The Unseen Read Online Free PDF Page A

over the railing and vanished into the heavy rain.
    Barb, looking terrified, snatched up the lamp from the floor and bashed it into the back of Reese’s head.  The base of the lamp dug a bloody furrow into Reese’s scalp, and Cassidy half-expected the girl to drop dead, but Reese just snarled and swiped at the lamp as though it were an annoying fly.
    Reese spun around and slapped Barb hard enough to lift her off her feet.  Barb spun through the air and slammed into Cassidy’s dresser, then crashed to the floor, moaning in pain.
    Tamila had been standing next to the dresser, by the burning, peach-scented nub of the last candle, watching the scene unfold with her mouth open in horror, but Barb’s impact against the dresser seemed to startle her into action.
    Tamila darted to the center of the room and picked up the homemade Ouija board, spilling a pile of bloody glass shards onto the carpet.  She dipped a corner of the board into the one remaining candle.
    The fire quickly ate its way up the board, making Reese’s bloody handprints hiss and steam.  A sulfurous stink filled the room.
    “I’m burning!” Reese screamed.  She’d instantly reverted to her normal self—no giant jaws, her head shrunk back to its usual shape.  Blood streamed from her sunken right eyelid, and one trickle of it ran down the side of her nose to fall, drop by drop, from her golden nose ring.
    Tamila gaped at Reese while she held the poster board aloft like a blazing torch, the flames scorching an ugly brown stain into Cassidy’s cheap plaster ceiling.  Barb groaned helplessly on the floor.
    “I’m on fire!  Help me!” Reese shrieked, holding out her arms toward Cassidy in a pleading gesture, terror in her remaining blue eye.  Patches of her skin blistered and darkened on her neck, arms, stomach, and legs.  Smoldering holes opened in her bra top and low-slung denim shorts.
    Cassidy jumped off the bed and snatched the burning board from Tamila’s hand, screaming in pain as the fire scorched her fingertips.  She flung open her door and ran across the hall to the narrow, dingy bathroom she shared with her little brother, where she hurled the burning board into the chipped tub.
    Cassidy cranked on the cold water, soaking the board and extinguishing the flames.  She grabbed the remaining chunk of poster board and ripped it with her hands.  She stopped when nothing remained but a skin of white shreds, black ash, and red glitter floating on the rising surface of the water.  Much later, it would occur to her that she could have simply thrown it into the rain outside.
    She darted back to her room.  Barb lay in front of the dresser, wincing and touching her side gingerly, keeping her wary eyes on Reese.
    Reese knelt on the carpet, sobbing and shrieking in pain, her eyes squeezed shut, blood still leaking from her ruined eye socket.  Her hand was wide open, the glass shards still stuck in her fingers and palm.  Tamila knelt beside her, her arm around the girl’s shoulder, trying to comfort her even though she’d been something monstrous and inhuman only moments earlier.
    “ Reese?” Cassidy whispered, confused and frightened.  She wasn’t sure what else to say or do, so she just whispered the name uselessly again: “Reese?  Reese?”
    “ Is it over?” Barb asked.
    Lightning flashed outside the window and thunder shook the floor.  A booming, pounding sound echoed through the apartment.  A frightened look passed among Cassidy, Barb, and Tamila—Reese was too lost in her own pain and confusion to respond.
    “It sounds like someone’s at the front door,” Cassidy whispered.
    “ Who knocks like that?  Cops?” Barb asked.
    “ It could be the demon,” Tamila whispered. “Don’t open that door, Cassidy.”
    “ Why would it knock on the door?” Cassidy asked.
    “ Cassidy, you haven’t listened to me once tonight!” Tamila snapped. “Just trust me this time.  Don’t open it.”
    The pounding struck again, even louder