Chapter 200

The counter was ticking down to zero. It had become so damn loud in my head that it almost drowned out the anguished chorus of the dead. Hell, it had even almost drowned out Amy's colourful bursts of incandescent rage when she screamed that she hated me over and over again, how she wished I was dead, how she wished she could rip my throat to shreds. During her verbally-profuse assaults, the ticking had seemed to grow even louder, as if some monstrous crow was sat on my shoulder, tapping its wicked beak furiously against my skull bone. Tap-tap-TAP. Hiding out in the headmaster's office, with the scent of damp books pervading the air and the candlelight dancing shadows off the walls, wasn't going to rid me of the demon bird and its incessant, maddening beat against my skull. It wasn't going to rid me of what waited in that room at the end of the corridor but right now, hiding seemed like the best option, as pathetic and as cowardly as that sounded. Every day I had tried. Every day I had