Emily's Penny Dreadful Read Online Free Page A

no sense, at
all .”
      Emily rotated her
shoulder. Slowly the pain disappeared. “It could do. Reading a book
in bed
    means it’s a story night. So there.”
      “ Whatever,” said
Sibbie. “I’m right, you’re wrong. So what’s with the sinister,
scary title? Where did you steal that from?”
    “ That’s not stealing
either,” said Emily. “It’s a kind of creative borrowing. I learnt
about the Devil’s Element when our class went to the match factory
last year, so I’ve creatively borrowed it for my story.”
      “ The match factory!”
exclaimed Sibbie. “That gave you nightmares. Bad ones. What’s this
story going to do to you?”
    “ They were different kinds
of nightmares,” Emily insisted. “That match factory and the little
kids who had to work in it were for real. I don’t mind having
nightmares when I know they aren’t real real.”
      “ How on earth can
you tell the difference when you’re asleep?” said
Sibbie.
      “ I just can,
somehow,” said Emily.
      “ It doesn’t stop you
waking us both up,” said Sibbie.
      “ Well, I’m sorry
about that,” said Emily. “I can’t
    help waking up. And I can’t
help waking you up, since we’re sharing the same room.”
      “ I bet you could,”
said Sibbie. “If you really tried. Especially if you wrote
something nicer than that.”
    She pointed to Emily’s exercise book.
“Something that wouldn’t give you nightmares. Something that I
might actually enjoy reading. Like a love story.”
      Emily pulled a face. She wondered if it resembled one of
Uncle Raymond’s faces. “It’s my story.”
      “ Whatever,” said
Sibbie. “Anyway, this is getting boring. I’m going now.”
      Emily breathed a
sigh of relief. All she wanted was to be left alone to get on with
her writing.
    Sibbie, however, always wanted the last
word. “I bet Uncle Raymond’s really sick of hearing your voice by
now,” she said, on her way out of the room.
      “ No, he
isn’t.”
      “ Yes, he is. I’m
right, you’re wrong.”
      And Sibbie was gone.
At last.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    The Devil’s Element
    A dreadful story, written by Emily
     

Chapter 1
     
    It was a dark and story night.
    A little girl, whose name
was Miley, lay fast asleep in a truckle bed.
      So far, she was
sleeping soundly.
      Peacefully.
      Without a worry in
the world.
      It looked as if the
sounds of the words from the story her Mama had read to her had
lulled her to sleep.
      But it was NOT
so!
      And it would NOT
last!
      The girl was NOT in
her own bed.
      Her Mama had NOT
read her a story.
      Miley was SOMEWHERE
else!
      And SOMEONE else was
about to discover her!
      This is how Miley
came to be in a bed that wasn’t her own.
     
     

Chapter 2
     
    Miley had had a BIG argument with her dear
Mama
    and her dear Papa, and an even BIGGER
word-fight with her older sister.
      Miley’s uncle -
Mama’s long-lost brother – whom Miley had never seen before in her
whole, entire life, was coming to stay. Miley was going to be
forced to give up her room, her precious room, and move in with her
bad-tempered sister.
      “ If he comes then
I’m not staying here a second longer,” Miley declared.
      “ You must endure,”
said her parents. “You must sacrifice your room for the greater
good.”
      “ Stop sniveling,”
her older, nearly-twelve-years-old, sister said. “He’s not going to
be here forever.”
      “ Why does he have to
come at all?” Miley asked.
    Miley’s sister turned her
head away knowingly, the way she always did when she was lying. “I
do not know,” she declared. “But I heard our parents say that the
reason is a shameful secret.”
      “ Without a doubt, I
am not staying,” Miley declared. “If he comes then I will
go."
    “ Go then,” her sister said,
pushing Miley in a very rough manner from the miniscule room they
were going to share. “You are too clever by far, anyway. You are a
precocious brat!”