Brighter, a supernatural thriller by V. J. Chambers Read Free Book Online Page A

said. "I needed a job."
    Ramona nodded. Some strings his mother had pulled. She didn't think Garrett had a master's degree. But what the heck did she know? He could. She guessed. Hell, she should be getting her master's. She needed to apply to grad schools. "Cool," she said.
    "You, um, need help finding anything?"
    "I'll let you know," she said. She went to the computer that housed the card catalogue and started to type into the search field. She turned. "Uh. You were going to say something last night, but we were interrupted."
    Garrett looked at her, but didn't say anything.
    "You said you saw something," she prompted.
    "I thought I saw something," said Garrett. "It's not important."
    "What was it?"
    He shook his head. "Nothing. Really. I'm sorry I said anything before."
    Ramona wanted to press him, but she couldn't do that without being impolite, so she just went back to the computer screen. She found a few books on Elston's history and spent the next few hours reading through them. On her way up the steps to the second level of the library, she noticed a door directly across from the steps. It was strange because she'd never seen the door before. Ramona didn't spend much time in the library, but she'd lived in Elston for almost five years, so she thought she would have seen it at some point. She didn't like the door, and she wasn't entirely sure why. It was painted white, and it was maybe six feet high—a short door, probably because the building had been built in the 1600s or something. People were shorter then. So maybe it was because the door was short and squat—a door for dwarves or gnomes. Maybe it was because it was an old door. It had a farmhouse latch on the front, no doorknob. The door looked ancient, like a door to another time. Or maybe it was because it hung limply on its hinges. And half open, so that Ramona could see that it led to the basement. Behind the door lay darkness, a gaping hole deep into the earth. Ramona didn't like turning her back to it to ascend the steps to the second level.
    Finally, Ramona selected two books to check out and took them to Garrett. He put library cards in the sleeves wordlessly, barely looking at her. When she left, she didn't know if she should say goodbye to him. He wasn't speaking to her, after all.
    "See you around," she said.
    Garrett nodded.
    * * *
    Heather White watched her husband Rick eat a hamburger over the sink. It was one of his little quirks. If he ate over the sink, he didn't have to dirty up a plate. Then there were no dishes.
    Heather sat at the kitchen table, fork in hand, ready to stab a piece of lettuce in her salad. "Why don’t you get a plate, honey?" she said. "I'll wash it, I swear."
    Rick looked up. "You hate washing the dishes."
    It was true that their kitchen often resembled something hit by an earthquake. Heather didn't mean to let dishes pile up. But it was so easy to talk herself out of doing them. When she'd told her parents that she was getting married, they'd been concerned. They'd warned her about money. They'd said she was too young. (She was only a year younger than her mother had been when her parents got married. They said it was a different time.) They hadn't said anything about the dishes.
    And the dishes were certainly quite a problem. Quite a headache. When Heather had lived with a roommate, and Rick had come to see her, he'd never said anything about the state of her kitchen. Once they were married, however, it became an enormous issue. Rick couldn't stand the fact that there were always dirty dishes in the sink. "Why don't you wash the dishes?" he would always ask her. Heather's initial response was that Rick should just wash them himself if it bothered him so much. But Rick wouldn't. He refused. He said none of the dishes were his. Heather pointed out that she used the dishes in the sink to make food for the both of them. Food that he ate. Rick said, "Yeah, but if you hadn't been here, I never would have eaten that food, so