How to Make Monsters Read Online Free Page A

cracks.”
    Emma suddenly felt very afraid, not
only for her own physical wellbeing, but also for her old boyfriend’s sanity.
This was real madness, close to the bone and way out over the edge. Prentiss
had completely lost his mind.
    “I’m going now,” she mumbled,
slipping her hands into her pockets and trying to act like this situation was
the most normal thing in the world. “I have to get back – Nicci will be
wondering where I am.”
    Prentiss said nothing; just stared
at a spot on the floor, eyes wide and seeing beyond the worn weave of the
carpet.
    Emma opened the door and glanced
back over her shoulder. Prentiss was now on his feet, moving slowly towards
her, a large scrapbook held out like an offering. “Take it,” he said. “Please.
Just take it and read what’s inside.”
    She turned to face him and took the
book, smiling coldly as she stepped backwards through the door and out onto the
landing. The door closed in her face; Prentiss did not pursue her out of the
strange world that was his grubby double room. She took the stairs two at a
time, forgetting about the book in her hand. Once out on the street, she ran
towards the nearest Metro station, jumping the cracks in the pavement and
praying that she would not have to wait long for a train.
    At some point during the journey,
she remembered that she was holding the scrapbook. Carefully, as if she were
handling some extremely fragile artefact, she opened the book. The pages were
stained and dog-eared from overuse, and the narrow spine was torn. Inside were
pasted articles from obscure periodicals, smudged prints of digital images
downloaded from amateur fortean websites, and yet more hand-written notes.
    Emma scanned a few of the articles,
her blood seeming to thicken in her arteries.
    A report of a Djinn terrorising a
cave network somewhere in the desert outside Dubai in the United Arab Emirates;
the caves were fed by underground streams which were part of some immense
subterranean network of gulfs and chasms: cracks in the belly of the earth.
    An earthquake in Argentina, and the
subsequent sightings of a strange spider-limbed demon prowling in the foothills
of some local mountains.
    Cave divers reported missing in the
Yorkshire Dales.
    Babies stolen from a hospital in
Mexico, whose basement was recently damaged in a terrorist bomb blast, the
foundations splitting open to reveal a deep underground crevasse.
    They were coming. Coming through the
cracks.
    Emma shook her head, trying to
dislodge Prentiss’s crazy statement. This was not evidence; it was merely
random information used to support his own delusion, a framework upon which he
could hang his fantasies. You could prove anything to yourself if you were
desperate enough, even this utter nonsense.
    When she eventually made it back to
Nicci’s place, Emma remained withdrawn and pensive until it was time for her
nephews to go to bed. Then she read them a bedtime story before soaking in a
hot bath. She lay in the steaming tub with her eyes open, staring at the
ceiling. There was a crack above the toilet she’d not noticed the day before.
    Her aimless dozing was interrupted
by a knock on the door; Nicci’s voice drifted in to break her reverie: “Em, you
okay? Can I come in?”
    “No, I’m fine. Really. Just a bit
down after seeing Prentiss. But you can rest easy. It’s over. I won’t be seeing
him again.”
    “Okay, hon. I’m here to talk if you
need me.”
    Emma glanced over at the scrapbook
she’d balanced on the rim of the sink. She almost called Nicci back, asked her
to look at what was inside the tatty covers. But no, to do so would have felt
too much like willingly entering Prentiss’s nightmares. The only cracks she
knew of where the ones in his sanity.
    Bath time over, she dried herself
off and went to bed, looking forward to the end of her stay. She was due to
return to London the next day and any enjoyment she’d taken from the trip had
been tarnished by her communication with