These Unquiet Bones Read Online Free PDF Page B

the living room and heard the cordless phone ring. “Bet I know who that is,” she said, striding over to its perch on the table between the couch and armchair.
    Snatching the phone from its cradle she checked caller ID and nodded her head. As usual, her father was ensuring she was where she said she would be after school. She placed the receiver to her ear. “Hey Dad.”
    “Hey, peanut. How was school?”
    “Pretty good.” She locked the front door and headed for her room.
    “Any homework?”
    “Yep. I have to write an essay on some poems for English class Monday.” She dropped her backpack and CD onto her unmade bed, flopped down in the swivel chair behind her desk, and started her computer. “Oh, um, is it okay if I go to a party Cat is throwing for me tonight at her house?”
    There was a moment of silence on the other end. “Her parents gonna be there?”
    “Yeah.” When she remembered what Catherine said about her parents being out of town, Amy got nervous. However, thinking about what Michael said about her father controlling her life, and how bad that made her feel, she didn’t correct the lie. “They’ll be there.”
    She hoped he didn’t detect the apprehension in her voice.
    “How long have you known about this party?”
    “Not until today at lunch.” She hoped she could pull this off without him finding out. She didn’t think he had their cell phone numbers. “The party was last minute, and Cat already made plans and invited everyone. Can’t I go? Please.”
    Her father sighed heavily. “All right. Long as you’re home before nine. We’ll talk about it later. I’m on my way out now.”
    “Yeah, okay.” She felt a thrill of excitement. She’s never been so defiant before. Her fear kept her from being so. It felt great to rebel a little.
    After saying goodbye and hanging up the phone, she called Catherine and told her that the party was on, only her father was under the impression that her parents would be there.
    “Wow, lying to Daddy, are we?” Catherine said.
    Amy laughed. “I feel kind of proud of myself.”
    But also little scared. What if her father somehow found out what she did? There’s no telling what he’d do once his anger got out of control.
    The specter of the Nightmare Man took shape in her mind, but she forced it away.
    “Then we’re good to go,” Catherine said. “See you tonight.”
    Dropping the phone on her desk, Amy held onto her fragile confidence and pulled out a change of clothes and stripped off her uniform.
    Dressed in blue jeans and a red shirt, she sat in front of her Yamaha keyboard, flicked on the power switch, and played a song her mother taught her years ago.
    She kept her eyes on a depiction of the drowning Ophelia as she played. The print was tacked to the wall in front of her. It had been placed there as a means of creative inspiration.
    Drowning. Amy frowned as her fingers danced along the keyboard. Must be a horrible way to die.
    She remembered how it felt after slashing her wrists in the lukewarm water of the bathtub a year after her mother’s death. It hurt worse than the pain leading her to that selfish act in the first place.
    She remembered how her father responded at her bedside in the ER. The tears that glistened in his eyes shattered her heart like fragile china. She had never seen him cry before. Not even at her mother’s funeral.
    “I already lost your mother,” he said that night at the hospital, leaning in with her small chin cupped in his large hand. “And I’ll be damned if I’m gonna lose you, too.”
    Amy shook the thought away, closed her eyes, and let the music take her to a place far better than where her memories dragged her.
    It was a place in her mind where she always went when that ugly black hole in her soul opened wider and wider until…
    Scratch, scratch.
    Her fingers froze over the keyboard.
    What the hell was that?
    She glanced over at the bedroom door and listened for what sounded like tiny claws