Harvest Read Online Free PDF

alone. He
flipped the lid of the spray. He wasn’t going to go without his
Iris being there to be held. He gave two measured sprays under his
tongue and waited. He thought of her warm plump body
in his arms. Slowly the pain abated and his chest
muscles loosened. He rested on the step for ten minutes before
attempting to retrieve his hat.
    He wouldn’t let his condition
beat him.
    Albert reached the bottom but
had decided to abandon the regimented step and strolled casually
down, cursing as he realised his hat had missed the landing of the
lobby on the ground level and gone straight down into the basement
level. He descended the last flight of steps from the lobby area to
the locked basement door and crouched down steadily, scooping his
hat up. He brushed the dust from it and turned for the stairs, the
hat had landed flat on its top but didn’t seem to be damaged.
    He was startled by the sudden
clunk-click noise of a chunky lock being turned.
    From the corner of his
eye Albert saw the heavy metal door to the basement slowly opening.
He gulped his discomfort down, but the hairs on the nape of his
neck tingled and stood despite his attempted resolve. He turned to
the large half-open metal door. The caretaker? he reasoned, still unsure. “Alec? Is that you?”
He moved towards the door, rationalising the situation with every
step. Who – what else could it be! He
laughed at himself as he went to open the door further.
    The door ripped from his grip
and slammed against the wall. A blaze of green light burned from
within the doorframe. Albert’s brief scream reached the fifth floor
landing as his body was yanked into the basement and the door
crashed shut behind him with a deafening echo that rolled like
thunder.

Chapter Four

    Craig gathered his camera and
mobile phone before glancing at his reflection in the hallway
mirror and lazily tended his ruffled hair, leaving it between messy
and styled. Freshly shaven and with an air of CK In2U aftershave
around him he answered the door to Vicki.
    “ Hiya, babe,” Vicki
greeted him cheerily. She looked him up and down, lingering on his
shirt and tie. “Hope you didn’t make that effort for me, sexy boy.”
She winked.
    Didn’t she
find him attractive at all? Craig had a realistic view
of his looks. He knew he wasn’t a stunner, but he knew what to wear
and brushed up reasonably well. He hadn’t had that much luck with
the girls to be cocky with them, but he had a good sense of humour
and if he felt relaxed he could really get a good rapport going.
With Vicki their whole time working together had been a
rollercoaster of playfulness, and at times it was like there really
could be potential, yet as soon as he thought seriously about his
prospects she suddenly seemed out of reach. He straightened his
tie. “You’re a bit up yourself! I’m trying to look presentable for
the interview. Professional,
understand ?” he explained,
making a show of eying her casual clothes.
    He found himself rewarded
with a smile that broke across her fresh smooth face. “Oooh, excuse
me, ‘Mr Professional’. I just decided to go for the tight jeans and
slack jumper.” She did a twirl to model her vintage jeans and faded
rainbow-striped jumper. “It’s my respectful look, my sympathetic
look, my persistent look.” She put a pen to her lower lip and
beetled her brow as she acted out a mime of intense thought. “And
my suspicious-determined-reporter look: it suits all
occasions.” She stopped and beamed again, flicking a stray clump of
crimped blonde from her eye.
    He smiled appreciatively.
She neglected to mention the sexy-arse-in-those-jeans look. “Yeah, well. Just leave the persistent and
suspicious-determined-reporter look here, okay?”
    She held her hands up in mock
surrender. “Tact is my middle name.”
    Craig closed his door. “That’s
funny, I thought it was ‘shit stirrer’.”
    “ Ha-ha,” she returned
flatly. She clutched her chest theatrically. “You have wounded