Aerenden: The Child Returns (Ærenden) Read Online Free Page A

weakened, the remainder of her
words forgotten. The pristine kitchen her mother treasured looked to have
exploded. Colorful mixing bowls and apothecary jars, once stacked on display,
lay in shards on the counters, joined by dented pots and pans that used to hang
from the ceiling. Drawers gaped open, yanked from their homes, and the
refrigerator and cabinets stood empty, their contents strewn across the floor.
    A
scream came from the living room followed by a series of crashes. Pain surged
through Meaghan and she froze, one foot over the threshold.
    Nick
turned to look at her. “There’s no time to stop,” he said, and then hardened
his tone when she did not move. “Meg!”
    She
snapped her eyes to his and obeyed. Half-way through the kitchen, he slowed his
pace as heavy footsteps thundered from above. He held his finger to his lips
and she nodded. She followed him into the living room, freezing once more when
she saw the horror that greeted them.
    Furniture,
upended and broken into pieces, shared the carpet with pages torn from their
bindings, cast aside like large snowflakes. Deep grooves in the walls bled
drywall and wood splinters. And every figurine her mother had collected had
been shattered, turned into pale shards and dust. This was no longer her home,
but a nightmare ripped from her worst dreams.
    A
groan came from the far side of the room and Meaghan turned her head toward it.
A man sat on one side of the couch, his body slumped halfway toward the floor.
His legs and arms hung at odd angles, and tears in his pants and shirt revealed
deep gashes in his skin. Blood poured from a wound in his head, flowing over a
face she refused to believe belonged to her father. It sank in places where his
bones had collapsed, giving him a hollowed look. She felt sick. Covering her
mouth, she sought her father’s eyes. They appeared empty, nearly black.
    “This
isn’t real,” she whispered. She squeezed her eyes shut. “It’s only a dream. I
have to wake up.”
    Another
groan came from the couch, drawing her attention back to her father. He moved
his lips and Nick ran to him, leaning close to hear. After a few seconds, Nick
took something from her father’s pocket, then moved to the center of the floor.
Lifting a loose floorboard, he pulled a backpack from beneath it.
    Meaghan
commanded her body to move, turning to her left to pick up the hallway phone.
Before she could call for an ambulance, her attention fell on the stairs. Her
mother lay stretched across the landing, her unseeing eyes staring toward the
ceiling, her back and neck bent at odd angles. Meaghan choked on the scream
trapped inside her throat.
    “Meg,”
Nick called to her from across the room. He kept his voice low. “We need to get
your father out of here. You have to help me carry him.”
    She
tried to obey him, but her feet refused to budge. She dug her fingernails into
her palms, gritting her teeth with the sharp pain, but she still could not
believe any of this was real.
    “You
can’t,” her father’s voice croaked. “You have to leave me here. You have to protect
Meg.”
    “James—”
    “Now,”
her father insisted. His head rose and Meaghan saw a flash of authority return
to his eyes. Nick nodded and she stared at him in horror.
    “I
won’t leave him here,” she said.
    “We
have to. You’re in danger. Once you’re safe, I’ll return—”
    “I
won’t go,” she insisted. “I refuse to leave him in the house with whoever did
this.”
    “We don’t have—”
    “No!”
she yelled, and then slapped her hand over her mouth, too late to muffle the
noise. The footsteps upstairs quickened.
    “Meg,”
her father spoke again and her eyes filled with tears. His voice was no more
than a whisper. “Trust Nick. He’ll keep you safe.”
    She
nodded, and then shook as her father gathered his last breath. The footsteps
reached the top of the stairs. Her father shuddered into stillness, but she had
no time to mourn before Nick grabbed her hand