The Darkness Within by Taylor Henderson Read Free Book Online Page B

sink farther into the couch. “What school is Gwen at? Does she go to Montgomery High?” I asked, attempting to change the subject slightly. I didn’t want to pry into his relationship with his daughter.
    David shook his head. “No. I let her pick her school, figuring that was the least I could do. Move her away from her family and friends, and then let her choose her high school. She goes to Westfield.”
    “Oh, cool.” Westfield High was anything but cool. The school was farther than Montgomery and a lot of the students there hated my school. We had a huge rivalry. Everything between the two schools was a competition and a majority of the people I knew there were stuck-up bigots. “Well, you can tell Gwen if she ever wants to hang out then she can just come knock on my door. I’m usually there, unless I’m with my friend Adrianna. On the rare occasion that I’m not home then she can just leave a message with my mom.”
    David beamed. “That is very kind of you, Claire. I’m sure she will take you up on that offer.”
    “Of course. It’s my pleasure.” I pushed myself up to my feet, preparing to leave. It took me a while just to stand up. It was as if the couch was trying to pull me back down and suck me into its cushiony depths. When I was on my feet, David stood too. He waved his arm out, gesturing for me to lead the way to the door. When he waved his arm, his cuffed sleeve slid up a few inches, showing off a nasty mark on his wrist. The skin was inflamed and red, and I could swear I saw the unmistakable indentions that could only be left by teeth.
    David pulled his sleeve down quickly, eyeing me to see if I had noticed, but I had already flicked my eyes away. My mind was already racing again. Had Gwen done that to him? The bite was so deep it had pierced his skin. My head swam at the thought. How could someone hate their father that much for not letting them leave in the dead of night? Maybe Gwen wasn’t the kind of friend I needed. Not if she was capable of that .
    I walked to the door, my thoughts going wild.
    “Thank you for coming over, Claire. Tell Jasmine I said, ‘Hi’.”
    “Sure thing,” I said, stepping to the side as David twisted the lock and opened the door. He pushed on the screen door just as the sound of something crashing to the ground caught our attention. I whipped my head around, looking toward the basement door where the sound had come from.
    “ Shit ,” David said, looking angry instantly.
    “What’s wrong?” I asked, my eyebrows knitting together in confusion.
    David shook his head. “I have a pest problem,” he growled. He was seething and his face began to turn red as the sound of another object crashing to the ground met our ears. “You should leave. I need to call animal control. Raccoons keep getting inside.” David all but shoved me onto the front porch before he slammed his front door.
    I stood on the porch in shock for a moment before I crouched down and peered through the window by the door again. I watched as a distorted image of David stormed into the kitchen, before he disappeared from view. I hurried over to the other window to get a better view, and watched as David flung his basement door open and descended the stairs.
    I watched the open door, but nothing happened. I listened hard, trying to hear what was going on inside the house but there was nothing. With a sigh, I stepped away from the door and turned to head back to my house. I couldn’t do anything about it if David was a freak like I thought he was. There are plenty of weird people in this world. Being weird isn’t a crime, but with all of the strange incidents that happened whenever he was concerned, I couldn’t help but feel a little worried. There was this hollow feeling inside of me, my gut was telling me that he was hiding something. I just didn’t know whether to ignore my gut or give into my feeling and try to figure out what was going on.
    As I took the stairs down from his porch I