The Haunted Halls by Glenn Rolfe Read Free Book Online

against him, and prayed for help.
    Gordon suddenly whaled like a banshee in the night, releasing her throat and grabbing at his back. Tina screamed, pounding at his face with her boney knuckles. She managed to squirm her way away from the prong he had been trying to stick her with. His blood was everywhere as he started shouting, “You bitch. You ungrateful little bitch.”
     
    Sarah pulled a knife out of his back, producing another scream from him.
    Christina watched as dark clouds pulled back over Sarah’s pretty features just before the incredible, raging girl propelled forward and straddled her sugar daddy’s bleeding back. She raised the long blade above her head before plunging it into the back of the man’s neck.
    Sarah left the blade buried within him as she sat up, naked and panting like a wild animal. She turned her gaze on Christina, the dark look holding for a second longer before dissipating into a look of determination.
    “We need to hide him, and quick,” Sarah said. “There might not be a lot of people at the hotel right now, but chances are, someone heard that. They’re gonna call the front desk, or come banging on our door to find out what the hell’s going on.”
    Christina sat trembling in the corner of the room where she had planted herself after her near-rape. Her eyes unfocused, her knees knocking together like the time after her mom spun them out driving too fast on an icy road last Christmas on their way to her grandmothers.
    Sarah slid from the bleeding body, scrunched her naked form down in front of her, and slapped her hard across the face. “I said fucking help me. Jesus, Tina, do you wanna put us both in jail?”
    Christina shook her head erratically, taking Sarah’s outstretched hand.
     
    No one called. No one came to check on them. They had the dead body wrapped up in the thick comforter of the bed and stuffed in the back of the large walk-in closet.
    Sarah, who had put on a clean flannel shirt and jeans, lit another cigarette as she watched her timid friend staring out the large hotel window at the setting sun. Tina was a nice kid, too nice maybe. But there would be time to deal with that later. “We’ll have to get him out of here tonight or he’ll stink up the place. I have his credit cards and his wallet. We can cruise to the K-Mart in Hollis Oaks and get some clean sheets. We should have enough cash to stick around here straight through to Christmas, at least. I always made him bring me cash.”
    Sarah didn’t like the look Tina threw her. “You act like you’ve done this before,” Tina said.
    “Yeah, well, guys are pieces of shit.” Sarah answered, taking a long drag from her cigarette.   
    “I, I can’t believe you.” Tina stood up and shook her hands in the direction of the closet. “You act like this is nothing?”
    “I can’t believe you . This fucking asshole, scumbag-fuck, just tried to rape you,” Sarah said. “And I stopped him.”
    “You brought me up here. You’re the one who put me in that position,” Tina said.
    Sarah’s eyes narrowed. She stepped up to Tina’s face and stared the smaller, weaker girl down. She grabbed her beer off the desk next to her and flipped the television on. Jack Tripper was ogling a nice blonde down at the Regal Beagle. “You’ll go down at 3:30 and distract the old man that works the desk at night while I move that dead bastard out through the back entrance.”
    Sarah went back to laughing at Three’s Company .
     
    Present Day
    In his room, Kenneth McGowan stared through a Thorazine haze out at the multicolored forest behind the Bruton Inn. Perched before the large window, his eyes drifted over patches of green, yellow, and auburn as they danced playfully in a soft breeze under the rays of a late October sun. His mind was on a holiday. Sitting motionless, barely breathing, he hid in the blurred-out corners of his mind from the beautiful girl with the hollow eyes sitting on the bed behind him.
     
    Down the