Innocent Monsters Read Online Free PDF

“What is it?”
    “I need to talk to you. It’s Kaitlyn.”
    Always Kaitlyn, forever Kaitlyn.
    Jessica was wiping both hands frantically over her face, as if trying to erase her features, delete any expression on it, her breathing heavy. Lisa had never seen her like this. She looked deranged and it made her nervous.
    “Ok. It’s ok, come on. Let’s talk.” Lisa took hold of her arm and guided her to one of the chairs around the kitchen table. She sat across her, studying her, waiting for her to speak.
    The table was crowded with dinner remains, glasses, slices of bread, an open bottle of Coke. Bits of spaghetti were staring at her from one of the dirty plates.
    Lisa knew the mess bothered her friend, she had made it clear in so many ways during the few days she had spent here, before the funeral. They were very different that way, and in many other ways. Kaitlyn had always been the bridge between the two of them but, without her, they seemed nothing but isolated islands floating in their own private world, in their own habits. Disconnected.
    “Sorry about the mess. Bobby came back around three this morning, starving. I don’t know how he does it, eatin’ that late, just before he’s off to bed.”
    Bobby, again, Lisa’s eternal excuse for slobbishness. Apparently, when your husband keeps odd working hours, it’s almost impossible to clean the house, to iron, to wash your face before going to bed so that you don’t wake up in the morning with mascara melted under your eyes, impossible to lead a normal life.
    Ever since her wedding, Lisa had started spending her days waiting for Bobby, sitting somewhere waiting, doing nothing, wasting her life away waiting for him. Fucking Bobby. How could she have willingly built a life around this idiot? Waiting for him? Waiting for a man who prohibited her from finding a job, who didn’t like her to have a social life, to see anyone he didn’t feel superior to, a man who still believed women were supposed to spend their days cleaning, cooking, ironing, looking pretty and not much else. Laziness. It had to be laziness. Easier to live for someone else than make any decisions about her own life.
    “Jessica?”
    “Sorry, I was miles away.”
    “You don’t look great, sweetie. When was the last time you had some sleep?” Sleep. That was exactly the problem. She kept dreaming about her sister. Every time she closed her eyes she was there, always the same dream, in her childhood home, then in her bathroom... Was it possible Kaitlyn was trying to tell her something?
    Jessica shook her head. “I can’t sleep. I can’t eat. I’m losing track of time... The police are investigating her death.”
    “Who’s death? Kaitlyn’s? Why?”
    “They think she didn’t kill herself. Someone else slashed her wrists. They think she was murdered, Lisa. She didn’t want to die. Someone she knew, they think.”
    Lisa was stunned, lost for words, her big green eyes huge on her pale round face. “No, there must be a mistake... Who would do anything like this? Everybody liked her... Right?”
    “I know. I know. It’s crazy. And you know what else is crazy? It’s made me feel better. I feel better about my own sister being murdered because it means she didn’t kill herself. How insane does that sound?”
    She felt sick just uttering the words out loud, but Kaitlyn was happy, just as she though she was; Kaitlyn had not chosen to end her life. It had to be a glimmer of light at the end of this long dark tunnel.
    Lisa was shaking her head, looking down at the dirty plate by her arm with tears welling up in her eyes, trying to process the information she had just been given. It was like watching someone struggling to understand a foreign language, with the irritation and confusion that comes with it and it made Jessica feel momentarily selfish and cruel. But that same information had been too much to bear on her own and around seven o’ clock that morning telling someone else seemed like