Hyde by Tara Brown Read Free Book Online Page A

knowing.”
    He closed his eyes and nodded, “Just as your
father would have said.”
    He stood from her bedside and walked to the
doorway, “I will leave you two to it then. I will make you
something to eat.” He left the room silently as usual.
    Marcus walked to her side pulling out his
iphone, “I think I can reasonably say that man doesn’t like
me.”
    She frowned at him, “No kidding. You don’t
exactly inspire trust in people.” She felt as if she had known him
an eternity. It was possibly from reading about his life from her
father's perspective. To her father he was a savior and true
friend. She didn’t quite share her father's beliefs. Something
about him bothered her, perhaps the way he made her feel.
    He touched the phone several times and then held
it to her face. She took it as the video he filmed started. She was
in the forest behind her house, she screamed in agony clutching her
face. Her knees buckled. She knelt on the forest floor screaming as
her face twitched unnaturally. She felt her eyes widen at the
sight. She fell back with her legs trapped underneath her. Her skin
quivered and twitched as if snakes slid around under it. Suddenly a
leg shot out from the forest floor stretching to size of a whole
human being. The other leg did the same. Muscles bulged from her
veining legs. Her pants and socks ripped revealing her ruddy skin.
Her body grew from the waist up, again shedding her clothes, except
what seemed to stretch with her. Her head shook back and forth
violently.
    She turned away from the phone for a moment as
the screaming grew to a horrendous level. She sounded as if she
were being murdered slowly. Her face seemed to rip as suddenly the
screaming stopped. Where she had been, stood something she couldn’t
imagine. It was nearly identical to the thing in the movie she had
seen of her father.
    It was huge and bulging with hideous features.
It was a monster of horrifying proportions. It looked around
itself, smelling in the air. It looked at the phone and laughed. It
charged at Marcus but the video ended suddenly. There was no hair
on its head, no feature that looked as if it could be her, except
the eyes. They were her honey brown eyes.
    She sat still horrified.
    She looked at Marcus, “It's true. It's all true.
I’m a disgusting freak.”
    He laughed, “That’s not you, that is something
unnatural Hanna. It’s a part of you that can't be controlled nor
helped.”
    She sighed, “I need to find my fathers chemist.
I need the elixir he was working on, Roland said its something that
will control the changes.”
    He smirked, “Do you have any idea who it
was?”
    She tilted her head, “I thought maybe you but
really there are so many secrets I haven’t been able to find my way
through them all yet.”
    He clasped his hands together, “Well you are in
luck, I have been helping your father with his work for a couple
hundred years. I know of the tincture you’re thinking of and yes
the whole point to it was he would be able to control himself while
changed. I believe the main feature was that he would control when
he changed, change at will so to speak.”
    She shivered thinking about the hideous creature
she had become, “Why would he want to change?”
    He shrugged, “I need to discuss the possibility
of a partnership with you.”
    She blushed, “What kind of partnership?” She
couldn’t help think of the scent of him and the passion in his
kiss, as he spoke of partnerships.
    He chuckled to himself quietly, “Not the kind
your wicked mind is negotiating. No, your father and I had an
agreement which required an exchange.”
    “What kind of exchange?”
    “A simple one. I would need only a few droplets
of your blood every now and again in return I would give you what I
gave him.”
    She nodded, “Help in chemistry.”
    He looked puzzled for a fleeting second and
smiled, making laugh lines appear around his ancient eyes. He
looked older for a passing moment, as if a shadow had cast