What Lies Behind: A New Adult Dark Science Fiction Romance by Travis Simmons Read Free Book Online

of ours.” He smiled over at her, and Cass returned the smile, but it was hollow. She didn’t feel like smiling. She felt like getting sick, and this time not because of the hover cars. This time she felt the uneasiness because he’d pointed out something she’d been trying to forget: how she was different.
    “Ready for the surprise?” Brandon asked, easing the hover car out of traffic and to the right between two tall buildings.
    “Do I have a choice?” Cass asked him.
    “Nope. You’re my hostage today, and you’re going to have fun dammit.”
    The car parked toward the end of a large parking lot. Cass could see a bulky building through which people were streaming.
    “World Zoo,” she read the large sign hanging above the entrance doors. “You brought me to the zoo?”
    “Yea, isn’t that fun?” Brandon asked.
    “Sure.” Cass smiled at him.
    The entrance was a stone reception room with several people behind windows taking money and allowing people through. Brandon paid for them, and before long they were stepping into an open air courtyard. There were buildings here and there for different features. Trails led off from the main path and to other exhibits, some marked “Outback” which she assumed was for Australian animals. Another “Safari” and so on.
    “Where do we start?” Brandon asked her.
    “Why don’t we follow this path?” she asked.
    “Well, that’s all farm animals like goats and cows and stuff. There’s nothing that interesting about them.”
    “Really?” Cass asked. “Did you know that cows have a huge stomach with four different chambers in it? And they have to drink an obscene amount of water a day. Or that they can climb stairs but can’t come back down?”
    “Well I doubt we will get to see them climbing stairs or get to see their stomach chambers,” Brandon told her.
    “And goats. Their eyes are really rectangular. And in Scotland there are feral goats!”
    “Can you even imagine that?” Brandon asked around a laugh. “What would you do if you met a feral goat?”
    Cass tried to picture it and started laughing.
    “Now that would bring something interesting to their exhibit,” Brandon told her. “Do you want to go see the goats?”
    “Nah,” she told him. “I doubt we will get to see someone attacked. Better to just go somewhere else. Maybe the reptile house?”
    Brandon shivered.
    “Alright, you pick,” Cass said tossing her hands in the air.
    “No, reptile house is fine,” Brandon said, itching his arm. “I hate snakes.”
    “Well, there will likely be a lot more reptiles there than just snakes,” Cass told him as they set off down one fork in the path that indicated the reptiles’ house was ahead. She started running down a list of known reptiles to exist in zoos but stopped when Brandon started snickering.
    “What?” she asked him.
    “Turn the encyclopedia off today, huh?” he asked her.
    Cass frowned at him. “What do you mean?”
    “Nothing.” He smiled at her. “Continue.”
    “I get the feeling you don’t like my lecture.”
    “Whatever gave you that idea?” he asked in mock seriousness, splaying his hand innocently over his chest.
    “Be careful or I will throw you into a snake pit,” Cass poked him in the side.
    “Bruce will save me,” Brandon told her.
    She held the door open for him and followed him inside. They followed a hall toward the central exhibit. Along the walls were various snakes that could be found in their area. When the hall opened up into the main room there were more exotic kinds of snakes. She didn’t bother reading the names, she enjoyed looking at the colors. Reds and greens and oranges.
    At the end of the house was a large tank several people were gathered in front of. Cass joined them, but Brandon stayed behind her, his hands tucked into his pockets, a sick look on his face.
    The tank was full of cobras, and there was a guy inside cleaning the tank.
    “Oh my God!” Cass said.
    “What?” Brandon asked,