The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong Read Free Book Online Page B

sidestepped to get around him. He moved into my path.
    “You saw a ghost, didn’t you?” he said.
    To my relief, I managed to laugh. “Hate to break it to you, but there’s no such thing as ghosts.”
    “Huh.”
    His gaze traveled around the laundry room, like a cop searching for an escaped convict. When he turned that piercing look on me, its intensity sucked the backbone out of me.
    “What do you see, Chloe?”
    “I—I—I don’t s-s-s—”
    “Slow down.” He snapped the words, impatient. “What do they look like? Do they talk to you?”
    “You really want to know?”
    “Yeah.”
    I chewed my lip, then lifted onto my tiptoes. He bent to listen.
    “They wear white sheets with big eye holes. And they say ‘Boo!’ ” I glowered up at him. “Now get out of my way.”
    I expected him to sneer. Cross his arms and say,
Make me, little girl
.
    His lips twitched and I steeled myself, then I realized he was smiling. Laughing at me.
    He stepped aside. I swept past him to the stairs.
    ***
    Dr. Gill was a small woman with a long rodent nose and bulging ratlike eyes that studied me as if
I
were the rat—one whose every twitch had to be scribbled into her notebook. I’d had therapists before. Two of them, both after my mom died. I’d hated the first one, an old man with bad breath who’d closed his eyes when I talked, like he was taking a nap. When I complained, I got the second one, Dr. Anna, a woman with bright red hair who’d joked with me and reminded me of my mom and helped me get on with my life. After ten minutes with Dr. Gill, I knew she fell somewhere in the middle. She seemed nice enough, and listened carefully, but she wasn’t going to start cracking jokes anytime soon.
    We talked about how I’d slept; how I was eating; what I thought of the others; and, mostly, how I felt about being here. I lied about the last. I wasn’t stupid. If I wanted to get out, I couldn’t moan that I didn’t belong or complain that someone made a horrible mistake.
    So I said that I knew my dad and aunt had done the right thing by putting me in Lyle House, and that I was determined to get better, whatever it took.
    Dr. Gill’s rat face relaxed. “That’s a very mature attitude. I’m glad to hear it.”
    I nodded, and tried to look sincere.
    “Now, Chloe, have you ever heard of schizophrenia?”
    My heart stopped. “Sch-schizophrenia?”
    “Yes. Do you know anything about it?”
    My mouth opened and closed, brain refusing to fill it with words.
    “Chloe?”
    “Y-you think I’m schizo?”
    Her mouth tightened. “We don’t use that word, Chloe. In fact, we prefer not to use labels at all. But a diagnosis is a necessary part of the process. A patient must know her condition, understand and accept it before we can begin treatment.”
    “B-but I just got here. How c-can you know already—”
    “Do you remember at the hospital? The doctors you spoke to? The tests they ran?”
    “They found schizophrenia?”
    She shook her head. “While scientists are working on a way to definitively diagnose schizophrenia, we don’t have anything conclusive yet. Those tests, though, ruled out other possibilities, such as tumors or drug use. Taking those results and combining them with your symptoms, the most likely diagnosis is schizophrenia.”
    I stared at the floor. “You think I have schizophrenia.”
    “Do you know what it is?” She spoke slowly, like she was starting to question my intelligence.
    “I’ve seen
A Beautiful Mind
.”
    More lip pursing. “That’s Hollywood’s version, Chloe.”
    “But it’s based on a true story, right?”
    “
Based
.” Her voice softened. “I know from your file that you enjoy movies, and that’s wonderful. But they aren’t a good place to learn about mental illness. There are many forms and degrees of schizophrenia and yours isn’t the same as that one.”
    Wasn’t it? I saw people who weren’t there, just like the guy in the movie.
    Dr. Gill continued. “What you are