It Knows Where You Live by Gary McMahon Read Free Book Online Page A

needed quite a bit.” She stared at me, her eyes narrowing. “Why, what’s wrong?”
    “I had another nightmare.”  
    She looked at me like a teacher reassuring a small child. “Oh, you poor boy.”
    “Stop it,” I said. “I dreamt something had happened to you—I know that sounds lame, but for a minute there, I believed it. I...I panicked when you weren’t here.”
    “I’m sorry.” She moved towards me, closing the door. “I didn’t mean to tease you. It’s just...well; you don’t usually act like this.”
    I shook my head. “You mean weak? I’m not usually this weak?”
    “Come on, let’s have breakfast. All I meant is you never have nightmares. Not in all the time I’ve known you have you had a nightmare. Maybe you really are stressed.”
    She was right. Even as a child, I’d never experienced bad dreams. I’d just never had them...until now. I was infected, as if the nightmares of those sleeping houses had somehow seeped into me, burrowing into my brain to metastasise like a cancer. I was under their influence. The demolition had let out their dreams and they had come into me...
    I did not go in to work that day. My boss reacted kindly when I told him I had a virus, and I hadn’t slept at all the previous night. He told me to rest, to come back only when I felt better. The work would still be there when I returned. I did not enjoy lying to him, but nor could I face going into the office, or, worse still, going out to inspect another building site.
    Debbie looked after me; she made sure I had plenty to read and a constant supply of DVDs. The day passed slowly, and I started to feel better. I even began to doubt my previous ill feelings about the row of houses on Sebastian Street, and wondered what was causing me so much stress I would imagine such things as communicable nightmares and the ghosts of dreaming houses...
    “Feeling better?” Debbie handed me a mug of tea. “You look better. The colour’s come back into your cheeks.” She sat down beside me and took my hand. I wanted to apologise, to say sorry for being such a weak man.
    “Yes, thanks.” I sipped my tea. It was too hot so I put it down on the coffee table.
    “I was online earlier and found a cheap holiday. Greece. In a little villa by the sea. I thought we could book it this evening. It would give us something to look forward to.” She smiled, kissed my cheek, rubbed my chest.
    “That’s great,” I said. “I think you’re right. We should book it. Let’s not wait.”
    “Okay, I just need to tidy up a bit first, and then I’ll sort it out. I think this’ll be good for us.” She touched my shoulder, lightly. “Good for you. I’m not sure what’s gotten in to you lately, but you’ve been acting strange.”
    I sighed. “I know. I’m sorry. I haven’t a clue what’s going on inside my head, but I sometimes feel like I’m losing my grip.”
    Debbie’s fingers ran along the line of my throat, tickling me. “We’ll be fine. This holiday will make everything good again. I know it will. A little trip away always makes people feel better.” Her smile was brief, but it was warm and filled with love.
    She went upstairs to the study, her steps quick and light on the carpet. Somehow her footsteps seemed to rise much too high in the house, towards levels that did not exist, as if she were moving too far away from me and I might never get her back. I thought again of that ghostly row of houses on Sebastian Street, and how my first impression of them had been of a façade, a false front built to conceal something no human eye had ever seen. What if relationships are like that? The walls we build to keep the darkness at bay. And what happens when those walls are breached?
    “Debbie...”
    It was like an emotional echo of what I had felt earlier, when I’d thought Debbie had vanished. But this time it was for real; this time she really was leaving me, and if I didn’t do something I might never see her again.
    She kept