Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Death and the Schoolboy
    Death and the Schoolboy
    Death and the Schoolboy
    Ebook108 pages1 hour

    Death and the Schoolboy

    By R.A. Gregory

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Hey kids! (And grown-ups, for that matter.) Have you ever wondered what it would be like if your best friend was really the Death of Children?

    Sound a bit grim?

    Not at all! Especially if you join Johnny and Eddie, as they travel to the magical world of Deathville on the most unusual ghost train ever invented, to try and save the world from evil Uncle Lucius — the oldest, wisest and ultimately, baddest of all the Deaths.

    In an amazing journey that sees the two brave young soul-searchers conquer the Impassable Mountains, rescue Eddie’s dad from a fate worse than, well... death, and face the unspeakable terror that is the void, being a spirit has never been this much fun!

    Helped along the way by a medieval knight on a shining white horse and a Victorian school girl, who seems to know an awful lot for someone so young, the only questions are: Will Johnny and Eddie, armed only with a solitary diamond rivet, be able to stop Uncle Lucius before he destroys everything that they’ve ever known, and will they be able to get back to Earth in time for tea?

    Death and the Schoolboy. It’s a rollercoaster ride through a world that you never knew existed. So, jump on board and join the adventure. Just make sure that you keep your lifeband on!

    ‘Death and the Schoolboy’ is a fast-paced and exciting children’s action and adventure tale, which forms the first part of the DATS Trilogy. Magical and most definitely not morbid, it will also appeal to preteens and all those who are still young at heart.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherR.A. Gregory
    Release dateDec 7, 2017
    ISBN9780473389574
    Death and the Schoolboy
    Author

    R.A. Gregory

    R.A. Gregory (a.k.a. Robin Alexander Gregory or just plain old Rob Gregory) is an author and animal welfare consultant who splits his time predominantly between Northern Thailand and New Zealand, writing books, helping people to help animals and generally trying to live as contrarian a life as is possible. Consequently, he aspires to no particular genre or style, just tries to write stories that he hopes will make people smile a bit and think about how absurd the world really is (and how much better it would be if he were in charge).

    Read more from R.A. Gregory

    Related to Death and the Schoolboy

    Related ebooks

    Children's Short Stories For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Not Half Bad: Remembering My Friendship with John Goulet

      Jul 16, 2018

      1. He walked into the room, leaning hard on a cane, and hung his leather jacket on the back of his chair. He was big at the middle; buttons on his sweater vest hung tough across his belly, and he wore a T-shirt under his vest, which I thought was fun

      9 min read

    • Article

      Studio Ghibli Movies

      Jun 2, 2019

      Studio Ghibli Movies
      4 min read

    • Article

      My Dog Is My Life

      Sep 1, 2023

      My Dog Is My Life
      9 min read

    • Article

      Seven Minutes For Joan

      Apr 5, 2022

      Seven Minutes For Joan
      8 min read

    • Article

      Just the THING

      May 18, 2022

      Just the THING
      3 min read

    • Article

      Dream Girl

      Jan 1, 2020

      Dream Girl
      11 min read

    • Article

      His Brilliant Career

      Mar 19, 2023

      His Brilliant Career
      9 min read

    • Article

      Decisions, Decisions

      Jan 11, 2022

      Decisions, Decisions
      6 min read

    • Article

      L’homme Du Café

      Nov 10, 2021

      L’homme Du Café
      6 min read

    • Article

      ‘Why Can’t We Be The Hero?’: George Webster On Acting, Ambition, Romance And Big Breaks

      Feb 28, 2023

      There was never really any doubt about what George Webster was going to end up doing – in his mind, anyway; others might have been less sure. “I remember I used to love performing as a kid,” he says. “I dreamed of doing lots of things, like acting, b

      8 min read

    • Article

      So Long, Bob!

      Jul 17, 2020

      So Long, Bob!
      7 min read

    • Article

      Mr. Bojangles

      Feb 26, 2022

      Mr. Bojangles
      4 min read

    • Article

      New Term BLUES

      Sep 2, 2020

      New Term BLUES
      3 min read

    • Article

      Billy Connolly: ‘It Might Be Lovely On The Other Side’

      Oct 17, 2021

      A fostered-off schoolboy going nowhere fast, turned apprentice welder on the Clyde. A welder turned regionally popular musician. A musician turned nationally popular comic. A comic turned Hollywood actor and an actor turned New York artist, then a re

      10 min read

    • Article

      Come with Me

      Dec 1, 2022

      Come with Me
      12 min read

    • Article

      Esquire Fiction

      Aug 17, 2023

      Esquire Fiction
      14 min read

    • Article

      Nasty Streak

      Jul 9, 2020

      Nasty Streak
      6 min read

    • Article

      Great Scot

      Oct 22, 2021

      Great Scot
      10 min read

    • Article

      Angel’s Epiphany

      Jul 21, 2020

      WHEN OUR SESSION BEGINS, even through our computer screens I can see Angel’s excitement. She’s grinning, anxious to get through the therapeutic preliminaries. “I’ve had an epiphany!” she announces. The religious cast of the word gives me pause. A mon

      2 min read

    • Article

      Dagg Of A Dad

      Aug 27, 2023

      Dagg Of A Dad
      8 min read

    • Article

      Nuclear

      Oct 7, 2021

      Nuclear
      7 min read

    • Article

      Cricket League

      Apr 1, 2023

      Ahmed Salman, age 9Seven Hills, OH Escape the Elevator Challenge Bob and Bobby’s jobs were to search buildings for anything valuable before the construction crew knocked them down. One day Bob and Bobby were doing their job when Bob decided to take

      10 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Death and the Schoolboy

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Death and the Schoolboy - R.A. Gregory

      Death and the Schoolboy

      By R.A. Gregory

      Copyright 2017 Robin Alexander Gregory

      Smashwords Edition

      This is a work of fiction. None of the characters in this book are based on real people, alive or dead. Any resemblance to an actual person in name or otherwise is purely coincidental.

