Make Willing the Prey (Dreams by Streetlight) Read Online Free PDF Page B

home, he had dropped this off.”  Jina pulled
out a bag of chocolate covered strawberries.  “My roommate said she found it in
front of the door.  Stan wants me to think he’s sorry and that he really wants
me back, but really, I think he’s just trying to bribe me.  And that’s never
going to happen, because Brandon is a much better guitarist than Stan
is.  Plus he isn’t such a jerk.”
    “Are you going to eat the
strawberries anyway?”
    “Of course.  I can enjoy this
stuff and spite him all at the same time.  And if he wants to bring me more
stuff, all the better.  He’s not going to win me back, nor will he convince me
he’s sorry.  Because he’s incapable of being sorry.”
    The clear cellophane bag crinkled
as she untwisted the tie.  “Oooo...  These look marvelous.  Even if they are
the cheap kind.”
    The strawberries were half brown
with chocolate and half juicy red.  They still had the little green tops,
crystallized with sugar.
    “Can I have one?”
    “No.  Not after hoarding your
chocolates.”  Jina bit into a confection.  “Oh my holy god, this is tragically
delicious.”
    “Come on, you are torturing me. 
Give me at least a little bite.”
    “All right.  Because, unlike you,
I share with my friends.”  Jina smiled.  “Come on, let’s sit down and eat the
whole bag together.”
    “I’m sorry for not sharing,” she
said as they sat down at the glass dining room table.  “But there were only four chocolates, and besides, I told you what happened after I ate them.”
    Sandy took a small bite out of a
strawberry.  It was luscious.  She had had entirely too many sweets lately, but
decided Jina’s idea of porking out was a fantastic idea.
    Three strawberries later, Jina
screamed.
    “What’s wrong?” Sandy looked
where Jina was staring and saw a cricket running across the table.  It ran
until it reached the side, and fell off.  Sandy swallowed her mouthful of
strawberry, and said, “It’s only a cricket, Jina.  Though, I don’t know what it’s
doing in here.  You didn’t used to be so scared of bugs.  What’s up?”
    “You—You don’t understand.”  Jina
pointed to her partially eaten strawberry laying on the table where she had
dropped it.
    “Uh, no Jina, I don’t.  What
gives?”  Sandy put the rest of her strawberry to her mouth, and felt a light
pressure on her lip.  She pulled away, but the something hooked her skin.  She
pulled back sharply, it unhooked, and she found herself staring at a cricket,
crawling out of her half-eaten strawberry.
    Her reaction was the same as Jina’s:
scream and throw the strawberry.
    She forced herself to be calm.
    “Jina, hand me the bag.”
    She took the bag and dumped the
remaining strawberries onto the table.  “No more crickets in here.  But look.” 
There was a small gray card glued with chocolate to one of the strawberries. 
Sandy peeled it off the strawberry and read it aloud:
     
    Jina, now you are part of this
plot.
    You’ll join the game, if you like
it or not.
    Sandy, who’s reading this note, I
expect,
    Will keep on playing, she cannot
reject.
    S.A.
     
    Sandy read aloud slowly.  She
looked up from the card, and saw Jina, wide-eyed, with her feet pulled up onto the
chair, still staring at the table.
    A soft evening sound came from
nearby, within the apartment.  Chirping.
    Sandy looked down.  Through the
glass, she saw dozens of crickets crawling all over the underside.  Another
rhythmic chirp joined the first, doubling the volume.
    “Jina,” she said, grabbing the
petrified girl’s arm, “We’ve got to get out of this house.”
    “I thought they were from Stan,
really, I did.”  More crickets began in the chorus. 
    “I know, Jina.  Come on.”
    Jina gave in, and allowed herself
to be dragged through the front door.  As they left, the sound of a hundred
crickets followed them into the hallway.
    Once outside, they heard the
comforting sound of silence.  Sandy put Jina in the