Dollenganger 06 My Sweet Audrina by V. C. Andrews Read Free Book Online

puppy from the gutter. He held her over my bed. "Now pick them up!" he ordered harshly. "My first Audrina would no more look at that filth than she'd tar and feather you--which I'll do if you don't stop tormenting me! Now you have to eat them," he added when she had them in her nervous, pale hand. I thought he was joking; so did she.
"I'm going to scream for my mother!" threatened Vera. "I'm hurt! I've got broken bones! I could die! You let me go, or tomorrow I'll go to the police and tell them you abuse me--"
"Eat them!" he bellowed. "You've coated them with glue, they shouldn't taste worse than your mother's cooking."
"Pa . . pa," she wailed, "don't make me eat paper and glue!"
Snorting in disgust, he carried her out of the room. A few seconds later I heard her screaming as he applied his belt to her bare skin. I didn't truly know if he used his belt when she was naked, but ten to one she'd tell me he did. Vera could scream if a fly lit on her arm, so how could I know unless I got up and found out for myself? I never did because for some reason I was afraid what she said might be true.
Minutes passed while my heart raced. Eventually Vera's screams ebbed away, but still Papa didn't come.
Somewhere downstairs a clock chimed ten times, but that meant little. Every bone in my body ached, every muscle was tensed. I knew I'd have to sit in the rocking chair again tonight.
Finally, when I felt I could bear the suspense no longer, knowing I'd never fall asleep until I did what he'd force me to do, I heard a door close and soon heavy footfalls sounded in the corridor. Papa's tread was even, heavy, squeaking the old sagging floorboards.
Softly, he eased open my bedroom door and stepped inside. Quietly, he closed the door behind him. He loomed up in the night like some huge monster, casting a long shadow in the - dimness of my moonlit room.
"S000," he drawled in his most beguiling southern voice, cultivated over the years from his clipped Yankee delivery, "now you've taken to looking at obscene photographs that will dirty your mind. That shames me, Audrina, really shames me."
"Not me, Papa," I said. "Vera brought them in here--but don't hit her again, please. You could break her other arm and leg, or maybe her neck. You shouldn't whip her when she's hurt."
"I don't whip her," he said harshly. "I just scolded her, and she started screaming that I didn't love her. God, how can anyone love someone who makes so much trouble? Even if Vera brought in those nasty pictures and gave them to you, you didn't have to look, did you?"
Didn't I?
"I thought better of you than that. Don't let Vera destroy the best that's in you."
"Why are boys dangerous for me and not for Vera, Papa?"
"Some girls are born to be what Vera is. Boys can sniff them out from miles away. That's why I don't bother about her. It wouldn't do any good. It's you I care about because it's you I love. I used to be a boy, and I know how boys think. I'm sorry to say most boys cannot be trusted. That's why you have to stay out of the woods, and close to home, and out of school, too. It's dangerous for a beautiful, sensitive girl like you. It's the kind of woman you'll grow up to be that will be the salvation of mankind. That's why I struggle to save you and protect you from
contamination."
"But, but. . Papa--"
"Don't protest, just accept the fact that parents worry. Adults are far wiser about the world, especially wise about their own flesh and blood. We know you are ultrasensitive. We want to spare you those unnecessary pains. We love you. We want to see you grow up healthy and happy, that's all."
He came to sit on the edge of my bed as I lay on my back, frozen and trying not to breathe. Tightly I squeezed my eyelids together. My lids parted a bit to peek and see if he believed I'd fallen asleep, so deeply asleep I might even be dead, and maybe in death I'd gain the nobility of the First and Best Audrina and would never have to sit in her chair again. But he leaned closer. I seized