      Also by the same author:

      Death and the Atom Bomb (Book 2 in the DATS Trilogy)

      Death and the End (Book 3 in the DATS Trilogy)

      Drynwideon, The Sword Of Destiny – Yeah, Right

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favourite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Acknowledgements

      To Ollie, who wasn’t born when this book was begun, but who I hope grows up to enjoy it nonetheless. And to Ian, for his help with proofreading and improving an earlier version of this text.

      Table of Contents

      Title page

      Chapter 1 – Johnny

      Chapter 2 – Eddie

      Chapter 3 – The Accident

      Chapter 4 – Realisation

      Chapter 5 - Waiting for the Ghost Train

      Chapter 6 – All Aboard!

      Chapter 7 – Mrs Death

      Chapter 8 – Questions

      Chapter 9 – Uncle Lucius

      Chapter 10 – Problems and Solutions

      Chapter 11 – Soul Searching

      Chapter 12 – Something’s Wrong

      Chapter 13 – The Mission

      Chapter 14 – Running Out of Time

      Chapter 15 – The Mountain

      Chapter 16 – The Fight

      Chapter 17 – Lost Souls

      Chapter 18 - Homecoming

      Epilogue

      Also by the same author

      About the author

      Connect with me

      Chapter 1 – Johnny

      Johnny Jenkinson sniffed and wiped a tear away from his cheek. He hated his new school and most of all, Toby Brown and his gang. They were two years older than Johnny and loved nothing better than to tease and torment the younger children. And, of course, being a new pupil and small for his age, Johnny was the perfect target for their pranks. This time it had been a dunking in the school toilets. The time before that, a lunchtime ‘wedgie’ in the middle of the dining hall and the time before that, a sound beating behind the Gymnasium. Johnny had told his teachers, but they didn’t understand. They just said it was nothing serious and told Toby not to play so rough, which just made things worse for poor Johnny.

      His parents didn’t understand either. Johnny’s father, a computer salesman just patted him on the head when he came home from work and said: Boys will be boys. His mother was more sympathetic, but she couldn’t really understand what he was going through either. After all, she had been the prettiest and most popular girl at school in her day, so never suffered the unwanted attentions of the school bully and his gang. So, after a while, Johnny just stopped telling them and suffered in silence.

      As he tucked his ripped shirt back into his trousers and started to comb his messed-up hair, Johnny shivered. The dunking in the toilet had been particularly frightening. A few more moments and he could have drowned. It was only when one of Toby’s gang had got scared and shouted, C’mon Toby, let him go or we’ll be in real trouble, that he’d been released. Johnny didn’t know why Toby disliked him so much, but there was something in his eyes which made Johnny feel very small indeed.

      It hadn’t always been like this. In Johnny’s last school, in the country, he’d had lots of friends to play with and bullies were unknown. In fact, until he moved to the city he’d thought bullies were made-up things, like ghosts, werewolves and bogeymen. If only Dad hadn’t got that new job, he’d still be in the countryside, where life was so much better.

      As Johnny sat miserably against the wall of the cubicle, lost in thoughts of his old life and friends, the school bell rang, signalling the end of another awful day. Long after the sounds of the departing schoolchildren had died away, Johnny rose from his hiding place and slowly made his way home.

      I need a friend, he thought.

      Chapter 2 – Eddie

      Far away, in a place not marked on any map, sat a small, thin figure, dressed all in black. He was sitting on a hill, watching a small herd of sheep and lazily knotting a blade of grass between his fingers. His fingers were extremely bony, with large knuckles and pale skin stretched tightly over them. Both the hill he was sitting on and the blade of grass were a dull grey colour. In fact, everything around him was grey. The clouds were grey, the sky was grey, even the sheep were grey. As the sun broke briefly through the clouds, it too was grey and looked more like the moon than the sun.

      This place is so dull. Nothing ever happens here, thought the figure to himself and standing up, moved over to the sheep, which were happily munching away on the grey grass. Although the sheep were munching it, they weren’t actually eating the grass. Being skeletons, they couldn’t. No matter how fast or how much they ate, the grass just kept falling out of them. Stretching out a bony hand, he gently stroked the nearest sheep.

      Hello Gretel, he said. You’re enjoying that aren’t you? The sheep looked up at him and gave a small, contented belch, even though she shouldn’t have been able to. Good girl, said the bony figure and sat down again with a sigh.

      Being the youngest Death was no fun, thought Eddie. It was all work, work, work. Tend the sheep, tend the souls, tend the garden. There was no one his own age to play with. There wasn’t

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1