The Architecture of Fear Read Online Free

them like bark, white dust sifting down like rotten wood, falling like snow upon Jerry's violated grave.
    It's the gingerbread house, she thought, recalling the grim paper they had painted over in the nursery. It doesn't eat you, you eat it. But it gets you just the same.
    She tried to move, to strike the floor with her feet, the wall with her shoulders, to chew the dishtowel Gail had stuffed into her mouth, to scrape away the bright new duct tape Jerry had bought when he was rebuilding the furnace.
    None of it worked. The door of the microwave gaped like a hungry mouth. Far away the front door opened and closed. "She Used to Be My Girl" blasted from the stereo in the family room.
    Fatly, importantly, Henry came into the kitchen on a wave of rock, carrying an almost-full glass of dark liquid. "Your boyfriend's gone. Could you hear us? I bet you thought he was going to save you." He took a swallow of the liquid—whiskey, she could smell it—and set the glass on the drain-board.
    Gail followed him. When the door had shut and she could make herself heard, she asked, "Are we going to do it now?"
    "Sure, why not?" Henry knelt, scratching at the tape.
    "I think it would be better to leave that on."
    "I told you, the heat would melt the adhesive. You want to have to swab her face with paint thinner or something when she's dead?" He caught the end of the duct tape and yanked it away." Besides, she won't yell, she'll talk. I know her."
    Tina spit out the dish towel. It felt as though she had been to the dentist, as though the receptionist would want to set up a new appointment when she got out of the chair.
    Gail snatched the damp towel away. "You fixed up the microwave?"
    "Sure, Goony-Bird. It wasn't all that hard."
    "They'll check it. They'll check it to see what went wrong."
    Tina tried to speak, but her mouth was too dry. Words would not come.
    "And they'll find it." Henry grinned. "They'll find a wire that came unsoldered and flipped up so it shorted the safety interlock. Get me an egg out of the fridge."
    She knew she should be pleading for her life; yet somehow she could not bring herself to do it. I'm brave, she thought, surprised. This is courage, this silly reluctance. I never knew that.
    "See the egg, stepmother dear?" Gail held it up to show her. "An egg will explode when you put it in a microwave."
    She set it inside, and Henry shut the door.
    "It'll work now whether it's open or closed, see? Only I've got it closed so we don't get radiation out here." He pressed a button and instinctively backed away.
    The bursting of the egg was a dull thud, like an ax biting wood or the fall of a guillotine blade.
    "It makes a real mess. We'll leave it on for a while so it gets hard."
    Gail asked, "Is the music going to run long enough?"
    "Hell, yes."
    Tina said, "If you want to go back to Rona, go ahead. I've tried to love you, but nobody's going to stop you."
    "We don't want to live with Rona," Henry told her. "We want to get even with you, and we want to be rich."
    "You got a hundred thousand for Dad," Gail explained. "Then all that for the baby."
    Henry said, "Another fifty thou."
    "So that's a hundred and fifty thousand, and when you're dead, we'll get it. Then there's another fifty on you, double for an accident. We get that too. It comes to a quarter of a million."
    The oven buzzed.
    "Okay." Henry opened it. "Let's cut her loose." He got the little paring knife from the sink.
    "She'll fight," Gail warned him.
    "Nothing I can't handle, Goony-Bird. We don't want rope marks when they find her."
    The little knife gnawed at the rope behind Tina's back like a rat. After a moment, her lifeless hands dropped free. The rat moved to her ankles.
    Gail said, "We'll have to get rid of the rope."
    "Sure. Put it in the garbage—the tape too."
    A thousand needles pricked Tina's arms. Pain came with them, appearing out of nowhere.
    "Okay," Henry said. "Stand up."
    He lifted her. There was no strength in her legs, no feeling.
    "See, you're