Pawn (Nightmares Trilogy #1) Read Online Free

picked up on Devon and Elizabeth’s teasing. To my more casual
friends, though, I didn’t advertise my bizarre talent for
short-circuiting electronics.
    “Nothing. Liz is just being silly,” I
told Cooper and shot Elizabeth a warning glance over my
shoulder.
    Several seconds of awkward
silence passed in the car; J.T.’s Suit
& Tie played in the background. The rural landscape passed in a blur of trees
interspersed with a random house. I stared out the window,
pondering the irony of nearly dying exactly eighteen years after
being born. Even more ironic, it was also exactly eighteen years
since I’d died the first time. I shuddered at the memory - well,
not exactly the memory. I didn’t actually remember
dying.
    “Wasn’t your party awesome?” Elizabeth
asked, dragging me from my thoughts.
    I blinked in amazement. Was she
serious? Sure, the party was fun, at least until I practically
jumped to my own death. Nearly drowning kind of put a damper on the
night, though.
    “Yeah, it was great, Liz,” I replied
with a sarcasm that was lost on her. “Best birthday
ever.”
    All the lights in Elizabeth’s house
were off when Mandy pulled into the circular driveway with minutes
to spare before my mother’s deadline. At the front door, Elizabeth
fumbled with her house keys, trying to fit several wrong ones in
the lock before she found the right one.
    “Mom! We’re home!” Elizabeth shouted
once the four of us were inside, standing in the foyer. Mrs. Bowers
didn’t answer. “Figures,” Elizabeth mumbled. She took off through
the foyer, up the staircase, and headed for her mother’s
bedroom.
    I hurried to the house phone sitting
on a small table to the right of the doorway and dialed my own
house phone number from memory.
    My mother answered on the first ring.
“Endora,” she said crisply.
    “Hey, Mom. We’re back at Elizabeth’s
now. We decided to go to the theater instead of renting movies,” I
told her.
    “Is that so?” she asked, employing the
tone she normally reserved for cross-examining lying
witnesses.
    Crap. I’d violated the first rule of
testifying: don’t offer more information than was asked
for.
    “What movie did you see?” Mom asked. I
envisioned her ears perking up like a bloodhound that had caught a
scent.
    “Night of Horrors,” I replied
automatically. The movie was currently playing at the local
theater, and I had seen it the weekend before.
    “How was it?”
    “Bad. You know, your typical horror
movie.” I forced a laugh. “Well, we have to get to bed. Lacrosse
practice in the morning.”
    “I expect you home afterwards,” Mom
told me.
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “Goodnight, Endora. Happy
birthday.”
    “Thanks. Night, Mom,” I whispered as
the dial tone filled my ear.
    I replaced the receiver and turned to
find Mandy and Cooper staring at me. Mandy’s hazel eyes softened
when she asked, “Everything okay?”
    “Yeah. Fine.” Everything
was fine. Mom had remembered my birthday, at least; that was
something. Mom didn’t believe in birthdays. “Celebrating one’s own birth is narcissistic,” my mother
always said. “You weren’t the one in labor for thirty-three hours.
You had nothing to do with bringing yourself into this world. If
anyone should get gifts and a cake, it is me.” Admittedly, she had
a point. But her logic was little comfort when I was five and the
only girl in kindergarten without a Dora
the Explorer cake. Or when I turned eight
and Tia Ross accused me of intentionally not inviting her to a
birthday party that I never had.
    The front door opened and Cynthia
walked in, followed by a handful of junior girls from the lacrosse
team and their boyfriends.
    “Eel, you look awful!” Cynthia
exclaimed.
    “I did nearly drown, Cynthia,” I
snapped, only to immediately feel badly about biting her head
off.
    “Rowr.” Cynthia clawed the air in my
direction in a good imitation of a cat. With her obsidian eyes and
ginger hair, Cynthia sort of resembled a tabby,