Road Trips Read Online Free PDF Page B

eyes. Tommy, my baby, Tommy, Mom said, just once.
    Tommy, scowling at Mom from passenger seat, on way home from
detention. Don’t call me baby.
    Megan, eyes sharp. Eyes: Tommy to Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad
to Tommy.
    Why a blue suit? Tommy hated blue.
     
    1:11.
    “I think you should stay with me tonight.”
    Kirk had suggested. She wished she’d accepted.
    She could feel someone in the dark. But how could someone be
in the house and outside. How could there be two? Who were they?
    Again in the dark, whispering: “Come to the window, Megan.
I’ve waited so long in the cold.”
     
    1:12.
    Remembering Tommy: Come to the window, Meg. It’s cold.
    Rap. Rap on the window. Scared but seeing Tommy’s face in
the darkness, she let him in. “Tommy!”
    Shhhh! His finger to his lips. Don’t let Mom and
Dad know.
    Hungry and dirty. “You shower; I’ll get you food,” Megan
whispered.
    Getting food. Mom enters kitchen: Late night snack?
    “Yes.” Mom, eyes stern: You usually don’t eat late. Into Tommy’s room for clothes. Wouldn’t even let him take all his clothes.
Needed jacket; it was getting cold.
    Tommy clean. Found a place to stay. Band got gig on
Friday. Happy. Megan watched: Tommy slipping out window and shadow moving
at bedroom door. Megan flipped the light off.
     
    1:13.
    Screaming as it slid across the hardwood floor, the door
opened upon a steep darkness. Side by side, she and Kirk had searched the
house: room by room. No one was in the house. Yet the door had been open.
Someone had been in the house.
    “Come to the window, Megan.”
     
    1:14.
    Remembering Tommy: Police said suicide. Note in hand. Not
note. Bible page. No verse circled. Exodus. No verse circled. Megan read page.
Both sides.
    Over and over. Memorized.
    What did it mean? Why Exodus? Goodbye to better place? (Name
of his band.)
     
    1:15.
    I’m not safe. Fear heated and rose within Megan,
lifting her head from the pillow. Voice whispering in the dark. Rolling over,
Megan: eyes to the window. A silhouette moved outside. Fighting the urge to
scream. Inside, beside the window, hung on the wall: something light, soft,
draping...fabric, light colored. Forcing eyes to comprehend the object in the
unforgiving darkness.
    Fabric. Shirt. Jacket. Tommy’s tan corduroy jacket. Gasping,
drawing her head back, Megan froze.
    The sound of footsteps: behind her now. Megan spun—too
late—and suddenly was sightless. She flailed her arms, clawing at the figure
grasping her. Something, cloth, was over her head. Arms flailing, she screamed.
Breath catching in her throat, she gagged: vapors—
    —Awaking in a tub: warm water, dripping, tub full. Red.
White tiles glaring, eyes blurry. Red. The water was tinted red. Her
wrists ached. Eyes shifting: a razor rests on the edge of tub. Drops of blood
on tile. Hard to move. Tired.
    Moving, arms useless: cuts, long, deep, tendons severed.
Eyes searching: paper on floor.
    Exodus on floor. No verse circled.
    Remembering Tommy: no verse circled.
    Remembering Exodus: words, black on thin white paper.
    Passage: And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying,
Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river. Not same passage.
    Eyes drowsy. Page on floor. And the waters returned, and
covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came
into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them.
    The Red Sea.
    Megan cackled as water and blood poured into her mouth.
     
     
    Originally published in Hello Horror .
     
    If you enjoyed this story, you may enjoy The
Devil You Know .