The Haunted by Bentley Little Read Free Book Online

up, and when she encountered something unfamiliar, she was afraid to ask what it meant for fear that her friends would laugh at her.
    She wondered whether that was what was going on here.
    MPD L2? 8LIF (XXXQ) DDF: 3907!
    She read the message again, just as confused the second time. She could not even tell who it was from, and finally she exited the screen, deciding to ignore it.
    Sighing heavily, Megan shifted on her bed and stared out the window at the wood shake roof of the single-story house next door. The driveway was empty, and she assumed that the people who lived there weren’t home. But, then again, they never seemed to be home. As far as she could tell, the entire neighborhood was filled with old people and shut-ins. The place was like a morgue, and the only time anyone came out was in the lateafternoon, when couples walked their dogs or fitness fanatics jogged.
    She hadn’t seen anyone here her own age.
    She wished that her family hadn’t moved.
All
of her friends now lived farther away, and seeing them was not just inconvenient; it was downright difficult. That would change once school started, but this summer she felt more isolated and alone than she ever had in her life.
    It was James’s fault. If that little punk hadn’t been such a pansy, they could’ve stayed in their old house and she could be at Kate’s right now, watching a movie or … or … doing
something
.
    In two years, she’d have her driver’s license, and none of this would matter so much. But until then …
    Her iPhone beeped, and Megan picked it up off the bedspread next to her, hoping it was a message from one of her friends.
    I C U
    She frowned. There was no sender name, no address.
    That was weird.
    The phone beeped again as another message came in.
    I C U Megan
    That was not just weird. It was creepy. Instinctively, she looked around. No one could possibly be watching her here, but she felt as though she was being spied upon, and she had a sudden need to make sure no one
could
see her. Carefully, she peered out the window again, checking the side yard of the house next door. Spotting no one, she shut the shade and moved to the other window, overlooking the front yard. Staying back in the shadows, so as not to be visible, she scanned the street, the sidewalk, their front yard, the yard across the street.
    Nothing.
    She shut that shade, too.
    Turning around, Megan looked through her open doorway into the hall. It seemed more shadowy than it should, particularly for the middle of the afternoon. “Dad?” she called.
    “What?” His reassuring voice answered her from across the hall, and she relaxed, the tension in her muscles dissipating.
    “Nothing!” she said gratefully. She turned back toward the center of the room. With the shades drawn, it was as dark as it could get during the daytime, and she was about to turn on the light when the iPhone beeped in her hand.
    She looked down at it.
    IL C U 2NITE
    In one movement, she switched off the phone and threw it on the bed, crying out as she did so and shaking her hands as though to rid them of slime.
    “Everything all right in there?” her dad called.
    Staring at the phone on the bedspread, Megan thought about telling him,
wanted
to tell him, but she knew how he got, and she knew what he’d do. He’d take away her phone, which, as far as she was concerned, would punish her, not protect her.
    It was better to keep quiet.
    “Megan?” He poked his head in the doorway.
    She forced herself to smile at him. “I’m fine, Dad. There’s nothing wrong. Everything’s fine.”
    Her father had met his deadline and successfully completed his most recent project, so, for the first time in a long while, their family went out to dinner to celebrate. Megan was in the mood for Mexican food, while James wanted to go to Fazio’s because they had pizza, but, as always, their parents were the ones who got to decide, so they ended up at that lame hippie health-foodrestaurant Radicchio. That was bad