9111 Sharp Road by Eric R. Johnston Read Free Book Online Page B

closing in on us as if they were either interested in the di scussion or fascinated in a living person. But then one ghost came to me, someone I recognized. My mother.
    “Mom, what are you doing here?” I asked. She wasn’t dead. So far as I knew anyway. I could feel the tears starting to brim up again. I thought about how she did nothing bu t sit in that rocker , not interacting with anyone.
    “Amanda,” M om said with a joyless smile.
    “Mom.” I rushed into her arms as tears exploded from my eyes. The touch of her skin against mine made my hair stand on end. “Mom, I’ve miss you so much.”
    “I missed you too.”
    “What happened? Are you dead?”
    My mom let go of me and glanced at my dad. They exchange d a look that made me think they really didn’t want to tell me anything but were being forced to . I just wish I knew then what I know now.
    “ Yes…I’m trapped here, just like your father.”
    “A manda,” my dad said. “I’m sorry, I can’t do this anymore. Amanda, everything you’ve been told is— ”
    “I hate you,” I interrupted . “If you hadn’t died , we wouldn’t be here. ”
    “Amanda, please,” my mom pleaded. “ Just listen to your father. Don’t listen to anything—”
    Before she could finish, everything around me vanished .
     
    I woke in silence . Glass lay all around me. I didn’t know what had happened or even where I was, but then it all came back to me as I realized I was lying on my bedroom floor with the cool night air blowing in at me from a broken window.
    I got up and opened the door. There w ere no glowing lights, nor w as there any indication whatsoever that the door to nowhere was anything but an aberration.
    Had that all been a dream? Another vision?
    I had to get out of there. I had to get Lori. The first place I would look was t he well, the hole in the ground where the chiroptera lived.
    I rushed through the hallway and down the stairs. As I rushed through the dark family room, my face smacked something hard, knocking me on my back. Blood gushed from my nose, which I was sure had to be broken.
    “You aren’t going anywhere,” said a voice that sounded like my mother’s but much, much deeper.
    I could taste blood rushing into my mouth and down my throat. My nose hurt so badly. I looked up and could n’t see anything in the dark. Then the voice spoke again, “Lori is ours.”
    It sounded so much like my mom. Then I saw red eyes right abo ve me and coming closer, right in my face. “I will eat you!” The eyes flashed and I coul d see her entire face. It was one of the chiroptera, but I could also se e a hint of my mother in there.
    “Mom?” At the sound of the word, the creature jumped back with a hiss as if stung or burned. “Mom, that is you, isn’t it?” Again, the same reaction. “Mom, I love you. Are you in there somewhere?” I knew she wasn’t, couldn’t be.
    But somehow, the word “Mom”—or just the fact that I was calling it “Mom”—caused it pain. “Mom, I love you.” I managed to stand up, ignoring the blood gushing from nose. “Mom, I love you.” I thought about my mother, the mother I had known before Dad’s death, the great relationship we’d had, all those wonderful memories of the time on the boat on the lake, the time we looked a clouds together and laughed about the crazy things we saw, the day when she came home from the hospital with Lori. I let that love pour through me as I projected that emotion at the creature.
    Its eyes flashed unevenly as it stumbled back over the rocking chair.
    “Well, Mom, love you. I’ll be back,” I said, turned, and ran toward the front door on my way to find my sister.
     
    As soon as I stepped outside, I could hear Lori screaming. It was such an awful scream. She was screaming for her life.
    I ran as fast as I could toward the sound of her screams , which wasn’t that fast given the length of the grass . It felt almost like running through a corn field.
    The screams sounded