Strange is the Night Read Online Free PDF Page A

patio’s glass doors.
    In the end, none of that mattered anyway because Robert couldn’t keep William safe in this world. He wasn’t there to hold his hand as he walked across the parking garage of his law firm one night when the lights went out because there was a hurricane blowing its way up the coast. William was trying to get home before the weather got too bad, but he didn’t make it because a man with a screwdriver and a drug habit got to him instead.
    They found William in a pool of blood, pale blue eyes clouded and murky, staring at nothing. He was still wearing his wedding ring because the thief hadn’t been able to snatch it off his finger. When they found the junkie, he’d already spent the forty-six dollars he killed William for and the county coroner’s office gave Robert his wedding ring like it was a consolation prize.
    The funeral went by in a blur and the days-weeks-months after William’s death were the same. Robert withdrew because there was no color or flavor left to the world.
    Things only sharpened in focus again during the murder trial. When the murderer broke down at his sentencing hearing, Robert went after him. He intended to choke the life right out of the sniveling waste of skin, but the courtroom guards had other ideas. In the reflections of the murderer’s eyes Robert saw the monsters crowded close to the surface of the man’s dull brown irises.
    They were packed close together, too close to the surface and Robert knew what they were doing: Watching. Waiting. Always seeking to devour. Robert laughed. He told the murderer they were waiting for him, that one day they would come and he’d regret it because his screams for mercy would only feed them.
     
    Robert found himself locked up in a mental institution again for the first time since he was a teenager. He’d have been indignant if he had been able to care at all. On the day he walked out of the hospital, he turned to wave goodbye to the one nurse he liked.
    The glass doors had closed and peering at him from the glass was William. Robert nearly went to his knees. William wasn’t on the other side of the door. William was in the reflection. He was in the world of always and forever and nothing good, where even the beautiful things were ugly. Except William. He was still beautiful though he looked frightened and so alone . He saw Robert and he smiled; his confused, terrified gaze clearing and fixing on Robert’s stunned face. He waved and Robert did go to his knees then.
    After a minute, someone came to ask if he was okay; they asked if he needed to come back for another visit. Robert shook the helping hands off, told them no in a forceful tone and got up again. His brother was picking him up; he was running late, but he’d be there. Then like a miracle from above, his brother was there and he put his arm around Robert’s shoulders. It wasn’t long before they were heading home and not talking because Robert was even less communicative than before William died.
    William followed them in the mirrors though it was hard for him to keep up. His palms were skinned and his pants were ripped; there was a line of blood bisecting his chin by the time they stopped. Robert didn’t want to get out of the car, but he had too and he went straight inside to get his shard of mirror so he could see William again.
     
    Robert made himself a room full of mirrors after that and there he sat, day in and day out. When people visited him, he pretended everything was normal and said nothing about how he could hear the wind screaming through the saw grass on the other side or about how William was calling his name, begging him to please come back, to please don’t leave him alone.
    He slept next to William, the glass separating them cold and unyielding. They talked when William could find his voice to speak and he told Robert he didn’t know how he got there. He was scared all the time because there was something wrong with the place.
    One night,