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Late on Christmas Eve Down in the tunnels

We’d been searching for a couple of hours, but it felt longer We were sweating and covered with dirt, our feet and pants soaked through with filthy water We werea lot of noise in the process My ribs hurt to begin with, but I was over the worst of it now and barely noticed the stabbing pain as I bent and crouched down and twisted

"Slon!" Mr Crepsley hissed several times "He will hear us if you keep this up Wecareful!" I yelled back "This is our last chance to find hiround as possible I don’t care how h hears us - " Mr Crepsley began

"We’ll chop off his head and stuff it with garlic!" I snarled, andstill e tunnel The water level was higher in ht before, because of the round, but this one was dry Maybe it was an eency pipe, in case the others overflowed

"We will rest here," Mr Crepsley said, collapsing The search was harder for him than for me, since he was taller and had to bend more

"We don’t have ti?"

"Darren, you itation, but we cannot help Evra by panicking You are tired, as am I A few minutes will make no difference, one way or the other"

"You don’t care, do you?" I whined "Evra’s down here so tormented or cooked, and all you’re worried about are your tired old legs"

"They are old," Mr Crepsley growled, "and they are tired, and so, I a like a child If we are destined to find Evra, we shall If not"

I snarled hatefully at the vaht," I said, trying to rip it out of his hands I’d dropped o on ahead by myself You sit here and rest I’ll find Evra onintolerably Cal and the flashlight flew out of Mr Crepsley’s hands It also spun out of ainst the tunnel wall We were thrust into complete darkness

"You idiot!" Mr Crepsley roared "Noill have to go back up and find a replace like this would happen"

"Shut up!" I shouted, shoving the vampire in the chest He fell down hard, and I backed away blindly

"Darren!" Mr Crepsley shouted "What are you doing?"

"Going to find Evra," I said

"You cannot! Not by yourself! Come back and help er flashlights and work faster You cannot search without a light"

"I can hear," I replied "And I can feel And I can shout Evra!" I yelled, to prove my point "Evra! Where are you? It’s h will hear Come back and keep quiet!"

I heard the va a deep breath, I ran I fled far into the tunnel, then slowed and found a se one I slipped into it and crawled Mr Crepsley’s shouts grew dimmer and dimmer Then I came to another pipe and scurried down it Then another And another Within five minutes, I’d lost the varound

I shivered, then reminded myself why I was there and as at stake I looked around for a larger tunnel, feeling ers

"Evra," I called softly I cleared my throat and this time yelled, "Evra! It’sto find you Yell if you can hear , Ifor any sound, eyes useless - a perfect target for all the de I was down there There was no way of telling tiht have been going in circles I justs turn numb from the damp and cold

Sometimes a draft of air tickled my nostrils, a reminder of the world above Imy nerve if I stopped to breathe it in

I wasdeeper into the system of pipes and tunnels I wondered how many people had been down here over the years Not ht be the first human (half-human) to pass in decades If I’d had time, I would have stopped to scrawl my initials on the walls

"Evra! Can you hear me? Evra!" I repeated

There’d been no response so far I wasn’t really expecting one If I did stu he would have taped up Evra’s mouth The vampaneze wasn’t the sort to overlook a minor detail like that

" Evra!" I croaked,to crack from the strain "Are you there? Can you -?

All of a sudden, with no warning, a hand jaave a yell of pain and rolled over, gazing blindly into the pitch-black depths

"Who’s there?" I asked shakily A dry chuckle answered asped "Mr Crepsley? Is that you? Did you follow h whispered in ht directly in front of asped and shut otten It hat the va for Before I could react, he ducked forward, opened his as that knocks people out

I tried drawing back, but it was too late The gas was infitfully

The last thing I rerowing larger as I dropped toward the Just black

CHAPER TWENTY-ONE

When I came to, I found myself face to face with a skull Not any old skull, either - this still had flesh on it, and one of the eyeballs was floating in its socket

I screa up (up? Why wasn’t I looking down?) athtly with ropes After a few seconds of puzzled panic, I noticed another rope aroundupside down

"I bet the world looks different fro around - I couldn’ta little ways froernail He stuck out a foot and began rocking the skull "Say hello to Evra," he chuckled

" No!" I screa to bite deep into his leg Unfortunately, the rope wouldn’t stretch that far "You promised you wouldn’t kill him before Christmas!" I cried

"You h asked innocently "Whoops! Sorry Bit of a boo-boo, hoing to -?

A groan stopped , I noticed I wasn’t alone So upside down, a couple of feet away

"Who’s that?" I asked, certain it was Mr Crepsley "Who’s there?"

"D-D-D-Darren?" a tiny voice said