A Strange There After by Missy Fleming Read Free Book Online Page A

go-to when she was stressed.
    “I bet you two are quite the pair,” Boone
said, grinning, holding his phone up to his ear and pretending to
talk to someone instead of empty air.
    “Pretending to be on the phone? What are you
afraid of? People finding out you’re not as cool as you act?”
    “You can be quite nasty, you know that? I’m
not even sure why I agreed to put up with this.” He put the phone
away, appearing slightly embarrassed.
    “Um, maybe because you’re also not as smart
as you think and recognize a good learning opportunity when you see
one.”
    “I repeat, nasty.” He flashed me an amused
grin. “Tell me about you and Abby.”
    I shrugged as the crosswalk changed and
walked over to the other side of the street, knowing Abby would
catch up. “She’s a sister to me. The only real family I have.”
    “Well, that’s just sad.”
    “Daddy died five years ago, which is sort of
a beginning point to the story. He had remarried, and, for a while,
we were happy. I gained a stepmother, Marietta, and two
stepsisters. Once he was gone, things changed. Marietta became
mean, making me work at her salon while she doted on her
daughters.”
    “Wait, I see where this story is going.”
    “Yeah, I have a few things in common with
Cinderella, but I have not had my happy ending...yet.” I continued
with the story. “I began seeing a shadow following her. Not long
after, her behavior changed. She became terrible, worse than
before, and eventually somewhat abusive. That’s when the attacks
started.”
    I filled him in on the events of the last
three months, building up to my eighteenth birthday. We were
sitting in the grass, and I’d just gotten to the night we tried to
beat Catherine in the cemetery when Abby showed up with a bag of
goodies. She sat across from Boone and pulled out a giant bottle of
Mountain Dew.
    “So, what’d I miss?” she asked.
    “I feel like I’ve stepped into an episode of
the X-Files,” Boone joked.
    “Ha, I wish. Then I’d have Mulder instead of
you.”
    He flashed me an appreciative smile. “Not
many people your age know about that show. Impressive.”
    “I got her hooked on it,” Abby said, ripping
open a pack of Twizzlers, as well as she could with the cast, and
offered one to Boone.
    “Ask her how she hurt her arm.”
    Boone relayed my question.
    “Right after everything escalated. You were
screaming. Jason had been tossed aside like a rag doll. Travis was
trying to keep Anna calm because she was freaking the heck out. I’m
guessing it was the moment Catherine booted you from your body.
This burst of energy exploded out of you, or Marietta, I couldn’t
tell at the time. Knocked me off my feet and right into a
tombstone. One concussion, an overnight stay for observation and
twenty-two stitches.”
    She lifted her hair and showed me an ugly
gash crusted with blood and stitched together.
    “I’m so sorry. I don’t remember anything
after Catherine let Marietta go and started in on me. I do remember
feeling as if my soul was being sucked from my body. I guess we all
know what that meant.”
    Boone told Abby what I said, pulling a bag of
chips from her stash. “I can’t fathom any being having such power.
The only thing I can think of is a demonic spirit.”
    I shuddered and nearly dismissed the idea. It
was possible, but while the entity in the yard did look like a
character from a low budget horror movie, this didn’t feel evil in
that kind of way. But what did I know? At this point, I’d explore
any option.
    “We can look into it,” Abby mused. “I’m not
sure though. Where would we have picked up a demonic entity?”
    “Maybe it’s been on your land for years, and
some random act opened it up to the stepmother. A Ouija board?”
    “I don’t think we own any. One of Suzie’s or
Anna’s friends might have brought it to the house,” I
suggested.
    “Idiots,” Boone muttered. Louder, he said,
“It’s also possible Catherine ran into something