Dead City Read Online Free Page A

following her path down the stairs. She grabbed a coat and car keys as she bolted through the door, and drove off into the night, the front door left open in the cool night air.
    The poltergeist didn't seem to be following her, and as she looked back at the house in the rear view mirror, the door slammed shut. She didn't know where she was headed, but as far as her intruder seemed to be concerned, the house belonged to him now.

 
4
     
     
     
     
    'The sun raised itself wearily over the walls of his city, rays creeping in, long shadows of the decaying buildings sprawling forth like remedial shadow puppets formed by hands with too many fingers.'
     
    Jon had been up since long before dawn, and his narration wasn't at its best. Dead Cities didn't let you sleep much. The constant moaning and groaning, gnarling and gnawing from the denizens had left Jon with a routine of three to five hours of slumber if he was lucky, often broken up into fifteen to twenty minute chunks.
    For the last hour, he had been attempting to keep the peace, as two wights argued over a kitten.
     
    * * * *
     
    Wights, from ye olde Middle English word 'whit', were bottom-feeders of the unliving world. They were sentient to some degree, and usually died of natural causes, but had suffered from some degenerative ailment before their passing, usually dementia or Alzheimer's.
    This led to conversations not unlike those Jon had been having with Dildo since he arrived three weeks ago, but much more repetitive.
     
    * * * *`
     
    “S'mine!” said the first wight, for the hundred and sixteenth time.
Jon had been counting.
    “S'mine!!” said the second. For the hundred and fifty-sixth time.
    The second's pre-death dementia was, Jon reasoned, further along than that of the first. About a third of this argument had been the second wight shouting at his own reflection.
The kitten did not seem phased by any of this. It had curled up in Jon's lap whilst the disagreement continued in front of them.
    “S'mine!”  said the first again.
Jon looked at the kitten, resting softly on his knees.
    “You're very calm for a little guy who's being argued over as a snack.” he said.
    The kitten looked up at him and mewed in agreement.
    “Yeah, you're right.” said Jon, standing up.
    Kitten in hand, he sighed as he glanced back and forth between the two unlivings before walking out. The wights didn't seem to notice.
    “S'mine!” said the second. He looked down and spotted his reflection in a puddle again “S'mine!” he shouted at the floor, kicking the water. The third wight was vanquished.
    “S'mine!” he said triumphantly, forgetting that the first wight was still there and turning to claim his prize, but Jon and the kitten had gone.
     

 
5
     
     
     
     
    Since the dead stopped dying, there had been a resurgence in mediums and exorcists. Where once the yellow pages was full of exterminators for rodents and vermin, now there was a whole section devoted to ridding oneself of pesky unliving, in whatever form they may return.
     
    * * * *
     
    Ashley had never known of anyone who had been haunted, so having no referral, picked the  biggest advert on the first page. She glossed over the many companies named 'AAA111 Exorcism incorporated' and their kin, figuring it was better to have an exorcist who can afford a large box with a picture, rather than a less affluent sole trader who had used their mighty single brain cell to work out that the book was alphabetised.
    She had spent the night sleeping in her car, parked up in the lot of a Toys 'R' Us, and had been woken unceremoniously by the squealing of a gaggle of children, which to her sleeping brain sounded like an army of ghouls screaming to steal her soul.
    Having rung the exorcist, she sat in the car impatiently outside of her own house, still in her night clothes, waiting for them to arrive. At twelve-thirty, two hours later than expected, a large black van finally parked up outside the house, 'ExorSisters'