The Painting by Ryan Casey Read Free Book Online Page B

war—”
    “Donny, dear,” Alice interrupted, a wide smile still crinkling her greying eyes. “Can you look to your right and tell me what you see?”
    Donny shook his head and looked at Yelp. Yelp the Alsatian looked back at him, his tail wagging between his open legs. He wouldn’t look out of place with a newspaper on his lap and a pipe in his mouth.
    “Well, I see a very bizarrely mannered Alsatian dog.”
    Alice giggled and shook her head. “Of course, of course. Can you tell me how you know it’s an Alsatian dog?”
    The confusion welled up in Donny’s head. Where was this getting anybody? “Oh, come on! Just tell—”
    “Please,” Alice said. “Just tell me how you know it’s an Alsatian dog. Humour me.”
    Donny shook his head and rubbed his eyes. “I know it’s an Alsatian dog because I’ve seen a fucking million Alsatian dogs in my life before and I know what they look like.” He moved his hands from his face. “There. That good enough? Are we done here?”
    Alice looked at Reginald and smiled. “You see, I’m glad you told me it’s an Alsatian dog, because I didn’t know that.”
    Donny shrugged his shoulders. Great—he was stuck in a house with an absolutely mad duo. Just as if his luck could get any worse… “Well, I’m glad I could be of help. Now ca—”
    “The reason I didn’t know it was an Alsatian dog is because there’s no such thing as an Alsatian dog where we are.”
    Donny looked at Yelp and back at Alice and Reginald. The fireplace crackled behind Alice, a bout of smoke working its way up the chimney. Somewhere outside, the wind rattled against the foundations of the house, making the floorboards above creak.
    “Three years ago, when I lived elsewhere, I started hearing things in the night,” Alice said. “Weird noises—a yelping, I suppose. A few days later, I came downstairs to make my breakfast and I find this thing shouting at me in my living room. Of course, I nearly had a heart attack, but we grew to love one another.” She crinkled her nose at Yelp, who panted and wagged his tail.
    “Did you not think to phone the RSPCA?” Donny asked, shaking his head.
    Alice’s eyebrow twitched in bewilderment.
    Reginald leaned forward from his chair and waved at Yelp as more strings of saliva dribbled from its chin. “Donny, what Alice is trying to tell you is that we didn’t know what a dog was because there’s no such thing as dogs in this place.”
    The tension mounted in Donny’s stomach as he looked between the three of them, the last log of wood burning out in the fireplace and the orange glow receding. “What do you… what do you mean?”
    Reginald sighed and shook his head. “You’ve fallen through a gap, Donny. Two years ago, the government claimed they closed the final gap. People like me have been trying to work out a way of… a way of proving that this is a lie ever since. A way of—”
    “What do you mean I’ve fallen through a gap?” Donny asked, his voice shouting. Everything was beginning to feel gradually more surreal. He looked at the back of his hands—they were supposed to look different in a dream, but they were exactly the same. He looked away and then back at them—nothing.
    “Your… your world. Everything that existed in your world—your family, your friends, your life—none of that exists here. You’ve slipped through a gap and you’ve left it all behind.”
    Donny shook his head. His skin flushed as the confusion mounted in his stomach.
    The boys, the painting, the explosion.
    “But how… how can I get back? How can I—”
    Alice looked down at the carpet and rested her hands on her knees. Reginald reached under his chair and pulled out a bunch of papers. He walked over to Donny and tossed them on his knee, Yelp’s panting face swinging round in curiosity.
    Donny looked down at the newspapers, unable to speak.
    Fallout Appears in West Brookshire.
    CLOSE THE GAPS: How You Can Protect Yourself.
    Donny flicked through them