Lost Voices Read Online Free Page A
Author: Sarah Porter
numb.
It was right around the next bend, Luce told herself. Only a little farther . She just had to concentrate on being brave. There was a sudden dip in the beach as she turned, and a huge swell lunged 18 i LOST VOICES
at her. There was a paler blob racing along inside it. Luce staggered as the pale shape hurled straight into her chest with a rubbery thud, and for an instant that unseeing childish face hovered just below hers. A few traces of milky hair pranced in the water. Luce just had time to scream in horror at the realization that the waves had thrown the corpse against her before the outrushing water lifted her up. Her mouth flooded with salt.
Her flailing left hand caught something soft and cold, and then her leg banged a pinnacle of rock. Somehow she managed to hook her knee around it and groped in the same direction with her right arm, clinging fiercely as the water drained away.
She was gasping and trembling so violently she wasn’t sure how she could keep her grip, but she had been lucky. She was halfway up a crag of rock with angled sides and, she saw, a decent number of wide handholds. She could climb up without too much trouble. The only problem was the body dragging from her left hand. She had it by the ankle; its pale skin was too soft, like slime- filmed silk, but even so, her fingers were digging into it. Luce tried not to look at it as she inched her way farther up the crag, using her knees to grip and her free hand to pull herself, the baby’s limp form flopping against her leg like some revolting and terribly heavy doll. She tugged the body higher, so that it was resting on a small ledge. In the distance someone was screaming.
Luce was afraid of slipping if she turned too much, but by craning her head she managed to catch a sideways glimpse of a few figures, one of them wearing something long and golden, standing above her on the cliffs. Mrs. Cooper was up there yelling at her, Luce realized with relief, next to Gum and some other i 19
adult she didn’t recognize. Awful as Mrs. Cooper was, even she would have probably called the police by now. All Luce had to do was hold on. She began shivering as the wind wrapped around her soaking clothes. The waves kept reaching up her legs, coaxing her to surrender to them again.
She felt the sharp edges of the rock digging at her thighs and face, felt her own heaving lungs and the sickening thing clutched in her hand. At one point a wave came in and knocked the small body off its perch, and Luce barely managed to keep her grip on it.
She made the mistake, then, of looking down at the lifeless thing she could have died to save. The dead girl’s face was a blind rush of white inside the gray- green water, and between her parted lips there was the hollow, haunted darkness of a soundless moan.
Still, she’d succeeded. The girl would get back to her family, and Luce told herself that was all that mattered.
* * *
“I don’t even know how to start with how foolish that was,” the policeman told Luce. His face was only slightly less gray than his hair, and he curled his hands on his rounded gut.
She was sitting on a plastic chair in the corner of a cramped of-fice, an old down comforter bundled around her. A foam cup of instant cocoa warmed her fingers. “I don’t imagine anybody would’ve been too pleased about swapping a live girl for a cold one. The common- sense thing to do would’ve been to call us and sit tight till we got there.” No one would have cared at all if she’d vanished, Luce thought, but she didn’t say it. The man talking to her had been lowered down the cliffs in a rope harness, 20 i LOST VOICES
lifting the girl’s body and then Luce back to safety, but it was really Gum who had saved her. He’d screamed and pulled on his mother until she’d followed him back to the cliffs, but it was purely chance that Luce’s crag had been visible from the particular spot where they’d been standing. That was when Mrs.
Cooper had
It was right around the next bend, Luce told herself. Only a little farther . She just had to concentrate on being brave. There was a sudden dip in the beach as she turned, and a huge swell lunged 18 i LOST VOICES
at her. There was a paler blob racing along inside it. Luce staggered as the pale shape hurled straight into her chest with a rubbery thud, and for an instant that unseeing childish face hovered just below hers. A few traces of milky hair pranced in the water. Luce just had time to scream in horror at the realization that the waves had thrown the corpse against her before the outrushing water lifted her up. Her mouth flooded with salt.
Her flailing left hand caught something soft and cold, and then her leg banged a pinnacle of rock. Somehow she managed to hook her knee around it and groped in the same direction with her right arm, clinging fiercely as the water drained away.
She was gasping and trembling so violently she wasn’t sure how she could keep her grip, but she had been lucky. She was halfway up a crag of rock with angled sides and, she saw, a decent number of wide handholds. She could climb up without too much trouble. The only problem was the body dragging from her left hand. She had it by the ankle; its pale skin was too soft, like slime- filmed silk, but even so, her fingers were digging into it. Luce tried not to look at it as she inched her way farther up the crag, using her knees to grip and her free hand to pull herself, the baby’s limp form flopping against her leg like some revolting and terribly heavy doll. She tugged the body higher, so that it was resting on a small ledge. In the distance someone was screaming.
Luce was afraid of slipping if she turned too much, but by craning her head she managed to catch a sideways glimpse of a few figures, one of them wearing something long and golden, standing above her on the cliffs. Mrs. Cooper was up there yelling at her, Luce realized with relief, next to Gum and some other i 19
adult she didn’t recognize. Awful as Mrs. Cooper was, even she would have probably called the police by now. All Luce had to do was hold on. She began shivering as the wind wrapped around her soaking clothes. The waves kept reaching up her legs, coaxing her to surrender to them again.
She felt the sharp edges of the rock digging at her thighs and face, felt her own heaving lungs and the sickening thing clutched in her hand. At one point a wave came in and knocked the small body off its perch, and Luce barely managed to keep her grip on it.
She made the mistake, then, of looking down at the lifeless thing she could have died to save. The dead girl’s face was a blind rush of white inside the gray- green water, and between her parted lips there was the hollow, haunted darkness of a soundless moan.
Still, she’d succeeded. The girl would get back to her family, and Luce told herself that was all that mattered.
* * *
“I don’t even know how to start with how foolish that was,” the policeman told Luce. His face was only slightly less gray than his hair, and he curled his hands on his rounded gut.
She was sitting on a plastic chair in the corner of a cramped of-fice, an old down comforter bundled around her. A foam cup of instant cocoa warmed her fingers. “I don’t imagine anybody would’ve been too pleased about swapping a live girl for a cold one. The common- sense thing to do would’ve been to call us and sit tight till we got there.” No one would have cared at all if she’d vanished, Luce thought, but she didn’t say it. The man talking to her had been lowered down the cliffs in a rope harness, 20 i LOST VOICES
lifting the girl’s body and then Luce back to safety, but it was really Gum who had saved her. He’d screamed and pulled on his mother until she’d followed him back to the cliffs, but it was purely chance that Luce’s crag had been visible from the particular spot where they’d been standing. That was when Mrs.
Cooper had
Readers choose
Martin Edwards
Suzy Turner
Delilah Fawkes
Tanya Huff
Eva Ibbotson
David Mitchell
Alexia Praks
Geri Foster
Max Phillips