Darker Still Read Online Free PDF Page B

John, your time is coming soon. You will be done.
     
    John wiped the tears from his eyes. He could not stop his hands from shaking.
    The chief grabbed John by the arms and shook him hard. “You want to tell me what the hell is going on around here?”
    John took a deep breath and told Michaels the whole story.
    It had been the summer of his eighth year. Belpre was even smaller then than it was now. It had been the best summer of his life so far. He had spent every day playing ball with his friends and hanging out at his best friend Billy’s treehouse. On that particular day it had been crazy hot. It was one of the worst heat waves in recent memory and John and his friends had decided they needed to get some big popsicles from the grocery store. There was nothing like a good Popsicle on a hot day.
    So they had all decided to make the trek down to the store. It felt cooler to be out of the treehouse and moving around with the occasional nice breeze that blew through the day. The store was only a few blocks away from the treehouse they had found in the woods the summer before.
    He would never forget the day they had found it. The boys had gone through the woods because it was going to be a faster way to the ball field they played on. The field was totally dilapidated and out of the way but they liked it that way. It was fun because there were no teams and there were no real games. They just played and played on the same imaginary game day after day.
    So they would retire to the treehouse after playing ball all day or on days when it was too hot they would go there just to chill out and hang with each other. They were a few blocks away from the super market and they were walking on Shadow Hill Road because it was shorter. Usually they went around because Shadow Hill Road was very spooky. There were a lot of decrepit old houses on that street and there were a bunch of urban legends that were passed down from the older kids about strange things that went on there. So they tried to avoid that road as much as possible, but that day was so hot that they decided that they would risk it because it was much faster.
    They were about halfway down the street, none of them really saying a word because they were all thinking about how spooky it was, when they heard a voice yelling, “Hey! Wait up!”
    John turned to see his twin sister Kelly coming down the road. She was a few minutes younger than him, but she had taken it on herself to be his boss in the absence of when their mother was not around. She was always trying to be a part of John’s gang, even though the guys had a strict no girls allowed policy. She was a brat and an annoyance.
    He loved his sister and they had always been good friends, but not when he was with his friends. They hated girls and they would razz him about being nice to his sister or letting her play with them.
    “Kelly, what are you doing here?” John asked.
    “Yea, there is no girls allowed to hang out with us,” Chad Myer said.
    “Mom said you have to let me in the club. She said if you don’t then she won’t let you come any more, “Kelly said.
    “What? You told mom? God, what a whiner. This is why we don’t want you in the club,” John said.
    “Whatever, you had better let me in. Look I brought a football so we can play.”
    “Football? It’s the middle of July and it’s like a hundred degrees. Football is a fall sport,” John said.
    “You can play it any time,” Kelly insisted.
    “No, you can’t. We play baseball in the summer. And you suck, so you can’t play. Now go home. You are embarrassing me,” John said. He felt bad about having to yell at his sister but she was really making him look like a dork in front of the guys.
    “NO! I want to play. There is no reason to not let me in the club.”
    “We told you why you can’t be in the club. Can’t you find some girls to be friends with?” Billy asked.
    “No, girls are boring to play with. I like to play ball and they want to