The Devil You Know by Richard Levesque Read Free Book Online Page B

feeling was
fleeting, though. She would serve his needs another day.

 
    Chapter Four

 
    The
alarm clock on Elise’s night stand began ringing at 6:30 Sunday morning and
went on for almost a full minute before she woke up, the clock’s spring nearly
spent and the hammer making only a feeble thud against the bell before she
reached a hand out to silence it. “Oh my God,” she mumbled, half her mouth
pressed against her pillow.
    She
rolled over and found the will to reach for the window shade behind her
headboard. If she didn’t yank on it to let the morning light in, she knew sleep
would take her again. She could not remember ever sleeping as deeply as she had
the last two nights, and forcing herself into wakefulness was more of a
struggle than she could remember.
    The
shade flew up with a crack. It killed the shadows in the room, and ruined
Elise’s blissfully relaxed mood. She was tempted to call Marie and tell her she
had changed her mind about going to Mass this morning. She stretched and
thought about how nice it would be to simply pull the covers up and drift back
into a sweet, dreamless sleep.
    At
that thought, though, she sat up quickly as a little gasp escaped her. Her
heart raced as she tried to figure out why she suddenly felt so alarmed.
Glancing around the room, she saw that everything looked familiar and safe, but
she could not help feeling that the room was not hers, that she no longer
belonged in it, and that someone—no, something—else possessed it
now.
    Elise
whipped her pillow out from behind herself and hugged it to her chest. Unable
to remember exactly what she had dreamed about, the fragments that came to her
made her tremble. They made no sense, but the longer she sat there holding back
tears, the more the images flashed through her memory. The color red dominated—red
walls, red lips, red skin, red sheets. She knew that she had felt overwhelming
panic in the dream but could not remember its source or if she herself had even
been in the dream. She could also recall sounds—grunts, laughter, screams—and
the feeling of being touched, but not in any way she had ever been touched. It
was not a physical sense of someone’s hand on her skin. Rather, she had felt
invaded, touched from the inside by something that had no hands, no real body.
    “Oh
my God,” she said again, choking back tears. Then she leaped from the bed and
ran for the bathroom where she vomited violently into the toilet.
    * * * * * * * *
    Elise
washed her face and ate a piece of dry toast, then ran to the front door when
she heard Marie’s car pull up. She opened the door and watched as her friend
came up the little walkway to the front door. She had hoped that her earlier
feelings had all passed and that she wouldn’t need to worry Marie, but when she
saw Marie’s expression change from cheerful to alarmed as she neared the house,
Elise knew that her own face had betrayed her. When she stepped into the little
living room, Marie grabbed her by the shoulders. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
she asked, panic in her voice.
    Holding
back tears, Elise hugged her for a moment and then said, “It’s nothing. Stupid
dreams is all.” She shook her head. “I’ve just been letting it get to me.”
    “I
shouldn’t have left you alone last night.”
    Elise
forced a smile, not wanting to admit she had been thinking the same thing. “I’m
a big girl,” she said. “I had to be alone at some point.”
    “But
maybe not so soon.”
    Elise
led Marie inside, and they sat down on her couch. The day before, Marie had
spent much of her time cleaning and straightening up Elise’s house, putting
away all the clothes Elise had strewn about on Friday. Though the simply
appointed room was now free of clutter, Elise felt uneasy sitting there. The
room felt small and tight; she struggled to keep from trembling.
    “Was
the dream about... him?” Marie asked.
    Elise
shook her head. “I don’t think so. I can’t remember faces or