The Post-Humans (Book 1): The League Read Online Free Page B

you. You know that right?”
    Andy blinked.
    He was about to protest, but Andy knew his dad loved him.
    Andy sighed. “Yes. Daddy loves me.”
    “So why are you hiding? You broke the guitar. That’s not a great thing to do, but that can’t be it.”
    Andy looked blankly out at the swirling snow.
    “There’s something else, deeper. Why are you hiding?” the man persisted.
    Andy shook his head.
    “No Andy. There’s something else here.” The man gestured to their rock and the swirling storm. “We aren’t sitting out in a snow storm because you broke a guitar.”
    Andy was confused.
    The man shook his head. “Andy, deeper! You don’t stay out here when someone forgives you. You did something else. You may not remember it, but I know you did it.”
    The man’s face was stern, but kind, as he waited for Andy to reply.
    “I didn’t!”Andy shook his head and began to cry. There was nothing else he could say.
    The man was growing impatient. “Listen to me! This doesn’t go away until you fix it. Think deeper.” The man urged. “Secrets, Andy. You are only hiding something from yourself! What have you got buried?” The man forced a smile and put a hand on Andy’s shoulder. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of, mate. We all bury things deep down when we don’t want to see them again. Me included. But you are the one who can stop the storm. Your secret is the key.”
    The man looked down at Andy’s hand that had been stirring up the dirt and leaves next the rock.
    Buried .
    There was something buried.
     
    Andy ran across the yard almost tripping on the corner of the sand pit. The tears burned his eyes and streaked down his cheeks.
    There was a rustle to his left that made him stumble back.
    He fell on his backside next to the garden bed.
    Andy used his shaking knuckles to rub his eyes so that he could clear some of the burning fog. It was Mum’s honeysuckle hedge, and the rustle came from beneath.
    It was the cat.
    Fluffy, grey, Perky.
    “ You ! You did it!” Andy hissed at the family cat that sat poised to spring from within the bush. “ You !”
    The cat backed up a little, it knew it had been seen.
    “ Why did you do it?” His little right hand wrapped around half a brick that was being used as edging.
    He thrust the chunk of old red brick into the hedge at the cat.
    Thump!
    The sound of the brick hitting the cat on the head was the worst sound Andy had ever heard. It was like the sound of someone dropping an apple onto a tiled floor.
    The cat tried to curl up, its head down.
    Andy crawled into the hedge, still sobbing and hissing through his teeth. He grabbed the cat by its front paw and pulled it free of the bushes. It could have been dead, but it squirmed a little.
    He couldn’t let it run away.
    He looked at the blood pooling in the cat’s ear and its red eye.
    Mum would see.
    Mum would hate him too if she saw the blood.
    “ No ,” Andy muttered. He would not let the cat steal his family.
    He reached deep into the bush and found the piece of brick. He held it tightly in his fist, and then brought it down again onto Perky’s head. Perky’s back leg twitched and it felt like it was going to run away, so he hit the cat again. This time Perky’s body went limp, floppy, like a warm stuffed toy filled with water and sticks.
    The cat was certainly dead.
    Andy picked up the cat by its back feet and snatched Mum’s little hand trowel from the unfinished garden bed.
    He knew where he could hide Perky, and himself forever.
     
    Andy began to breathe quickly and sharply. He was choking again. The icy cold stung his eyes and throat.
    “No, no, no, no…” he muttered.
    “Ah, you’ve remembered something…” the man said as he leaned back against the rock that sheltered them both. The man prodded the broken guitar with his foot and it rattled and made a metallic sound.
    “I didn’t do it, I didn’t.” He tried to curl up, facing the other way so that he couldn’t see the man in the suit next to