His Dark Ways Read Online Free PDF

to sleep. She woke up last night having a panic attack. I swear, Savanna, they’re getting worse.”
    “Are you going to let her doctor know?”
    “Are you kidding me? Mom would be committed. I’d end up living in Reno with white trash Uncle Vinnie.”
    I take a seat on top of her bed piled with clothes and remember meeting Uncle Vinnie a couple years ago. “Ha! I think I remember him at some shindig you guys had. Didn’t he carry some big ass Glock down the front of his pants?”
    Her eyes grow wide and she nods yes. 
    “Yeah, that would suck. So how did she get a hold of all those pills? Those can’t be helping.”
    Amy finishes caking on her usual amount of black eyeliner, rolls her eyes, and starts braiding her hair. “Denise, the hypochondriac. You are what you hang around I guess.” Now her focus is on me from the other side of the vanity mirror. “Right, Savanna?”
    “What? Like now you’re a goody-two-shoes pastor’s kid?”
    She twists her tongue ring around the outside of her upper lip and laughs. “You know what I mean, S-s-s-a-v-a-n-n-a.”
    Under my breath I say, “G-g-g.” It’s the strangest thing, and I need to find someone who will believe me about not being able to say God’s name because the girls just think I’m being ridiculous—disobedient. If I tell Dad it will only hurt his feelings that I’m on such a monumental rebellion. Plus, I doubt they have scans for the religiously disabled.
    I spot a black lace dress barely on its hanger in the closet and mumble, “So, are you trying to say you’re a worse influence than me?” The only dress I own is the one Mom sent recently. Besides that I can’t remember the last time I dressed up. But this dress forces Daniel back into my mind—heart, I want to put something on that will make it hard for him to take his eyes off me if I see him again. Amy’s saying something, and I interrupt while pulling the dress off the hanger. “Can I borrow this?”
    “You want to wear that?”
    All I’ve ever cared about was science, what my two eyes can see and coming up with crazy things to do with the girls. But this, this is foreign to me—wanting to dress up to look good for a boy, or worse still a ghost. I really have gone mad. Maybe if I take some of Mary’s pills on the way out, it’ll help cure my insanity.
    Amy’s trying to get my attention by waving at her reflection in the mirror. “Hello? Woohoo? Are you in there?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Yes, you can borrow it, you weirdo. You ready?”
    “Thank you.”
    She grabs her bag and glances at me. “You’re welcome. Just be nice to it, it’s vintage.”
    As we crawl down the dirt drive way because of my car’s wimpy engine, I notice Sebastian still standing in the same spot in the rearview mirror. I’ve never been scared of an animal, but he could be the first if he keeps acting this way. I shiver involuntarily and it seems all too familiar, like the ones I had when that thing dragged me across the floor. “Dude, your horse looks possessed.”
    Amy turns around. “What? He does seem spooked.” Brown eyes are back on me. “He’s just been hanging around us too long.”
    I’ve known Sebastian since he was a colt who would follow me around trying to tuck his head in between my arms because he wanted to be hugged. A tinge of sadness tugs on my heart at the thought he may be getting old, cranky—different, or whatever.
    Amy stares out wearing a blank expression. Death’s haunting her even though she’s alive. Her once gleeful family existence has transformed into a morbid hellhole. She turns toward me as she chews a barely there nail, a habit she only succumbs to when she’s upset.
    “After Saturday, all I can think about is Dad and how he’s some entity lost in Afghanistan. Like maybe he can’t even find us to haunt us and that’s why this sucks so hard to deal with.”
    I’m pretty sure this is the strangest statement I’ve ever heard, but when I think about Daniel and how