Danville Horror: A Pat Wyatt Novel (The Pat Wyatt Series Book 3) by Laura Del Read Free Book Online

alone with him. “Pat,” he said, closing the door after she left, “come on. It’s time.”
    I shook my head. “No, I’m not going. I can’t watch them bury her in the ground.” And I couldn’t. My mother wasn’t supposed to die. This wasn’t supposed to happen until she was ninety or older. I pictured my mother in that sealed coffin, and I felt that she didn’t deserve to have dirt all over her. She wasn’t an earthworm, she was my mother.
    “You have to,” he insisted, standing in front of me with his tie at half - staff. “And if you don’t, I’m gonna have to carry you down.” I shook my head. “Okay,” he sighed, “you asked for it.” He grabbed me by the arms, lifting me with ease, and when I finally wriggled out of his grasp, I slapped him across the face. Taking my arms again, he held them tight to my sides as I fought against him. Finally, he leaned down and kissed me and I stopped moving. I was in shock.
    When he pulled away, I blinked up at him and in an instant, I took hold of his collar and we started making out. Then after a minute, he pushed me away, looking into my eyes with concern. “We can’t,” he breathed.
    “Yes, we can,” I insisted. Anything to delay going down there and facing what was to come.
    He pushed me down onto the bed, lifting my legs over his shoulders. Then he took his wallet out, fiddling with his zipper and everything else. After a second, we were off to the races.
    At the end of the excitement, he leaned over me and whispered, “We really need to go now.”
    I nodded, getting him off me so that I could put my clothes in place. Whether I was ready or not, it was time to face the sad, dreadful music.
     
     
    I shook myself back to the present, deciding it would be better to get the hell out of this house. There were just too many memories around. So I lifted myself off the bed as gently as I could and got ready for a day of cake and dresses.

chapter
    FIVE
    “Patricia,” Cindy gasped, her eyes widening, “you look great!”
    I had stepped out of the dressing room in my matron of honor dress with some enthusiasm since I’d gotten into the damn thing without hurting myself. Actually, I was a little surprised that both bridesmaids’ dresses were almost the same, except mine had a wide belt at the waist. But even with that big and quite wonderful breakfast Cindy made me—eggs, bacon and waffles—the fact was the dress felt awfully heavy. I was so tired, and it was only eight o’clock in the morning. That was the bad thing about being me. Once I was up, I was up. It was rare indeed that I would be able to fall back to sleep again. But since I hadn’t lost any blood in the past day or had someone try to make me into their vampire bride, I went back to my normal, working on four-hour sleep, self.
    At any rate, the dress looked nice on the hanger, but there were no mirrors in the dressing room, Mrs. Anderson’s rule. She was Bobby’s mother, and, of course, a second mom to me. Come to think of it, she was a second mom to all of “The Freaks.” So I smiled at her and Cindy as I stepped up onto the pedestal, with the three mirrors in front of me, and finally got a look at myself. “Wow,” I breathed. It was very impressive. The dress was dark blue, but had a sheer layer over top. As the fabric went down it sparkled with snowflakes until it reached the bottom and the sparkles gathered, even the long sleeves had tasteful crystals on them.
    “You outdid yourself, Mrs. A,” I told her, and she smiled. Mrs. A was a little more round now, but she still had the brightest smile I had ever seen. Her face was friendly and delicate, and her brown eyes always twinkled when she laughed. She was also only about four foot eight.
    “You’re old enough to call me Audrey, sweetness,” she said in her deep voice, but I shook my head. “All right,” she laughed, “suit yourself. So,” she paused, getting down on her knees so she could pin the bottom, “how’s your