The Deadsong by Brandon Hardy Read Free Book Online Page B

grandmother who lived across from the public library, she and Dylan feeding geese in the state park while her mother snapped pictures of the foliage for a scrapbooking project that never came to fruition, fishing with her father on Goose Creek in the summertime.
    But there were other memories, too. Ones not worth commemorating––her father coming home late and arguing with her mother after he’d been out all night getting drunk and gambling away their savings on games of pill pool with the boys from the plant, Dylan wrecking his bike in a ditch and not finding him until well after dark, and…
    Uncle Paul. That unforgivable secret they’d shared. Our little secret, he had said. You won’t tell. Will you?
    “We’re here,” Linda said, killing the engine. “I’ve got to find a new blouse, something spiffy for the meeting on Friday, so you two don’t wander off. Meet me back at the entrance in half an hour.”
    “Okay, Mom,” Dylan said. He and Gina got out and followed their mother into the department store. Once they passed through the security panels, Linda trotted towards the clothing, and Dylan and Gina made their way passed Housewares and headed to the books and magazines.
    Dylan plucked a comic book from the rack and skimmed through the pages. “That’s too bad about Ashley Monroe.”
    “It’s already that time of year,” Gina said distantly, browsing the paperbacks. A new Thomas Whitley novel caught her eye, but she wasn’t in the mood for the literary equivalent of a slasher film.
    I can taste your thoughts. Sinfully tasty they are.
    “Did you hear that sound outside last night?”
    Dylan replaced the comic and pulled out another. “I don’t think so. I slept like a rock. What did it sound like?”
    She had no words to articulate it. It had been a whirling pastiche of gruesome voices and the most horrible animalian cries she’d ever heard. She thought it could have been just another dream, but she listened to that damn song for most of the night. A song, yes…
    “It was like a song, Dylan.”
    His eyes met hers in simple bewilderment. “What the hell are you talking about, a song?”
    “That’s what I just said, now wipe that snotty look off your face. I’m being serious.”
    “Was this one of those ‘beyond’ sounds you hear sometimes? Like the time you heard me screaming when I fell off my bike, even though I was over a mile away? You’re so lame.”
    “Whatever.” Gina decided to pursue it no further. They’re relationship was so typical, it pissed her off to the point of exhaustion. But she held firm in what she heard––and she had heard some pretty bizarre things over the years.
    Hey there, baby girl. You smell terrific.
    Her overactive imagination, fueled by the Keeper mythos, slowly began to wind down for the sake of her already thin sanity. Being a young girl was much harder than she was given credit for. Come graduation, she’d blow out of this one horse town in search of grander, more fulfilling locales. She’d already applied to three universities—two in Tennessee and one in Louisiana. The latter had just begun a controversial new program in paranormal research, which piqued her interest, although her mother’s resistance to such nonsense deflated her a bit. She was still hopeful.
    “Want to check out the video games?” Dylan asked.
    “You go ahead. I’ve gotta make a call.”
    She didn’t, really, but she stepped  outside and put the phone to her ear anyway. The wind chased around her ankles and batted at the vinyl CLEARANCE banner stretched above her head.
    A man and woman passed by Gina, and she overheard them whispering about another death. Susan Lubbock? Is that who they’re talking about? She was in Home Ec with me...
    She nearly dropped the phone when it began to buzz in her hand. An unknown number. Maybe it’s Jared. Yes, I could tell him about––
    “Hello?” Gina said.
    “It’s me.” She recognized the smooth baritone voice that had been on