The Screaming Season Read Online Free PDF Page B

inside me. “Stop it, Lindsay. He’s going to know.”
    “Hydrotherapy. They don’t do that sort of thing now.”
    “No. The lids are gone. But before, when we . . . when they were bad . . . ” I heard what I was saying and tried to turn it around. “The faucets in the tubs don’t work. We take showers.”
    “What else do you see when you look at Marlwood, walking down the path?”
    “Jessel. The other old building in Academy Quad. It has four turrets and a lake view. It’s supposed to be haunted,” I blurted, before I realized what I was saying.
    “Do you think it’s haunted?”
    “Of course not.” I don’t think it’s haunted. I know it’s haunted. “Mandy Winters lives there, with her friends.”
    “I’ve met her brother, Miles.”
    “They’re twins,” I said. I heard the tremor in my voice. I was sure he could hear it too.
    “Go on,” he prompted again. I relaxed a little. He wasn’t going to ask questions about the Winterses. He wouldn’t pry. Not yet, anyway. First he had to gain my trust. That was how it worked in therapy.
    “Past Academy Quad, there’s the commons, where we eat. There are around a hundred of us. Then the gym. And the library.” And the statue garden. I didn’t mention it. Someone had stalked me there. And it’s where I found Celia’s locket, given to her by David Abernathy a hundred years ago as a token of his love.
    Of course, he had given Belle an identical one . . .
    “There are some abandoned buildings, but those are off-limits.” Except for parties, and séances, and attempted murders. The lake house. The operating theater.
    “Don’t, don’t!” Celia protested.
    “Excuse me, what did you say?” he asked softly.
    I pressed my mouth shut. To distract myself, I gazed at the yellow circle of light on the wall, golden and warm as the sun. There were weeks at Marlwood when the sun hadn’t shone even for an hour. Gray, scary days, when the fog boiled off the lake and the birds wouldn’t land on the water. Where Mandy and her ally, Belle, tracked girls for the other ghosts to possess so they could try to kill Celia, through me.
    I shifted in my chair, barely able to keep still. I couldn’t tell him about any of that. I stared at the yellow circle.
    And suddenly, I was remembering my ride back to school with Troy. Driving up the Pacific Coast Highway as surfers rode the waves and Troy grinned at me, tanned, his eyes an unearthly blue. Dimples. Freckles. And the best kisses, ever. Then he dropped the bomb two hours before we were scheduled to arrive on campus: he was still Mandy’s boyfriend. Despite his promise to break up with her—a promise I had not asked him to make—he hadn’t. Kiyoko had died, and Mandy was so torn up about it that he hadn’t had the heart to add more agony to her life.
    That was the reason he gave me, anyway.
    “All men are lying bastards,” Celia hissed.
    “You were telling me about the sun,” Dr. Morehouse said.
    “On the water,” I said drowsily. “Riley likes to surf.” I couldn’t remember telling him about Riley.
    “Do you surf?”
    “Body surf.” I felt myself smile. A real smile. The warm ocean water enfolded me; salt water crusted my lips. “We eat dried mangoes from the Asian market. Diet cream soda.”
    Riley and I got busted by a lifeguard for making out. He told us there were too many young kids around for that kind of PDA. I couldn’t believe I had gotten in trouble for kissing the hottest guy at school. It was quite a coup. The sun had beat down so bright and yellow and I dribbled mango juice on my lips. Riley licked it off and it was so fun and so amazing that my school’s first-string quarterback was kissing me that I started laughing.
    I chuckled now, low in my throat. Warmth seeped through me. I felt safe. San Diego. Home. I heard the breakers. I smelled my suntan lotion.
    Home.

    LATER, WHEN I woke up, the dimmer lights were still on, but shadows from the windows threw stripes on the walls. I was