Here we'll have regular competitions and advance information. Plus! Complete four or more missions over the next year to be entered into in our Justin Richards' club draw in which one lucky member will win a £500 voucher for the Apple Store.
Ten entrants will win a signed copy of The Parliament of Blood book. One lucky winner will receive a signed copy plus a family ticket to the Dungeons. We will post the winning entry on this website. Winners from the last competiton can be found in The Club.
To join the club and enter the competition, Justin would like you to:
Read the short story below, "The Secret of the Sewers".
Then write a description of the horrific sight that Eddie discovers, in no more than 500 words
To enter the club and the competition, email your answer to justinrichardsclub@faber.co.uk
by 30 November. Good Luck!
The Secret of the Sewers
by Justin Richards
The only light came from the bull’s-eye lantern that Eddie was holding. The only air stank so bad that Eddie kept a grubby handkerchief clamped over his nose and mouth.
‘You sure it’s along here?’ he asked, voice muffled by the hanky.
‘I told you, I heard it. The ghost of St Martin’s Deep.’
Annie didn’t seem to mind the smell at all. But then she must be used to it, Eddie thought. She spent so long down in the sewers she practically lived there. She was a tosher – you could always spot them, not just from the damp soiled clothing but because you could smell them coming. Eddie reckoned pick-pocketing was a far more respectable trade than scavenging down the sewers hoping to find a few coins or a lost trinket…
‘You didn’t see nothing, then?’ Eddie said, risking a moment or two without the hanky.
Annie shook her head. Drops of grimy water fell from her long, lank hair. It might once have been fair, but it was the same grubby colour as the rest of her.
‘Just heard it,’ she said. ‘Like clanking chains, and a low moaning. I didn’t have a lamp, but I felt its breath. Hot, sweaty, oily.’ She scrunched up her little face at the unpleasant memory.
The water was up to Eddie’s knees and it was an effort to force his way through the water. Once, his foot slipped – he shuddered to think what on – and he almost fell. He couldn’t begin to imagine what George would say if he saw him. Or smelled him. For once, maybe a bath would be a good idea.
‘Just past the next junction,’ Annie whispered. ‘One of the tunnels goes off to the left. There’s a ladder up to the next level, and a sort of shelf you can walk along. If you’re careful.’
‘Oh great.’
‘We don’t need to go up there though. It’s in the tunnel just past the ladder. If it’s still there. The tunnels open into a big area.’
Eddie nodded. He turned to look at Annie. ‘You don’t have to stay, Annie. If you don’t want to.’
She frowned and nodded. ‘No,’ she decided at last. ‘I want to know what it is. I got to work down here, I need to know if it’s safe.’
‘And if it isn’t?’
She shrugged. ‘Then I’ll need to find a new patch to tosh, won’t I?’
As Eddie turned back, he caught a glimpse of something ahead of them, further along the tunnel. ‘Hang on,’ he said quietly. He didn’t want to extinguish the lantern, so he folded it inside his jacket for a moment.
And sure enough, up ahead, there was another light. A flickering, red light that cast dark shadows along the walls and glittered on the murky water so it looked like blood.
At the same moment, Eddie felt a warm breeze – not pleasant, but rank and humid. A low moan echoed along the tunnel. Chains clanked and rattled. A shadow detached itself from the dark brickwork ahead of them.
‘Eddie!’ Annie hissed.
He pulled the lantern from inside his jacket again and turned it on full – illuminating the tunnel where they were standing and lighting up the high vaulted ceiling above the wide intersection where the sewers opened into an enormous chamber.
Annie was tugging frantically at Eddie’s sleeve, shouting at him to run for it.
But he couldn’t move. He couldn’t look away from the grotesque scene displayed in the light of his lantern…