The Dead Parade Read Online Free PDF

something on to him; something worse than angry wasps, something cold and invisible, something so bad that Johnny put the business end of a gun inside his mouth before pulling the trigger?
    James walked faster. He grabbed the doorknob, twisted his wrist, and pushed. The door swung open. Wind grabbed it and slammed it against the wall. Brass plated house numbers rattled against the brick.
    James was running now, he realized—running down the steps and across the driveway. He threw open the car door and leapt inside. After ramming a hand into his pocket he fumbled with his keys, shifted through them, and slammed a key into the ignition. The car started and James backed out of the driveway at a racer’s pace. Air blew through both open windows. The radio spewed annoying commercials. Changing gears, he tore down Tecumseh Street like a…
    A madman, James thought. Jesus have mercy… now I’m the crazy one.
    As he followed a bend in the road he turned the radio off. The temperature inside the car dropped five notches and something became crystal clear:
    Like it or not, James was not alone.
     
     
    14
     
    James slapped a hand against the passenger seat like a schoolgirl. He wanted to squish it, kill it; destroy it—whatever it was. But there was nothing to get rid of. How could there be? He was alone––alone with the ice-cold air, the empty seat, and the eerie moving shadow. Fucking hell. Maybe he wasn’t alone! He pounded his fist against the cushion, shouting obscenities. The outline was certainly there, racing in circles and evading his assault.
    He pounded his fist again.
    James swerved the car left and right. The book inside his mind turned a page and a new bolt of fear hit. He stopped shouting and stopped hammering the seat. His frantic behavior all but vanished. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up straight enough to be in the army.
    The car was colder now; he had made it angry.
    “ And whatever you do, James ,” Johnny had said. “ Don’t get it mad. You don’t want it mad. It’ll get the best of you. Trust me. It’ll get even. I know. I got it mad a few times .”
    The creature hissed.
    Oh shit.
    In the corner of his eye he saw a tiny alien; it was foreign in every conceivable way.
    Then it was gone.
    James wanted to believe that his eyes were playing tricks on him. He wanted to believe it, but he didn’t. His eyes weren’t playing tricks. His eyesight was top notch. He could read a street sign from two blocks away. So what did that mean? What did he see?
    James wasn’t sure, but whatever it was—its skin was black and its eyes were huge. James knew that much. Past that, he had no idea what the creature looked like. It came and went too quickly. And it didn’t matter. Not really. The important thing was this: he made the demon angry and now he’d pay for it.
    He hit the brake. It didn’t respond.
    In fact, the car moved faster and faster.
     
     
    15
     
    Mathew floated in a sky filled with balloons inside the endless scenery of his mind. He knew things now. He knew that once Johnny died, things would become bad for Uncle James.
    And Johnny died.
    And things changed.
    But time was funny inside Mathew’s mind. Time had become askew. He wasn’t part of the system now; he wasn’t part of the game. He was in a coma and he wandered the compositions of linear time at his own pace, in his own way. He didn’t know how to control this time flux; minutes could be days; hours could be lifetimes; years could be seconds.
    Mathew followed a green balloon along an empty street. The balloon floated up a driveway and in through an open door. This was Johnny’s house. He saw Johnny sitting in an old chair. James was sitting beside him. Mathew saw the primordial beast crouched in the corner. The beast grew dull and its shadow lightened. Then came the sudden movement of Johnny’s hand. A red cloud exploded in the air above Johnny’s head. Mathew watched Johnny’s head move back and forth like a pendulum.