Olivia Read Online Free Page A

from the bowl, understood?”
    Clara nodded. It was a lie. She didn’t understand and she had a terrible feeling she’d just made the biggest mistake of her life. Velta lifted the bowl and brought it to Clara’s mouth. The stench of the mixture made her gag.
    “No one said it would be tasty,” Velta told her.
    Clara took a deep breath then placed her lips on the edge of the bowl. Velta tilted the bowl and the chunky mixture began to move closer to Clara’s lips. She closed her eyes, not wanting to stare at it. The first drop on her tongue surprised her.
    It was delicious. The best thing she’d ever tasted. She chewed the organs and swallowed them before gulping more of the mixture down. Inside of her, the child stirred. Perhaps the elixir was working already.
    “That’s enough,” Velta pulled the bowl away from her. “You have to drink this for six days. On the seventh day you will awake and your problem will be gone.”
    Clara nodded as she watched Velta bottle up the drink. Soon her problem would be gone. She’d done the right thing. Her stomach growled. Clara stared at the mixture. She wanted more. Her baby wanted more.
     
     
     

Chapter Three
     

Unsafe
     
     
    Dana stormed out of the kitchen, doll in hand with her friends following closely behind her. How the hell had it gotten back inside. It couldn’t have gotten up and walked in on its own. One of her friends did this. They had to.
    “Dana slow down,” Keira called to her.
    “This isn’t funny,” Dana yelled, nearly tripping in her high heels as she stomped away. When she reached the trash can she tossed the dirty doll inside and slammed the lid down. A hand on her shoulder caused her to jump.
    “Geez, chill out Dana,” Keira told her, jerking her hand away. “What’s wrong with you?”
    Dana rubbed her arms. “I put that doll in the trash for a reason. It’s creepy and it stinks. Which one of you took it out?”
    “Not me,” Keira told her. “And Shelly has been with me the whole time so I know she didn’t do it.”
    “And can you see me touching a dirty thing like that?” Shelly asked.
    The answer was no. But Dana knew she’d thrown the doll in the trash. There had to a logical explanation to this. Her friends were trying to play a trick on her. They had to be. Dana wasn’t stupid. Keira was the one who took it out. Shelly wouldn’t have touched it, but she was in on it.
    Dana smiled nervously, slightly mad that she was reacting exactly how they wanted her to. “You know, forget it. Maybe a ghost brought it inside.”
    Keira and Shelly frowned at her.
    Dana’s smile grew bigger, glad that she was outsmarting them. “It’s happened before,” she lied and watched a look of fear cross their faces. Serves them right. “Let’s finish drinking.”
    She walked past them and up the sidewalk leading to her home. A glance over her shoulder let her know that her friends were the ones scared now. They both stood staring down at the trash can.
    Dana laughed. “Are you guys coming or not.”
    She walked into her home, leaving the front door open so her friends could enter behind her. In the kitchen she added a little bit of juice to her margarita and then sat down at the table. It wasn’t long before she heard the door close and her friends walking through the house.
    “You’re screwing with us,” Shelly said when she came into the kitchen and sat down in the chair across from Dana.
    “Yeah,” Keira sat in the chair at the head of the table. “You wouldn’t move into a haunted house, would you?”
    Dana shrugged, refusing to put them out their misery. If they wanted to assume her new place was haunted, she would let them. It was no worse than them making her think that nasty doll had come into the house on its own.
    “Come on Dana, tell us. Have you really had stuff like that happen before?” Shelly asked, her voice shaking slightly. “I mean, I know your mother dabbles with that stuff, but you’ve never been into it.