Family Murders: A Thriller Read Online Free PDF

darkness.
    "Julie!" Angela called out.
    Nothing.
    Fear gripped her again. Jesus, her own house, her own safe place. Her house—the house she loved, the house she knew so well, the house that she had helped Ted design—was suddenly more terrifying than the world outside the door. Someone could be here, hidden somewhere, and there would be no way to tell. The place was full of nooks and crannies, crawlspaces and closets.
    Angela's mind reeled under the force of a lurching shift in perspective. She had locked the door, thinking she would lock out danger in the process. Instead, she'd just locked herself into box with whatever might be lurking in here.
    The urge open the door and run, to run and not look back, was overpowering. Some detached and objective part of her at the back of her mind almost laughed. How ridiculous to run into a house one minute and out of it the very next, and for basically the same reasons. Still, Angela thought, I could run. I would be running if it wasn't for Julie.
    "Julie!" she screamed.
    Again, there was nothing to hear. She could feel her right hand shake as she forced it out and along the wall, her fingers stretching toward the switch and finding it. For a brief second, Angela was convinced the power would be out again. She was afraid to flip it, afraid to find out.
    She flipped it anyway. The light came on with a click. Nothing. Just an empty foyer, now harshly lit. Some of the new light penetrated the doorways into other rooms, but the relative difference in illumination made the deeper parts of the house seem even darker than before. The end of the hallway in particular looked as though a dark curtain had been drawn across it. Angela knew the light switch was down there at the the end. She strained to see it. As she looked, her eyes sensed something in the darkness. She could make out no detail, no edge. Just the barest hint of movement. And then a tiny bit of color.
    A tiny slice of pink.
    A black shape exploded through the curtain of darkness, coming fast and low and right at Angela's heart. Adrenaline catapulted outward from her core down to the tips of her fingers and toes. Instinctively, she pushed backwards. The edge of the small carpet there caught her heel. She fell, and knew it was over before she hit the floor. There was no more time.
    Angela gave in. She closed her eyes tight, pulled her arms around her, and waited for it to happen. A hot, rough tongue scraped itself across one side of her face. She opened the now moistened eye and saw Rocky, tongue out, smiling at her.
    "Rocky!" she said, and started to laugh. Once it started it was uncontrollable, like all the energy reserves her body had summoned couldn't be put back into storage. The cannon fuse was lit, the firework was already soaring towards the sky. Now it had to shoot, to explode, to get out—one way or another. Angela was laughing, a deep and free belly-laugh, laughing so hard snot ran down her face. Rocky licked it off, which only set her off harder, faster. She couldn't breathe.
    Julie.
    One word chilled the hot fire in her belly to ice water, but strangely, she didn't panic this time. The jitters were gone, the nervous energy vaporized like flash paper in a flame. She felt collected and clear-headed. Instantly, she knew what to do.
    "Rocky! Go find Julie!" The dog pitched his head sideways, questioning. "That's right, Julie. Where's Julie? Find her!"
    Rocky gave one of his distinctive barks, a kind of bellow, then turned and ran, nails clicking across the hardwood floor. Angela felt a primal joy in their new approach. She and Rocky would hunt Julie down and protect her, and that was that. Freed of her fear, she charged after the big dog. She didn't turn on any lights as she went, sacrificing vision for speed, trusting Rocky to lead her. She turned a last corner and found him sitting at the end of the other hall. He was facing an unstained pine door, a door that was always closed and locked.
    A door that was hanging a