Paul Channing

Paul is an older kid that comes from Buckingham Palace who first appears in The Fear. His sister is Olivia Channing, and they seem to have a very strong sibling relationship. He is described as being quiet and liking to read. His character takes a turn at the end of The Fear, where he gets in a rage when he finds out his sister is dead and accuses the kids of not caring about her. Finding the Museum kids guilty of killing his sister, Paul runs to Buckingham Palace and asks David for help. David tells him to let the grown-ups free and Paul's runs back to the museum to enact David's plan. He succeeds and escapes, but only a few kids die in the process.

Boney-M

Boney-M first appears in the beginning of The Fallen, where he chastises Paul for not killing very many kids. He is described as having a bony head with broken, skeletal wings emerging from his head, forming an "M" shape. He also has a long beak with rows of small, sharp teeth inside. He often insults Paul and encourages him to get rid of all the kids at the museum. Toward the end of The Fallen, it is announced that Boney-M is not real, just Paul's hallucination. Interestingly enough, Boney-M is somewhat humorously named after the 70's Euro-Caribbean vocal group by the same name. This seems to be a bit of a joke thrown in by Charlie Higson as a way to reference the overall off-puttingly ridiculous appearance and behaviour of the "character".

Appearance in the Books

The Fear

Paul does not seem to have an important role, at least, until his sister dies from the Collector. He gets into a rage, accusing the kids who were bringing Olivia with them that they didn't care about her, and let her die. Before this, Paul was bitten by one of the sickos captive in the Tesco truck brought there after the fire. He used his shirt collar to hide the bite from the other kids. After both instances of Olivia's death and the sicko bite, his mental health deteriorates greatly. Not long after an encounter with the museum kids, where Paul waves a knife around blaming them all of letting Olivia die and laughing at him, he runs off to David at the Buckingham Palace. David ends up manipulating Paul, agreeing that the other kids let Olivia die, as a way to plot for revenge on the museum kids for breaking a previous deal. David tells Paul to open the underground section of the museum along with the Tesco truck with the three captive sickos the scientists have been testing on. David's plan, if it worked, would have killed all the museum kids. Upon his return to enact the plan, Paul finds Jamie, a once friend, guarding the entrance to the lower levels of the museum that are filled with sickos. Paul strangles Jamie and uses him as bait for the sickos as he opens the doors. Jamie was still alive when Paul dragged him to the sickos, and he becomes conscious long enough for Paul to show Jamie the bite wound on his neck, saying "That's what they'll do to you."

The Fallen

Paul is shown to have gone rogue, hiding in a sort of den in one of the rooms atop the museum. This is when he first imagines Boney-M, who insults him and tells him to get rid of all the kids at the museum. This later leads him to kill and eat Samira. Her blood gives Paul a moment of clarity where he feels disgusted with what he did and contemplates suicide. Nevertheless, his hunger returns alongside Boney-M, whose appearance is now seen to be linked with the progression of the disease. The Museum Kids and Blue's Crew suspect him of Samira's death and decide to have a few kids stakeout the museum during the night. Paul tries to kill Cameron, and it fails because Paul hesitates and Maxie drives him away. He knows that he's been caught and runs to Buckingham Palace. He manages to convince David to let him take care of the royal grown-ups, since he states that he can talk to them. David calls over Just John and Paul makes the Royals give the finger to him and Carl. The book ends with Paul speaking to Saint George and telling him to kill every single one of the kids.

The End

Paul becomes one of the main forces that control the sicko army in The End. Jester finds a weak spot in the other kids' defences, and David gets Paul to tell Saint George to attack it. Paul is becoming more sick and feverish throughout the book up until his death. In the middle of the battle, Jester suddenly feels a sense of guilt and strangles Paul. The flesh around the bite wound has rotted away so thoroughly that when Jester pushes on Paul's neck, it falls apart "like wet paper". Paul's airway collapses, and before he dies, he seems to be grateful that someone put him out of his misery as his last words are, "Thank you." Paul's body is then presumably eaten by sickos.

Physical Appearance

Paul is very tall and very thin. He wears a greasy turtleneck, a denim jacket, and jeans, all black. He also has messy black hair, making his extremely pale and sickly face stand out. His skin is so pale that his eyes and teeth look yellow in comparison, and you can see the veins underneath. He has cracked, dry lips and a tongue that is very pink. He uses his turtleneck to cover a horrific bite wound on his neck, oozing pus and blood, and surrounded by ragged and lumpy skin with the top and bottom teeth of the bite creating the shape. In The End, it fills with the Gray Jelly. His eyes are tired and red from crying so much, and are “cold like a dinosaur’s.” He has shaky hands with dirty fingernails that are chewed all the way down to the skin. He’s described as looking like an insect, spider, or Slenderman. He’s sweaty and bloody. He looks sad and insane.

art by Rowbie.alien