The Shadowed Manse Read Online Free PDF Page A

began to feel them, or rather, he felt … nothing … complete emptiness, as if all the emotions he had ever felt, from anger to laughter, had drained away, while all the colors of the world faded.
    The woods fell silent and turned winter-cold.
    Arthur shook his head and let the breath that was caught in his lungs out with a whoosh . The daze cleared as he began to breathe deeply. He still felt the shades’ presence, but not nearly as intensely. Arthur knew now, without doubt, that they were real. Not a prank, not a hallucination — real.
    Derek had fallen under their spell, too. Arthur reached out and touched his shoulder. Startled, Derek nearly jumped. The spell on him was broken now.
    “What — what are those things?”
    “Shadow men,” Arthur responded. “Shades. Demons maybe. I dunno.”
    Derek shuddered. “Do you feel them? The way —”
    “Yeah, I feel it.”
    The shades headed toward them.
    Arthur glanced around. Behind them, the ground sloped down towards the hollow. It was rough, rocky terrain with lots of briars and underbrush, but he didn't see any shadow men in that direction.
    “This way! RUN!”
    Arthur and Derek plunged into the depths of the forest, leapt over stumps, twisted through vines and briars, ducked under low-hanging limbs, and splashed through streamlets and puddles. But every time they glanced back, the shades were there, giving chase. Which was weird, because the shades moved languidly, as if they were only jogging. However, they slid over and around obstacles like water flowing over rocks. Nothing actually got in their way; their speed never changed. Arthur and Derek just couldn’t shake them. Eventually, they were going to tire out, and Arthur had a feeling the shades would never quit coming.
    Arthur leapt over a fallen tree, stumbled out of control as he dodged a big, jagged rock on the other side, and continued on. Derek was a step behind him, right on his heels until —
    “OOF!” Derek sputtered, followed by a crash — then a cry of pain.
    Arthur ran a few more steps before he realized Derek hadn’t gotten up and wasn't following anymore. He turned back. Derek was clutching his leg and rolling around on the ground just beyond the fallen tree. He had struck the rock Arthur had narrowly dodged.
    The shadow men closed in.
    Even if Arthur could reach Derek in time, he wasn't certain how he'd get him away. Derek wasn't going to be running, or walking, anywhere. His foot was twisted out at a sharp, unnatural angle; his ankle had snapped.
    Derek crawled toward Arthur, desperately glancing back at the shades. He stopped when he saw them coming over the fallen tree. Arthur was still heading toward him; he would get there a moment before the shades.
    Grimacing in pain, Derek shook his head. “Go!”
    Arthur hesitated. His eyes met Derek’s. Arthur wanted to say, “I'm sorry.”
    There was no time.
    Arthur launched into a sprint. He didn't head down into the hollow as before, but around its edge and up along a slight hill. He hoped he could work his way around the shades and get back up to the houses on the cul-de-sac. He had to get help.
    Derek screamed — one sharp burst that cut off suddenly — then there was nothing but silence.
     

Chapter Four
     
    A Girl, Twelve Shades, and a Cottage
     
     
    Arthur ducked under low-hanging limbs and tore through vines. Thorns ripped through his shirt and into his skin, adding to the dozens of tiny cuts from the shattered glass door. He ran faster than he had ever run before — so fast he finally outpaced the shadow men tailing him. But at that pace, he soon lost track of exactly where he was.
    Arthur burst from the woods into a narrow clearing that overlooked the hollow. A familiar, black-haired girl stood at the edge of the steep slope that led down toward a stream in the hollow’s basin.
    Morgan Apple was staring at her phone, with her back turned to him and a pair of designer headphones clamped over her ears. She couldn’t see or