Wuftoom Read Online Free Page B

down from some invisible place in the air, watching the people file in.
    Evan had been there once. There had been a grand opening. In front of the large, double-doored entrance he now looked down on without eyes, the chairman of the school board had given a speech. Evan hadn’t listened. He had stared at the doors in fear like they were a gateway to hell.
    The doors looked shabbier now, but there was nothing demonic about them. They swung open and shut with the stream of kids, who were talking and laughing loudly. The sun was still shining brighter than he had ever seen it. The sky was bluer and the grass was greener. He searched the crowd for anyone he knew, eager to try out the creature’s gift.
    How do I do it?
he thought.
How do I get in someone?
    Direct your energy,
Foul’s voice hissed.
Direct it all at one child. He will not be able to stop you.
    Evan searched. The kids ran by so quickly that he couldn’t catch their faces. He didn’t know anyone, and soon the crowd thinned. It was almost eight o’clock. Evan had just decided he would have to pick someone, anyone, when he saw the face of somebody he knew. The kid stumbled out of a car and raced across the sidewalk toward the steps. Evan didn’t have time to think about “directing his energy” before he jumped.
    He felt like his head was being clamped down with a vise. What had been free was now contained. Compressed into a too-small space. The boy felt it too. He stopped on the steps and bent his chin over his chest, slamming his eyes shut. The motion of the head made Evan feel worse, and he could feel the body around him, holding him in. Fear rose up, and Evan wasn’t sure if it was his fear or the boy’s. He felt the boy’s heart racing, blood pumping. Their hands twitched.
    â€œCory?” a voice said. It sounded adult. “Cory, are you all right?” Evan felt a hand on his back. On Cory’s back. He wanted to jump, but inside Cory, he went nowhere.
    Cory stood up straight again and opened his eyes. Evan looked through them, right into the dark brown eyes of a young man who was stooped over and staring at him.
    â€œYeah, I’m okay, Mr. Houser. I don’t know what happened.” Cory sounded confused.
    â€œAre you sure?” asked the teacher, still with the concerned look.
    â€œYeah, thanks, I’m gonna be late,” said Cory, and he continued running up the steps and through the double doors. The movement caused Evan to toss inside. He couldn’t see straight out of Cory’s eyes but saw from one angle one second and another the next, like he was bouncing against springy walls.
    He tried to steady himself but kept falling from one side to another. He caught glimpses of the hallway as Cory ran, strange pieces. A metal locker here, a square of ceiling there. He struggled and struggled, but he couldn’t stay straight.
    Cory barreled around a corner, pushed his way into a classroom, and sat down with a heavy sigh. His backpack dropped to the floor with a loud crash.
    â€œTardy, Mr. Parker,” said a woman’s voice. As Cory sat still, Evan managed to settle down, and then he looked straight out of Cory’s eyes. He saw a tall, stern-looking woman standing behind an overhead projector, glaring at him.
    â€œSorry, Miss Andrews,” Cory panted. Evan felt the breath in Cory’s body, moving in and out in shallow pulses.
    The class was pre-algebra. Evan didn’t even know what algebra was, but that didn’t matter. While Cory listened to the teacher and scribbled in his notebook, Evan pressed himself forward, trying to see everything that he could out of Cory’s eyes. As he did so, he felt Cory’s hands moving, his body rustling in the chair, the way he squiggled his toes inside his boots.
    From the farthest point he could reach, Evan looked around the room. He noticed other kids he knew. They looked different, some of them very different. Many he