Enter the Dead: A Supernatural Thriller Read Online Free

mind,’ she
laughed. ‘You tuck in son. Before you get comfortable, I hope you don’t mind
but I have a client coming in the next few minutes. Would you be a cherub and
take yourself off to the front room for half an hour or so?’
    ‘No problem. Cards or
Runes?’
    ‘Not sure yet…maybe
both. I’ll decide when I see her.’
    ‘Why won’t you read my
fortune?’
    ‘I will, one day. When
you’re old enough.’
    ‘Does it really work?’
    ‘Does what really
work?’
    ‘Seeing into people’s
futures. Telling them what’s going to happen to them and stuff like that.’
    ‘Oh yes, definitely.
But you have to know what to look for, and more importantly you have to know how to look.’
    ‘Dad thinks it’s a load
of rubbish, but I tell him that he’s wrong and I ask him why so many people
come to see you if it’s all made up. He tells me that people believe what they
want to believe, especially sad, unhappy people who are searching for answers.’
    ‘We’re all searching
for answers, Max, including your father. But the sad truth is that nobody
really knows what those answers are.’
    ‘Not even you?’
    ‘Not even me. All I do
is try to help people find the right path.  I can’t make their choices for
them.’
    ‘But you do see people,
don’t you? Dead people.’
    ‘Not always dead, but yes…sometimes
I see people.’
    ‘Don’t you get scared?’
    ‘Not any more. I did
when I was young, but you get used to it as you get older. It just becomes part
of normal, everyday life.’
    ‘Doesn’t sound that
normal to me. Are they friendly?’
    ‘Most of the time. Not
always. But they can’t hurt you; they’re not real people like you or I, and
they never outstay their welcome. They say what they want to say and then they
go.’
    ‘Is there anybody else
in the room now?’
    ‘Yes. There’s a goblin
with an enormous mouth who’s threatening to eat your biscuits if you don’t stop
asking so many questions.’
    ‘Tell him to keep his
hands to himself!’ With that, Max snatched a third biscuit from the rack and
headed for the sitting room. As he was about to leave, Aunt Gracie called out from
behind him.
    ‘Max? Before you go…is
everything alright at home?’
    ‘Fine. Why?
    ‘Oh nothing…just
asking. Off you go.’
    She watched as he
walked away, the thin smile fading as he left her sight. Her attention immediately
shifted to the person standing in the corner of the room: a tall, thin figure
dressed in a tattered grey suit and wearing a shabby brown hat. A fedora ,
Gracie thought, noting the hat’s wide brim and indented crown. I haven’t
seen a hat like that in years .
    A dark mist covered the
figure’s face and hid its features from her, and although she couldn’t be
certain, she sensed it was male. It was unusual for a spirit to appear and not
reveal itself; they almost always wanted to be recognised. After all, the main
reason they came was to deliver messages for her to pass on to the living. But this
man had no message. She felt nothing: no good, no evil; only somebody whose
thoughts she wasn’t able to read. But for some inexplicable reason she sensed
he had something to do with Max. There was something about his presence – his
aura – that linked him to the boy.
    ‘Can I help you?’ she
asked, noticing the lack of hands protruding from the figure’s creased shirt
cuffs.
    There was no reply.
    ‘Why are you here?’ she
asked, growing increasingly uncomfortable. She wasn’t afraid – she’d lived with
ghosts all her life – but they all had faces. They all had eyes. ‘Do you know
the boy?’
    ‘You’ll see,’ came the
reply, as soft as mist and whispered without emotion.
    And then the figure vanished,
leaving the old woman alone to ponder his reply. Was it a warning? Some kind of
veiled threat? Maybe, maybe not, but as she walked towards the hall to answer
the door to her next client, she had an unnerving sense that she’d be seeing him
again.

CHAPTER SIX
     
    When
Sam