Night of the Purple Moon Read Online Free Page B

senses. She tasted salt in the air and was acutely aware of a buoy bell tolling miles away.
    They stopped in the middle of the road. A streetlight was glowing up the hill. From that direction, she pictured the lobster truck careening out of control and blasting through the picket fence.
    “Abby!” Kevin shouted.
    She jumped and whirled toward Kevin.
    He grabbed her wrist and aimed the flashlight at a clump of bushes in front of the Couture’s yard. “Look!” he cried.
    Eyes reflected red, and then the animal scurried away.
    Abby’s heart was ready to explode. “Kevin, it’s only a dog.”
    “It was a wolf!”
    “Please, don’t shout!”
    Kevin’s hat and mask covered much of his face, but she could tell he was terrified.
    “There are no wolves here,” she added, taking him by the hand and leading him toward something far scarier: the truck and what was likely inside the cab.
    “The engine’s running,” Kevin said. “I’m going to turn it off.”
    Abby didn’t question why he wanted to do that. She accepted that he must have a good reason.
    She gazed up at the second-story lit bedroom. Then, turning toward her house, she saw Jordan in the window. “Kevin, hurry up.”
    She inched forward and trained the flashlight on the truck. The beam revealed a man with a bushy black beard slumped over the wheel. It was Mr. Marsh, for sure. Whenever he dropped Colby off at school, he always reminded Abby of a bear.
    Kevin discovered the passenger door locked and he moved around to the other side. When he opened the driver’s side door a crack, the weight of the body suddenly flung it all the way open and Mr. Marsh tumbled out.
    Kevin screamed and jumped back.
    Abby froze, too shocked to react in any way.
    “Whoa,” Kevin finally said and approached the truck once more. He stepped around Mr. Marsh, leaned into the cab, and turned off the engine.
    In the eerie silence, Abby waved the flashlight side to side, pretending everything was all right.
    * * *
    The cough startled Jordan. Emily had been so quiet all this time that he had forgotten about her. She was leaning forward on the bed. She coughed a second and third time and then started gagging.
    He was about to pull the shade down when he decided to take care of the problem himself. A wild ache of panic crept through his veins as he stood before Emily. Her gagging was so loud that it woke up Toucan. Was something stuck in her throat? Should he perform the Heimlich maneuver?
    He raced back to the window, ready to pull down the shade, but at that moment Emily caught her breath.
    He sat beside her. She continued breathing normally, but she trembled all over. He lifted his arm to put around her shoulder, but somehow he just couldn’t. Toucan crawled over and curled up in his lap.
    Emily buried her hands in her face and wept. Tears trickled out between her fingers. Toucan patted her on the head. “Em’, no cry.”
    “Father’s glasses,” she whispered.
    Jordan moved closer. “What?”
    “Father’s glasses,” she said in a quivering voice. “They were on the table beside the bed. Mother’s hand was hanging over the side. They looked so small, like they were children. Kevin was just staring at them…”
    Jordan realized what she was describing. “Go on,” he said.
    He hardly took a breath as she told him everything that had happened from the time she had awoken when Kevin screamed up until the time that Kevin pounded on the Leigh’s door.
    “I found Kevin in my parents’ bedroom. What’s wrong, I asked him. He just kept staring at Mother and Father. Father had a peaceful expression. I noticed Mother’s bracelet.” Emily paused to wipe her eyes. “I remembered that we were supposed to go to Portland. We need to wake them up, I told him, or we’ll miss the ferry. That’s when he said they were dead. The next thing I knew I was standing in front of your house and Kevin was banging on your door.”
    They sat in silence for a moment.
    “I’m so afraid,”