Threnody (Book 1) by Kirk Withrow Read Free Book Online

see the screen read, ‘Searching…’ All of a sudden it dawned on her that the fact neither her office phone nor cellular phone was working was unlikely to be merely coincidence.  She had always been able to get a signal in her office and, in fact, used the phone less than an hour ago in the very same spot.  It was then she noticed the cellphone of one of her lab technicians lying unattended on the desk where he had been working earlier.  Under the guise of gathering supplies, she made her way over to the phone and added it to her bag before vanishing back into her office.  She was both angered and relieved when she saw the phone’s screen indicating strong signal reception.  Frantically, she keyed in John’s number, hoping beyond hope that he would answer.  The phone rang and rang, and she felt her heart sag. Just as she was about to hang up, she heard a distant voice.  The static-filled connection made it tough to understand everything that was said, but she could tell it was John.  Lin took in a long, deep breath, closed her eyes, and tried in earnest to tell him everything she just learned.
     

 
    Chapter 6
     
    Lin San was the younger of two children born in the United States to immigrant parents – her father from Spain, and her mother from China.  Her parents arrived in New York on the same day and met almost immediately.  From the moment they noticed one another across the veritable ocean of faces at the immigration office, they were inseparable.  Lin heard this fairy tale of ‘love at first sight’ countless times as she grew up. Her parents’ first child, a boy named Kang, was born just nine months after their arrival in the U.S.  Kang was an exceptional child and possessed a preternatural understanding of the world that was singular among man and certainly years beyond his time.  He was the pride of the family, a fact that persisted even after the birth of their daughter, Lin, four years later.  Lin, too, proved to be an exceptionally gifted child, but she was never held in the same regard as her brother Kang.
    When Kang began acting strangely shortly after his eighteenth birthday, their parents were understandably dismayed.  He developed marked sleeping disturbances that progressed to insomnia so severe he would scarcely sleep an hour in a week.  His demeanor also suffered as he became prone to irritability and anger bordering on full-blown rage at times.  Even though both of their parents were employed, neither had access to health insurance, and they were far from wealthy.  On several occasions they took Kang to see a physician, but each time they left with no answer and a bill they were unsure they could pay.  While the majority of their wages went to pay Kang’s medical bills, the greater cost was to their ever-dwindling supply of hope.
    The delusions and hallucinations Kang began to experience led to the suspected diagnoses of schizophrenia or illicit drug abuse, both of which were ultimately proven false.  Around nine months after Kang first showed signs of deterioration, he began to suffer from full-blown psychosis.  The effect this had on their parents was devastating and seemingly insurmountable.  As such, Lin was frequently left to care for her brother because her parents were often so distraught they were simply unable to face Kang’s reality.
    During one instance shortly before his death, Lin was feeding Kang when he suddenly lunged at her, uttering a feral growl and sinking his teeth deep into the muscles of her forearm.  In shocked horror and disbelief, she stared at him as the floor below quickly disappeared under the warm, crimson blood flowing from the wound like a stream after a monsoon.  Upon witnessing this scene, her parents, particularly her mother, became fixated on an occult or supernatural explanation for Kang’s malady.  She repeatedly said he was cursed and refused to have anything more to do with him.  Lin, despite the pain and fear the attack