Vanish Read Online Free PDF Page A

way.”
    Mitch nodded. “I’m serious. My old man.”
    “You haven’t talked to him in, like, five or six years, right? Did he want to yell at you some more?”
    Mitch frowned. “No… no, he didn’t yell.”
    “What did he want? Did he preach at you?”
    “No. No preaching.”
    “Well, what did he want?”
    Mitch ran his hand through his hair. “He said he wanted to try to patch things up between us.”
    “You mean he just called you out of the blue to make amends. Just like that?”
    “Something like that.”
    “Dude, you’re like in the Twilight Zone.”
    “Tell me about it.”
    “So what did you say? Did you tell him where to go?”
    Mitch stared at the floor. “I didn’t know what to say. He kind of caught me off guard.” He shook his head. “He said he was dying.”
    Stan stopped chewing. “Whoa… dude.
Dying
?”
    “Yeah. Cancer, I guess.” Mitch went to the refrigerator in the back of the garage and retrieved the bottle of Merlot.
    Stan watched him, his mouth open. “You’re not still gonna propose tonight, are you?”
    Mitch shrugged. “Why shouldn’t I?” He wrapped the bottle in a towel and packed it gingerly into the cycle’s leather side bag along with a pair of plastic coffee mugs.
    “You… you just found out your old man is
dying
.”
    Mitch slid his jacket on. “He’s been dead to me for six years.”
    “Dude, that’s cold.”
    “Whatever. I’m late. Linda’s waiting.”
    Stan grew more earnest. “But it’s like bad karma or something, y’know? It’s like an omen. I don’t think you should propose tonight.”
    Mitch’s expression darkened. “So I gotta put all my plans on hold because my old man got sick? When did he ever do that for me?” He swung a leg over the bike and gunned the throttle. “I got my own life to live.”
    Things were just starting to work out for him. He was going to marry Linda and buy the garage from Rizzo. He was going to keep moving forward. He cast a glance back at the building as he rolled out onto the highway.
North Chicago Muffler and Brake
. Next year there would be a big, glowing sign that read
Kent Auto
.
    Or something like that.
    Mitch headed north and checked his watch. Linda worked at an out-of-the-way bar and grill just across the Wisconsin border. It usually took him fifteen minutes from the garage, and Linda had finished her shift five minutes ago.
    After a few miles, he glimpsed lightning flashing in the sky off to his right. Lightning? He swore and pulled to a stop along the highway. A bank of clouds was rolling in off the lake.
    Mitch’s shoulders slumped.
It can’t be a storm. The news predicted a clear night
. This was going to ruin everything. Their ride on his vintage Harley. His late-night proposal at the lake. Maybe Stan was right. Maybe his father’s news
was
an omen.
    Mitch peered up at the storm front and frowned. The curtain of black clouds moved low and fast on a westward course. Too fast. Thunder rumbled deep and steady over the sound of his engine. Lightning flashed inside the churning billows. Long, bright flashes. Red, blue, and yellow.
    The storm front rolled overhead with a deafening roar. His chest vibrated with the noise. This wasn’t like any storm he’d ever seen before. Without warning his motor died. The headlight and gauges blinked and went out. Mitch sat in the darkness on the empty highway as the clouds swirled overhead. Suddenly a light blazed in his face. Everything flashed white.
    And then everything went black.
     
     
     

Chapter 4
     
     
    CONNER WOKE FROM a deep slumber. His head throbbed and the ceiling spun above him. After several moments, he recognized his surroundings. He was sprawled out on the wood floor of his study, but the room swayed like the deck of a ship.
    What had happened? The last thing he remembered was…
    He couldn’t recall the last thing he remembered.
    His tongue felt thick like his mouth had been stuffed with cotton. After a minute, he managed to stagger to his