The Devil's Demeanor Read Online Free PDF

and baby gone,
Stephen felt alone in the world. He had a huge life-insurance policy to live
off of, but no one to share his money and life with. He wasn’t sure if Dad had
actually take away the link to the creatures, but he never dreamed of them
again.
    After saying goodbye to his friends, he drove
off the bridge where Lucy met her death.
    *   *   *
    Larry Brigman wasn’t sure if he would attend
his ten-year high school reunion in 1985. What was the point, really? His best
friend, Stephen White, was dead, and none of the other students had seemed to
like him. Seriously, why bother?
    He found himself outside that awful school
anyway. He had a lot going on and wanted to rub it in everyone’s faces. For
one, he didn’t smell as bad as he did back then. For another, he had a great
job and made lots of money.
    He stepped into the gymnasium, grabbed his
badge from the table and wandered to the punch bowl. No one approached him.
After thirty minutes, he regretted ever showing up.
    He went outside and lit a cigarette. He’d only
taken up the dirty habit a year ago, when his wife left him. He hadn’t gone
through half the cigarette when a woman approached him.
    “Larry Brigman?”
    It took him a moment but he recognized her.
“Anna?” He stomped out the cigarette and stood up straight. “I haven’t seen you
for a long time. How are you?”
    “I’m wonderful. How are you?”
    “Also wonderful. I don’t know why I came here,
but other than that....”
    She laughed. “Same here. Lucy was the only
friend I had at this school.”
    “Same here, with Stephen, I mean. This school brings
back too many memories of him.” As soon as he said that, he noticed a blond man
standing beside a car a few feet away, watching them.
    “Stephen was so nice, and he loved Lucy so
much,” Anna went on. “Though tragic, it’s also kind of romantic that they died
the same way.”
    “Stephen was always a romantic,” Larry
confessed, looking at the man again. He didn’t recognize him, but the stranger
seemed to smile at that last comment. “His friends didn’t take his death well.
I tried to contact as many as I could. He told me about a girl named Hilda that
he met in college. I had business in Augusta, so I tried to tell her while I
was there, but she seemed to have a lot going on already.”
    “What do you mean?” Anna asked.
    The stranger seemed to find this interesting too.
    “She looked sick and tired. I couldn’t even
get out more than a ‘how are you?’ She told me she had a son and husband, but
she just seemed so out of it. After telling her I was friends with Stephen, she
perked up and asked how he was doing. I just said I hadn’t heard from him in a
while, which was technically true. I’m guessing she doesn’t sleep well, and I
didn’t want to make it any worse.”
    “That was kind of you,” Anna said, patting his
shoulder. “I’m going back inside. Join me?”
    “Okay.” Larry looked back at the stranger only
to see him walking away quickly.

Part 2:
1987-1998

Chapter 4
     
     
    The English
bulldog sniffed the warm night air as it ran through the woods. It hadn’t eaten
in days and at this point would feast on anything. It could find nothing,
however. If the dog were human, it would note the awkward silence of these
woods. For now, though, all it wanted was food.
    Suddenly it
smelled something in the air. A human would have been repulsed by it, but the
dog found it enticing.
    It was the smell
of rotten meat.
    The dog
followed it, up a hill, and then down. At the bottom of the hill was a cave.
The animal was wary, for though the smell was to its liking, the horrible
feeling in its gut was not. The feeling had nothing to do with hunger.
    Almost the
moment the dog felt the feeling in its gut, the pain vanished.
    The dog
continued forward, into the cave.
    Uncounted
minutes later the dog emerged. It saw a rabbit on top of the hill, the first
other animal in the entire woods. The dog trotted up to it, and the