Comes the Night by Norah Wilson, Heather Doherty Read Free Book Online

trees behind Harvell House. The river was a long black strip past the field. Headlights from a lone vehicle moved along the road on the other side of the river, and then just that quickly, all was dark again. As she stared into the window, Alex became aware of the candlelight’s flicker reflecting in the glass. As if it actually danced there alongside the reflected outline of her own sad eyes.
    Idly, she raised a hand, tapped the glass lightly.
    “I can’t even comprehend how hard that would have been.” Maryanne joined her at the window. “Being abused like that. Locked up here. How... ”
    “Evil.”
    Brooke came over to stand with them. “Alex, I wasn’t trying to make fun of Connie.”
    “Yeah, I know,” Alex said. “I shouldn’t have... gone off on you.” That was all the apology she could manage. “But can’t you guys just imagine it? How... how vulnerable this girl was? How sad? How desperate? Tapping on the window like this.” Her fingers took on a rhythm now as she tap, tap, tapped on the glass. “Can you imagine her standing here, crying for someone to hear? Begging over and over... I want out, I want out, I want out—”
    Alex was out.
    She felt her body drop, felt the sharp explosion of pain as her head hit the floor, but simultaneously she felt a part of herself fly beyond the stained glass and out the window. Alex was conscious of Maryanne’s hands shaking her shoulders. Could feel them on her body as she lay on the attic floor. But at the same time, from outside the window she saw Maryanne’s panic as she leaned over her limp form. From outside she clearly saw Brooke, with her hand over her mouth, take a step backward from her sprawled body.
    Co-consciousness.
    She knew it instantly—that was what she was experiencing. She was aware in both worlds, in both ways! Alex-on-the-floor stared out at Alex-past-the-window. Connie had felt this, written about this. And Alex was feeling it now. She’d cast out too.
    Alex-outside held her pitch-black, empty hands in front of her face. This was wild! She looked down to the ground two stories below and thought, I’m hovering . I’m out here in this amazing, awesome night, and I’m freakin’ hovering!
    And she wasn’t scared. She knew she probably should be. Shit, she should be terrified . She’d just peeled away from... the rest of herself. But she wasn’t frightened. For the first time since the rape, she wasn’t scared.
    Alex-on-the-floor thought, I can feel it too! I feel the night around me even though I’m in here. Or part of me is. And it feels so good. So... free! But she couldn’t articulate it for the other girls. She couldn’t speak at all, as she lay there on the floor.
    Alex-on-the-floor watched as Maryanne’s wide-eyed gaze turned to the window. Stared out and saw Alex-outside staring back in at her through the glass.

Chapter 6
From That Darkest Place
    Maryanne
    M ARYANNE STOOD . H ER heart pounded with terror, as if it would leap right out of her chest. Or out of the window with... whatever it was out there. While Alex Robbins—the flesh, the body, the original Alex Robbins—lay flat on her back on the floor at Maryanne’s feet, out past the window against the star-filled sky, an Alex-shaped blackness hovered.
    Through the clear pane beneath the stained glass Madonna, Maryanne watched the cast-out piece of Alex raise both of her hands. The hovering Alex moved her hands in front of her empty-black face, and they disappeared from sight, only to re-emerge when she waved them out to the sides. Cast-out Alex turned her body—almost in a half-assed pirouette—as she played in the darkness, played as part of the darkness.
    Then Alex stopped, faced the window again, and waved a dark hand to them. Maryanne’s legs weakened.
    “What the hell?”
    Maryanne turned her head to see Brooke backing away, a hand pressed to her mouth. For a moment, she marveled that the other girl had the presence of mind to quiet her voice to avoid