Alice Isn't Well (Death Herself Book 1) Read Online Free

and bolted down an alley, before emerging on the edge of a section of wasteland. She could hear the plane but couldn't see it, not until it suddenly swooped in low over the top of some nearby houses, with bright flames billowing from one of its stuttering engines.
    “It is going to crash,” she whispered, her voice filled with shock.
    “He's trying to find a safe place to land!” Matthew yelled.
    “Then why's he going that way?” Wendy asked, racing across the grass until she reached the far side, which opened out onto the street where she lived. All the light were off for the blackout, so she couldn't see anything around her as she stepped out into the road and looked up.
    “His engine's bust,” Matthew continued as he caught up. “You can hear it. He must've been in a dogfight with the Germans. Rotten luck to get hit like that, but I bet he took a hundred of them out first!”
    “Where is he?” Wendy asked, hearing the sound of the plane coming closer but still not seeing it over the roofs of the nearby houses.
    “Get down!” Matthew screamed. “It's going to hit!”
    Suddenly the plane flew straight over, so close that Wendy could feel the heat, and then she turned just in time to see the fuselage crash into the roof of a nearby house and then smash through with immense force. She barely even had time to register that her house was one of the ones that had been hit, before the plane exploded, filling the night sky with a fireball as part of the wreckage continued to tumble through the roofs, sending pieces of brick and metal raining down onto the cobbles. People – she hadn't even realized there were other people around in the darkness – began to scream and cry out.
    “Look at it!” Matthew shouted, nudging her arm. “Wendy, look, it's -” He paused for a moment, staring in horror. “Wendy, is that your house that got hit?”
    Wendy stared in open-mouthed horror as she saw the burning Spitfire slipping down from the damaged roof. A moment later, the plane tipped over and began to fall, before crashing down into the street in a shower of flames, while the roofs of several nearby houses were burning bright.
    “Someone get help!” a voice shouted nearby.
    “It's okay,” Wendy whispered. “Mum works nights anyway. She's at the hospital, there's no-one home.” She looked at one of the burning houses. “Not in our house, anyway.”
    “Good job you snuck out,” Matthew replied. “You'd have been toast.”
    She nodded.
    “Do you reckon the pilot's dead?” he continued, as they stared at the burning plane. “He must be, mustn't he? I bet he was brave, though. I bet he didn't even scream as he died. The Germans always scream, I saw it in a comic, but Brits are made of stronger stuff.”
    Wendy watched as flames roared around the cockpit, and she couldn't help imagining the poor pilot trapped in there, most likely burning to death at that very moment.
    “I don't see any bullet-holes on the side,” she said with a frown.
    “Watch out!” Matthew shouted suddenly.
    Hearing a loud rumbling sound, Wendy looked up just in time to see that the burning roof of one of the houses was starting to collapse. A fraction of a second later, the entire roof came crashing down, chimney and all, into the street, sending up a huge cloud of rubble that quickly filled the air with ash. More people were shouting in the distance, and silhouettes could be seen rushing past the flaming wreckage.
    “Cover your mouth!” Matthew said, holding his arm over the lower part of his face.
    Wendy did the same, while still staring at the burning plane as she felt the inferno's heat against her skin. The flames were bright, but there almost seemed to be another type of light in there, dancing at the heart of the fire.
    “Get 'em all out!” someone was shouting nearby, as people from down the road tried in vain to break into the damaged houses. “Bust 'em open if you have to!”
    “He must've been shot down by the Germans,”