well, we can’t go any further.”

  They peered through the fence. Drilling had ended for the day. The mining company had locked up the entire site until the morning. The only lights were security lamps, rigged up outside temporary cabins, and stacks of mining equipment. A couple of small lorries stood tall and silent in the darkness.

  Sarah sighed. “Come on then, we’ll head home.”

  They turned and walked back the way they had come.

  Suddenly, Joe stopped in mid-step. “Shh! What was that?”

  They listened. The wood was dark and motionless.

  “What was what?” asked Sarah.

  “Sorry, I thought I heard a sort of scratching sound,” said Joe.

  They continued walking. A few metres further on the sound came again. They both heard it this time. A soft scuffling sound. It was like an animal rooting through the undergrowth, or something dragging across the carpet of fallen leaves.

  They turned slowly. They looked all around, peering into the night. Their eyes were used to the dark now, but they couldn’t see anything moving.

  There it was again! The same sound. Closer now.

  Sarah whispered, “Someone’s behind us.”

  Without moving their feet so that they wouldn’t make any noise at all, they twisted to look behind them. A few metres away, the scuffling sent a flurry of leaves scattering across the ground.

  They almost jumped out of their skins.

  Slowly, very slowly, something began to come out from behind a tree. All they could see was a shape. It was short, almost squat. It walked on spindly legs. Its arms were short, twisted, and ended in long, sharp claws. Its head was gnarled and hairless with triangular, pointed ears. Its mouth was a lipless, shuddering split. Its eyes were wide, round and completely white except for tiny black pupils at the centre.

  Joe’s head was filled with only one word: goblin!

  CHAPTER 3

  Joe and Sarah hardly dared to breathe. The creature, the goblin, was only a few metres away from them. Its head swayed slightly from side to side. Its upturned nose twitched.

  “I think it’s sniffing us out,” whispered Sarah.

  The creature suddenly turned to face in their direction.

  “It heard you whisper,” breathed Joe, as quietly as he could.

  “Let’s… go…” breathed Sarah.

  The creature took a step towards them. Instantly, Joe and Sarah both let out a yell of fright. They spun on their heels and ran. Their footsteps crunched against the leafy ground. Behind them, they could hear the goblin running after them.

  “It’s chasing us!” cried Sarah.

  “Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to run,” gasped Joe. “Maybe you’re supposed to face goblins down. You know, like tigers. Or is it bears?”

  “Who cares! Just run!”

  The edge of the wood was in sight. The goblin suddenly gave an eerie, high-pitched screech. The sound of it right behind them almost sent Joe and Sarah tumbling over in shock.

  They reached the last line of trees. Ahead of them was the wide, grassy area. Beyond that were the houses of Oakshot Road.

  Sarah flashed a glance over her shoulder. “It’s getting closer!”

  More sounds were coming from the wood. Rustling and cracking, like an army on the march. The goblin’s wailing cry was answered by another, from deep inside the wood.

  “There’s more of them!” yelled Joe.

  By now, Joe and Sarah were racing across Oakshot Road. They dared not look back. They dashed into Joe’s house.

  “What on earth is going on?” asked Joe’s mum. “Joe? Hello, er, Sarah isn’t it? From down the road? You both look as if you’ve seen a ghost!”

  Neither of them answered her. Joe hurried to the big window in the living room which overlooked the wood.

  “Look!” he cried. “They’re just waiting.”

  Sarah and Joe’s mum stood close to the window. Their breath fogged the glass.

  “How many of them are there?” asked Sarah.

  Joe’s mum simply stared, open-mouthed.

  “Must be at least twenty,” said Joe. “Look, there are more crawling out past the trees.”

  A large group of the creatures was gathered on the grass. They had stopped chasing after their new, human prey. Instead, they were looking around warily and sniffing the air.

  “They’re not used to being out in the open,” said Joe.


  “It won’t hold them back for long, though,” said Sarah. “Remember, one of them went through that man’s bin. He’s in Hillside Grove, and that’s one street further along than we are.”

  All along the row of houses, curtains and blinds were being pulled aside. People had heard the strange cries of the goblins. Joe and Sarah’s neighbours were looking out at the creatures, hardly believing their eyes. Most of them had the same expression on their faces as Joe’s mum.

  “W-w-we’d better call the police,” she said.

  “And say what?” muttered Joe.

  At that moment, Mrs Burke appeared on the other side of the road. She was walking home up Oakshot Road. She’d been to a public meeting about the fracking at the nearby Community Centre. She kept her eyes on the pavement ahead of her. She didn’t notice the group of goblins about thirty metres away on the grass.

  As soon as he saw her, Joe ran out of the house. Sarah followed him.

  “Mrs Burke!” he called, at the top of his voice. “Come this way! Quickly! Over here!”

  She hadn’t heard him.

  “Mrs Burke!” yelled Joe and Sarah together. “Turn this way! You’re going towards – ”

  It was too late. The creatures were suddenly alert, sniffing. Crawling and scuttling across the grass, they closed in on Mrs Burke.

  She screamed as the first one pounced. It knocked her to the ground. Others leaped forwards.

  “We’ve got to scare them off!” said Joe. “But how?”

  “What about light?” said Sarah. “These things haven’t been seen during the day, and that one in the woods didn’t appear to see us. Maybe that’s why they stayed on the grass, they didn’t like the street lamps?”

  Joe fetched a couple of flashlights, kept in the cupboard under the stairs in case of power cuts. He gave one to Sarah and the two of them hurried out into the street.

  “Joe! Don’t go out there!” yelled his mum.

  Joe and Sarah aimed at the creatures. The flashlights were powerful enough to send beams right across the road. At once, the goblins flinched and turned away.

  “You were right!” said Joe. “Keep sweeping the beams across them.”

  It took only a few minutes to send the creatures scurrying back to the woods. They dragged Mrs Burke along with them.