Emma and the Minotaur by Jon Herrera Page A

filled Emma’s head and her thoughts were in a jumble. Lucy had betrayed her again. Mr Clarence had also broken his promise and now she was in a heap of trouble. Her father was yelling at her and she couldn’t remember ever seeing him so furious.
    “I’m sorry,” she shouted and tears began to flow. She brought her hands up to her ears but she couldn’t stop the music. It grew and grew until she could no longer hear what her father was saying to her.
    “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she said, and it was all she could do.
    She dropped to her knees, feeling betrayed by everyone except Jake, who was now lost. She took a glance to her side and saw that Will was standing in the hallway. He appeared to be shouting something at their father. Emma could hear nothing but the music.
    She looked back at Mr Wilkins and saw him take a step toward her. She ran.
    Out of her house and into the night Emma ran.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
    7
    A Girl and a Tree
     
    Emma ran.
    Pink slippers slapped the cold, wet street as she ran. It wasn’t raining anymore but the clouds that lingered shrouded the light of the moon. The street lamps shone feebly and their light glinted off a parked car here and there.
    She was halfway to Lockhart Road when she stepped in a puddle and sent water spraying up all over her pajama bottoms. As she slowed down, she saw that there was a dog on the side of the road and he was staring at her. He was a small dog with big ears.
    “What?” she said, but she couldn’t hear her own voice over the music.
    The little dog tilted his head. He barked twice, though Emma could not hear him, and then rushed toward a house where a woman stood just inside the door, waving him in.
    Emma put her head down to avoid the gaze of the woman. She walked on and, before she knew it, Emma found herself facing the darkness of Glenridge Forest.
    “The music!” she said.
    She tried to calm down and think things through. This could be the the music that she had heard once before, and it could be the music that Andrew Milligan claimed to have heard. But it was so loud that it was almost painful. It hadn’t been that way the first time around. The first time she had heard the song of the tree, it had been sweet and it had made her happy. Maybe this was something else.
    As she was thinking this, the intensity of the music relented and it didn’t feel as though her head was filled with it. The music wasn’t everywhere at once anymore but it seemed to be coming from a particular direction. It was as though the source of the music had read Emma’s thoughts and, where before it had had a great sense of urgency, now it was content to let Emma figure things out.
    “You wanted me to come?” she said.
    Emma could follow the music if she chose, and maybe if she did, she would find out what had happened to Mr Milligan and now, possibly, to Jake.
    Emma took a step forward. The image of a man with horns flashed in her mind. She remembered that night in the rain when she had seen something in the forest and it had frightened her.
    She imagined a horned monster taking Jake away and she shuddered. She knew that it was ridiculous, that there was no such thing as monsters or men with horns but, in the dark, in the middle of the cold night, it was hard to shake away the feeling of fear that filled her stomach.
    It occurred to her that the music may not last for long, and that if her friend was in there then it was her responsibility to find him. She took a deep breath and walked under the cover of the trees.
    Emma took two steps and then looked back to where she had come from. She couldn’t see the road. The light from the street lamps had disappeared. She walked back a few steps and found only more forest waiting for her.
    She sat down where she was and waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. From far away there came a long howl. The noises of night drifted to her as gradually as her night vision did. It took a long while, but eventually she