Through Dead Eyes (18 page)

Alex reached into his pocket and took out his iPod, squeezing the ear buds into his ears and switching it on. A long, rhythmic introduction started up – a simple bass line, then drums, then guitars. He tried to place it but couldn’t and didn’t bother to check.

He sank back into his seat as they overtook an articulated lorry, the spray from its tyres washing over them. The headlights of the oncoming cars flickered through the barrier of the central reservation.

Alex happened to glance at the rear-view mirror in passing. Something caught his eye and he looked again. There was something black: something black sitting in the reflection near to where he was sitting. It was like a shadow but a shadow of something that was not there.

He felt as though the car had suddenly crested a hill. His stomach lurched and his heart seemed to falter in its beating and judder like meat slapped down on a butcher’s counter.

Try as he might to insist to himself that there was nothing there, the blackness at the edge of his vision was too real, too potent to ignore or wish away. He leaned sideways and stared into the rear-view mirror.

Instead of his own face looking back, it was the face of Hanna, the pale skin glowing from the shadows. The lights of a passing truck lit up her face for a moment and made her pale eyes sparkle.

Alex wanted to cry out. He wanted to shout to his father, but Hanna placed her fingers to her lips in the mirror and Alex was quiet.

He looked across at his bag lying on the seat next to him and dragged it on to his lap. He pulled it open and there, staring back undamaged, whole once more, was the mask.

Also by Chris Priestley

The Dead of Winter

Mr Creecher

***

The Tales of Terror Collection:

Uncle Montague’s Tales of Terror

Tales of Terror from the Black Ship

Tales of Terror from the Tunnel’s Mouth

Christmas Tales of Terror

Bloomsbury Publishing, London, New Delhi, New York and Sydney

First published in Great Britain in March 2013 by

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

50 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3DP

This electronic edition published in March 2013 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Copyright © Chris Priestley 2013

The moral right of the author has been asserted

All rights reserved

You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise

make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means

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printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the

publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication

may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

eISBN 978 1 4088 2548 8

www.bloomsbury.com

www.chrispriestleybooks.com

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