Tales from Dargo Island: The Complete Trilogy Read Online Free PDF

would we?”
    “I heard you
already had a run-in with him and survived.”
    “I died.”
    “And then you
returned.”
    He let me think
about that for a moment before saying, “Besides, we’re there to keep the
islanders away. There isn’t much danger of the supernatural persuasion.”
    “And there
hasn’t been a problem like that?”
    Ernie stopped
in the lot, next to the trail that leads up to the rail. “Not yet.”
    I thanked him
for the ride and took the rail home. The next day would be my first shift on my
own.

Chapter 7: Secrets
     
     
    I wasn’t
surprised when I dreamed about Nalke again that night. I was worried, however,
about what I might give away to the nature demon. Nalke didn’t know where Dargo
was and I didn’t want to be the one to give away the location.
    I was in the
center of the tornado again, with that face staring at me behind the swirling
cloud wall. Nalke’s eyes were large, white and creepy.
    “Tell me what
you know,” he commanded. “Have you gone to Dargo? Where is it?”
    “None of your
business.”
    I could tell at
once Nalke wasn’t pleased with that response. I didn’t care.
    “I could kill
you right now—drop a tornado on your house or open the earth beneath your
sleeping form.”
    I gulped. “Go
ahead.”
    I waited to
die, but nothing happened.
    It was hard to
tell, being in a dream, but I was pretty sure I wasn’t dead. And I was fairly
certain Nalke couldn’t do anything to me. Ernie had said himself the demon’s
power was very weak, and he’d expended almost all of it on the day of the
tornadoes. Why do so? Who was he trying to kill? Was it Shae? It had to be; she
knew about Dargo. But, just maybe, he wasn’t trying to kill anyone.
    “I have my eye
on you,” Nalke said. His voice was calm. “You think you can hide, but I will
always find you in your dreams. Always—”
    I woke up with
my ears ringing. My right hand hurt, and when I looked, I noticed my car keys
gripped tightly there. The key chain Shae gave me swung back and forth, like a
wind was blowing against it. It also looked like it was glowing a little.
    I lay back
down, my keys still with me. I didn’t want to put them down, for some reason.
    Later that
morning, I grabbed a book from my bookshelf and picked up where I’d left off.
Sadly, I’d been working on this book for a year; it was boring.
    Unfortunately,
I have to finish what I start. That includes terrible books. It’s a trait I
wish I could get rid of. I was past the halfway mark of the book but couldn’t
remember anything I’d read.
    My phone rang
an hour later and I answered it, grateful for an excuse to stop reading.
“What’s up, Estevan?”
    “Wanna catch
The Heifer at noon?” my best friend asked.
    I laughed. I
loved the title of the comedy that was just released. “Sure. I’m glad you want
to see it so early; I have to work tonight, anyway.”
    “Oh, yeah!”
Estevan said. “I forgot to ask about your job. I was at work during the tornado
outbreak. You start a new one or something?”
    “Yeah. The very
next day. I already trained, and I start my first shift alone tonight.”
    “What is it?”
    I hesitated,
not knowing how to explain my new job. I guard a neighborhood full of
supernatural creatures that are hiding from a nature demon called Nalke.
    It just didn’t
sound quite right.
    “I work
security for a rich neighborhood.”
    “Oh, cool!”
Estevan sounded genuinely impressed. “My grandpa got a job like that, but he
died before he could start.”
    I held the
phone to my ear, not sure what to say. He’d never told me that before.
Otherwise, I would’ve remembered when Rockne told the same story in Dargo. Had
it been Estevan’s grandpa who’d died while traveling to Dargo?
    “You still
there?” he asked me.
    “Yeah. Sorry.
Just thinking.” I looked at my clock to see it was nearly eleven a.m. “I’ll get
ready and meet you at the theater. Wait, which theater are we going to?”
    “The Tavern. Do
you