Comes the Night Read Online Free PDF Page B

LEX TREMBLED INSIDE as she climbed the steep stairs ahead of Maryanne and Brooke, but she moved quickly, decisively. No way would she let the other girls see the fear she bit back as she climbed up to the darkened attic. But that wasn’t the only reason she moved so quickly. Alex knew that if she stopped, she just might not go on. Might never return to that horrible place.
    She’d have felt infinitely safer doing this in their shared bedroom, but at the same time that seemed wrong somehow. She had to honor Connie’s words, and she knew the only way to really do that was to read them in Connie’s prison. She wrapped her hand even more tightly around Connie’s diary, deep in her hoodie pocket.
    Behind her, Maryanne carried a thick white candle. They would light it only when they got inside the attic door. Just an extra bit of precaution to avoid being caught. Maryanne had lifted the candle from the house kitchen. She’d been on clean-up duty tonight with a couple of first-floor girls. Two Grade Nine newbies from Fredericton who looked scared shitless to find themselves housed at Harvell.
    Not that the candle was likely to be missed, at least not for a while. It was obviously an ornamental thing meant to be tucked into a Christmas centerpiece and never lit. In fact, no candles were ever lit at Harvell House. It was forbidden, no doubt for insurance reasons. Even during the power failures that often came with winter storms, no candles were permitted. Instead, they broke out the flashlights until the backup generator could restore electricity. All of which meant if they got caught with this candle, lit or unlit, they’d be in trouble for that alone, never mind the reaming out they’d get for entering the off-limits attic. Maryanne had to know this, yet here she was. And when Alex had instructed her to snag the candle, she’d done so with much less coaxing than Alex would have imagined. Actually, with no coaxing. Maybe Maryanne Hemlock wasn’t such a chickenshit after all.
    And Brooke... she might not be a chickenshit, but she sure could be a shit.
    Anyway, there was nothing to worry about. They weren’t going to get caught. It was well past midnight, late enough even for the wild girls to have crept back in on a school night. Lights out was ten o’clock, Sunday through Thursday and midnight on weekends, but Alex knew from experience that rule didn’t carry a whole lot of weight. Especially with her old crowd, or what remained of it. One had graduated, one was back in juvie out west, and one just hadn’t been heard from. That left Alex, Kassidy and Leah.
    Kassidy and Leah. Alex felt the tension pouring in even just thinking about them. They’d been on her case since they’d come back to Harvell. They’d expected the same old hard-partying Alex. They’d fully expected her to have transferred down to their room by now, not to mention to have skipped classes with them—gym at the very least. They’d also expected her to join them that first night drinking down by the river with the college crowd. But she hadn’t gone. She hadn’t had a drink at all since that first day back. And she hadn’t asked for a new room assignment.
    She had changed. She wanted to believe that. Needed to.
    Fear would do that to a person, Alex knew. Scare them straight before something horrible—or more horrible—happened. But what could be more horrible than what she’d already gone through? Waking up half-naked on a hard floor, knowing she’d been raped. And remembering none of it.
    Alex stumbled on the steps, and Maryanne tried to catch her as she fell forward. Alex could have caught herself if she used both hands, but she couldn’t bring herself to release the diary she gripped so tightly in her hoodie pocket. So she went down on one hand and one elbow, skinning the latter.
    They all froze, waiting to see if the small thump would be heard, and if so, whether anyone would come to investigate it. But the quality of the silence