Monster Read Online Free PDF

wasn't all there was to it. He had changed in some way that I couldn't explain. He would talk about the same things, but you know that fee ling you get when someone's talking about something that they don't really be lieve in? Or that they have no interest in?”
    “Yes.”
    “ I felt Jim was just mouthing words because it was expected of him. He would hold me, he would kiss me – we continued to make love when my parents weren't aro und. But he wasn't with me. He wasn't th ere.”
    “So?” Angela said. “ He was losing interest in you . I’m sorry , Mary, but it happens all the time. It doesn't m ean he was a monster .”
    Mary s howed impatience. “I tell you he was different , and I know what I'm t alking about because I knew him. His min d, his heart – when I was with him they weren't there.”
    “ Where were they?” Angela asked.
    “Gone.”
    Angela shook her head . “I sti ll don't know what you're talking about. If he acted so indifferent to you, why did you go to the tro uble of watching his practices?”
    “ Good question . I think I went because I needed proof t hat he had changed.”
    “Mary.”
    “ Let me go on. There was a time – I think it was about two weeks ago – that I went to practice for only a few minutes. I accidentally left my purse and had to go back for it . When I got there none of the guys was on the field, and all the cheerleaders appeared to have left also. I noticed that the weight room was s ti ll open and walked over to it . By then I had no hope left for Jim and me. I didn't walk into the weight room, I peeped in, slyl y. Yeah, I was definitely looking for something unus ual. And I got it.”
    “ What did you see? ” Angela asked.
    “ Kathy and Todd and Jim were inside. They were alone, lifting weights. Have you eve r seen a cheerleader lifting weight s? I haven't, but I suppose that isn't so strange. But good old Kathy – she wasn't pumping a few extra pounds to give her arms tone. I saw her lift at l east a thousan d pounds straight over her head.”
    “T hat's impossible, ” Angela said.
    “I know. But I saw her do it.”
    “ You must have misjudged the weight on the bar. ”
    “ No . In fact, the bar she was usin g bent after she lifted it, she had so much weight on i t. What do you think it would take to bend one of those metal bars? A strong girl, that Kath y.”
    “We re Jim and Todd lifting as much?”
    “I co uldn't tell . They were working the machines . But it seemed as if they were pu shing the machines to the limit, without sweating. Here's so mething else: when Kathy made her dramatic lift, neither of the guys seemed to notice. The whole time I stood there watching them not a single word was said. The a tmosphere was cold as a morgue.”
    Angela considered. “Anything else?”
    “Yes.” Mary leaned forward on the table. She had begun her tale with no hope of convincing Angela, but now she had warmed up. Now it was clear she wanted Angel a to believe her. “ After the incident in the weight room I began to spy on them. I noticed that they hung out together a lot. They'd go off alone to a co rn er of campus and talk. I also noticed that none of them ever smiled unless som eone else was around. I stopped going out with Jim altoge ther, but I often drove over to his house at night and sat d own the street in my car – waiting.”
    “ For what? ” Angela asked.
    “ For him to come out and play with his strange friends.”
    “ Yo u talk like they were vampires.”
    Mary's eyes grew dark . “ They were worse than vam pires . One night I was waiting outside Jim 's house – it was after midnight – and he went out and drove off in his car. I followed him a nd he picked up Todd and Kathy. They went here, to Balton, to a bar. I assumed they'd be tossed out because they were under-age , but they stayed inside un til two o'clock, when the bar cl osed. When they came out they had two couples with them. The o ther four appeared to be in their early