The Dark Reunion Read Online Free PDF Page A

here and there from theremnants of the wood frame. They tinkled as they fell.
    Diaphanous white curtains billowed in and out of the gaping hole in the house. In front of them, in silhouette, Bonnie could see Vickie. She was standing with her hands at her sides, as motionless as a block of stone.
    “Vickie, are you okay?” Bonnie was so relieved to see her alive that it was painful. “Vickie?”
    Vickie didn’t turn, didn’t answer. Bonnie maneuvered around her cautiously, looking into her face. Vickie was staring straight ahead, her pupils pinpoints. She was sucking in little whistling breaths, chest heaving.
    “I’m next. It said I’m next,” she whispered over and over, but she didn’t seem to be talking to Bonnie. She didn’t seem to see Bonnie at all.
    Shuddering, Bonnie reeled away. Meredith was on the balcony. She turned as Bonnie reached the curtains and tried to block the way.
    “Don’t look. Don’t look down there,” she said.
    Down
where
? Suddenly Bonnie understood.She shoved past Meredith, who caught her arm to stop her on the edge of a dizzying drop. The balcony railing had been blasted out like the French windows and Bonnie could see straight down to the lighted yard below. On the ground there was a twisted figure like a broken doll, limbs askew, neck bent at a grotesque angle, blond hair fanned on the dark soil of the garden. It was Sue Carson.
    And throughout all the confusion that raged afterward, two thoughts kept vying for dominance in Bonnie’s mind. One was that Caroline would never have her foursome now. And the other was that it wasn’t fair for this to happen on Meredith’s birthday. It just wasn’t fair.
    “I’m sorry, Meredith. I don’t think she’s up to it right now.”
    Bonnie heard her father’s voice at the front door as she listlessly stirred sweetener into a cup of chamomile tea. She put the spoon down at once. What she wasn’t up to was sitting in this kitchen one minute longer. She needed out.
    “I’ll be right there, Dad.”
    Meredith looked almost as bad as she hadlast night, face peaked, eyes shadowed. Her mouth was set in a tight line.
    “We’ll just go out driving for a little while,” Bonnie said to her father. “Maybe see some of the kids. After all, you’re the one who said it isn’t dangerous, right?”
    What could he say? Mr. McCullough looked down at his petite daughter, who stuck out the stubborn chin she’d inherited from him and met his gaze squarely. He lifted his hands.
    “It’s almost four o’clock now. Be back before dark,” he said.
    “They want it both ways,” Bonnie said to Meredith on the way to Meredith’s car. Once inside, both girls immediately locked their doors.
    As Meredith put the car in gear she gave Bonnie a glance of grim understanding.
    “Your parents didn’t believe you, either.”
    “Oh, they believe everything I told them—except anything important. How can they be so
stupid
?”
    Meredith laughed shortly. “You’ve got to look at it from their point of view. They find one dead body without a mark on it except those causedby the fall. They find that the lights were off in the neighborhood because of a malfunction at Virginia Electric. They find us, hysterical, giving answers to their questions that must have seemed pretty weird. Who did it? Some monster with sweaty hands. How do we know? Our dead friend Elena told us through a Ouija board. Is it any wonder they have their doubts?”
    “If they’d never seen anything like it
before
,” Bonnie said, hitting the car door with her fist. “But they
have.
Do they think we made up those dogs that attacked at the Snow Dance last year? Do they think Elena was killed by a fantasy?”
    “They’re forgetting already, “Meredith replied softly. “You predicted it yourself. Life has gone back to normal, and everybody in Fell’s Church feels safer that way. They all feel like they’ve woken up from a bad dream, and the last thing they want is to get sucked in