A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness Page A

heavily again, not turning back to see the monster standing there, not looking at the reaction of the room to the huge monster now in their midst, though he was aware of nervous murmurs and a strange anticipation in the air. “How did the man do it?”
    Conor could feel the monster close behind him, knew that it was kneeling, knew that it was putting its face up to his ear to whisper into it, to tell him the rest of the story.
    He called
, it said,
for a
monster .
    And it reached a huge, monstrous hand past Conor and knocked Harry flying across the floor.
    Trays clattered and people screamed as Harry tumbled past them. Anton and Sully looked aghast, first at Harry, then back at Conor.
    Their faces changed as they saw him. Conor took another step towards them, feeling the monster towering behind him.
    Anton and Sully turned and ran.
    “What do you think you’re playing at, O’Malley?” Harry said as he pulled himself up from the floor, holding his forehead where he’d hit it as he fell. He took his hand away and a few people screamed as they saw blood.
    Conor kept moving forward, people scrambling to get out of his way. The monster came with him, matching him step for step.
    “You don’t see me?” Conor shouted as he came. “You don’t
see
me?”
    “No, O’Malley!” Harry shouted back as he stood. “No, I don’t. No one here does!”
    Conor stopped and looked around slowly. The whole room was watching them now, waiting to see what would happen.
    Except when Conor turned to face them. Then they looked away, like it was too embarrassing or painful to actually look at him directly. Only Lily held his eyes for longer than a second, her face anxious and hurt.
    “You think this scares me, O’Malley?” Harry said, touching the blood on his forehead. “You think I’m ever going to be afraid of you?”
    Conor said nothing, just started moving forward again.
    Harry took a step back.
    “Conor O’Malley,” he said, his voice growing poisonous now. “Who everyone’s sorry for because of his mum. Who swans around school acting like he’s so different, like no one knows his
suffering.
”
    Conor kept walking. He was almost there.
    “Conor O’Malley who wants to be punished,” Harry said, still stepping back, his eyes on Conor’s. “Conor O’Malley who
needs
to be punished. And why is that, Conor O’Malley? What secrets do you hide that are so terrible?”
    “You
shut up
,” Conor said.
    And he heard the monster’s voice say it with him.
    Harry backed up another step until he was against a window. It felt like the whole school was holding its breath, waiting to see what Conor would do. He could hear a teacher or two calling from outside, finally noticing something was going on.
    “But do you know what
I
see when I look at you, O’Malley?” Harry said.
    Conor clenched his hands into fists.
    Harry leaned forward, his eyes flashing. “I see
nothing
,” he said.
    Without turning around, Conor asked the monster a question.
    “What did you do to help the invisible man?”
    And he felt the monster’s voice again, like it was in his own head.
    I made them
see , it said.
    Conor clenched his fists even tighter.
    Then the monster leapt forward to make Harry see.

PUNISHMENT
    “I don’t even know what to say.” The Headmistress made an exasperated sound and shook her head. “What can I possibly say to you, Conor?”
    Conor kept his eyes on the carpet, which was the colour of spilled wine. Miss Kwan was there, too, sitting behind him, as if he might try to escape. He sensed rather than saw the Headmistress lean forward. She was older than Miss Kwan. And somehow twice as scary.
    “You put him in
hospital
, Conor,” she said. “You broke his arm, his nose, and I’ll bet his teeth are never going to look that pretty again. His parents are threatening to sue the school
and
file charges against you.”
    Conor looked up at that.
    “They were a little hysterical, Conor,” Miss Kwan said behind him, “and I