Alone by Brian Keene Read Free Book Online Page A

Well, shortly after you passed away—”
    “But I’m not dead.”
    “Just listen,” she soothed. “Please?”
    “Okay.” Dan nodded. “Sorry. I’m just upset.”
    “That’s okay. Anyway, shortly after you passed away, the Kresby’s window was broken. It happened while they were watching TV. Nobody knew how it happened. The weather was nice. Sunny. No clouds or hail or anything like that. There weren’t any kids running around outside or anything like that. It just ... shattered.”
    “When I broke it,” Dan said, “there was nobody inside the house. The television wasn’t on. There’s no electricity.”
    “Are you sure no one was home?”
    “I ... yes. Sort of. I thought I heard Susan scream, just for a second, but there was nobody there.”
    “A few months after that,” Maria said, “Jerry told my Mom that he was afraid somebody had broken into your house. He called the cops and everything. Apparently, he woke up one morning and found ink stains all over his wallet. He also found some on Danielle’s pillow. They were smudged, like fingerprints, but the cops were never able to get anything concrete from them. Do you know anything about that?”
    Ink stains. Dan remembered the pen breaking in his grip, and how he’d smudged Jerry’s wallet and Danielle’s pillow when he was looking for them.
    “Mr. Miller?”
    He tried to speak, but there was a knot in his throat. Instead, he closed his eyes and nodded.
    “A few months after that,” Maria continued, “Danielle said she saw you. She broke down at school and they made Jerry come pick her up, and when she got home, she told him that she saw your ghost. It worried Jerry enough that he took her to see a child counselor. But the counselor said it was just her dealing with her grief and expressing it through a fantasy outlet, and it didn’t happen again.”
    “I saw her,” Dan whispered. “Upstairs, in her room. I saw Danielle. She was a ghost.”
    “No,” Maria said. “She wasn’t the ghost. You were.”
    “But ... but that’s ... how?”
    “I don’t know. You died in your sleep a little over a year ago, Mr. Miller. Don’t you remember anything about what happened?”
    “I went to sleep. When I woke up, Jerry and Danielle were gone. The house was empty. The power and the utilities were off. And everything ... everything tasted funny. Even the sound seemed off. Not off like the power, but different. You know what I mean?”
    “I’ve noticed the sound is different here,” Maria agreed.
    “But where is here? Where are we? We’re in my house. Everything looks the same. This isn’t Heaven or Hell. Not that I believe in those anyway.”
    “I don’t know,” Maria said. “Maybe this is where you remained. Maybe you created it. Or maybe we see our homes when we die. Our immediate worlds. Because after I cut my wrists, I remember getting very cold and very sleepy. When I woke up, I was dead, but still in my room. When I came outside, I saw you. How far have you explored over the last year?”
    “It hasn’t been a year,” Dan insisted. “I’m telling you, I’ve only been here for a few days.”
    “Maybe time is different here? Maybe what only felt like a few days here, was a lot longer back where we ... well, you know.”
    “There’s nothing out there,” Dan said. “Nothing beyond the mist.”
    “Did you go into it?”
    He nodded. “A little bit. But there’s nothing there.”
    “Maybe our memories only keep our immediate surroundings in place. Maybe everything else vanishes.”
    “Well then, what about that thing out there? What the hell is it?”
    “I don’t know,” Maria said, “but I do know that I wasn’t afraid of it. I don’t think it meant us any harm. I felt very calm when it came toward us.”
    “Calm? Jesus Christ, I was terrified of it.”
    “Do you know why?”
    “No. Do you?”
    “No,” Maria admitted. “Maybe it’s because you didn’t realize you were dead.”
    “But what does it want? What is