Shudder (Stitch Trilogy, Book 2) by Samantha Durante Read Free Book Online

peeked out from the wall. Nikhil
gathered up the paper and pen following behind it and scuttled back
over to the light of the door to read.
    “ I know you – from the
party with Alessa. One of her sisters.”
    Alessa – was that her name? Nikhil
tried to remember the party, but all he could grasp was that one
flash of the green-eyed girl, this Alessa. He couldn’t recall a
single other face from that night.
    “ Who are you?” he replied.
He noticed how faint and illegible his scribbling looked next to
her neat block print. Hopefully she could read it.
    The response came quickly. “Call me
14.” Her cell number, he realized. His was 15. He wondered if he’d
made a mistake by sharing his real name. Oh well, it was too late
now.
    The note continued. “Dip the pen in
the door grease pls. – will make it easier to read.”
    Ah, so that’s why her lettering looked
so much crisper. Sure enough, there was a glob of dark grease
smeared along the hinges of the door to his cell. He rolled the tip
of the metal stick through it and scrawled his reply, which he
noted with satisfaction was much clearer than before.
    “ How long you been here?”
he asked.
    He passed the note through the wall
once more, impressed with this girl’s resourcefulness. He peeked
through the tiny hole after the pen disappeared once again, but he
couldn’t see anything through the dark. The note came back and
their conversation quickly fell into a comfortable
cadence.
    “ Few weeks.
You?”
    “ Few months, I think. Not
sure.” He hesitated, not certain if he trusted this person enough
to share his next thought. But she was the only one he had right
now, so he forged ahead. “Thought I was losing it in here with all
that scratching.”
    “ Sorry.” Her reply came on
a fresh scrap of napkin, the other having been filled in every
direction with their scrawls. “Worth it, though? :-)”
    He chuckled at the absurdity of the
innocent little face staring up at him from the page. Who could
smile in a place like this? He couldn’t even remember the last time
he’d laughed.
    “ Definitely. :-)” he
replied.
    Nikhil leaned back against the wall,
content. He’d forgotten how good it felt to banter, to feel
connected to another human being. He felt suddenly grounded again
after so many months adrift in his own cluttered thoughts, drowning
in his own choking misery. He may not know which Nikhil’s life was
the real one, but at least he was still alive, still able to laugh.
That was something.
    As he waited for her reply, an
unexpected noise suddenly filled his chamber – a vicious, rasping
howl that shot straight to his bones.
    Some primal note in that chilling
shriek put him on edge, his skin prickling as the hairs on his arms
stood straight like sentinels of danger.
    Suddenly he felt his heart begin to
hammer, all of his senses on high alert.
    It’d come from the hall. In months, no
noise but 14’s gentle scratching and the occasional footsteps of
the guards had penetrated the walls of his cell. But that snarl had
rang through the room like the walls were paper. He couldn’t
imagine how loud that cry must have been on the other side of the
door.
    The note came shooting through the
wall. “What was that?” She’d underlined the sentence three times
for emphasis.
    Nikhil sat frozen, hostage to the
jittering of his heart and his own ragged breaths.
    He waited. But the sound didn’t come
again.
    It took all of his concentration to
still the trembling of his hand as he jotted his reply. “Let’s hope
we never find out.”

6. PHOENIX
    Even the simple act of opening her
eyes was a struggle.
    The slightest of movements sent
throbbing bolts shooting through her body. Everything felt blurred,
even with the bright fluorescent lights piercing her eyes. All she
could see – and feel – was white. White bandages crowding her
vision, smooth white sheets on her bed, shiny white walls encasing
the small hospital room, white blinds on the large window…