The Crimson Key Read Online Free Page A

uncomfortable conversation. Thank you, Lyn!
     
    Once we pulled into the driveway, I burst from the car like a bratty teenager. Lyn grabbed her bags and I walked her home. Her skin looked amazing and she couldn’t wait to tell her mom all about it. Just as she put her key in the door, her mom opened it. “Lynley, your skin!” She checked her over, noticing it was better. When I expected a smile, she only frowned. It was like she was disappointed, but maybe it was only worry over her daughter’s changing body. Lyn gave me a hug and skipped inside the house. I left when the door was slammed in my face. I wouldn’t be seeing Ephraim until tonight I supposed.
    As I was walking to my house , I caught my name being said. Stopping, I listened hard.
    “I don’t like her.” The voice was Carole’s. I stepped closer to the house to hear more , holding my breath in fear of being caught. The kitchen window was only inches from my head.
    “Mom , she’s my best friend and Eph’s girlfriend. What is it you don’t like?” Lynley asked in shock.
    “I don’t trust her at all. I don’t want you going out with her for a while , okay?”
    “Mom! You have no reason not to like her. You let me go with her today.” Lynley’s voice sounded raw , like she was close to tears. I applauded her for sticking up for me.
    “Only because her mom practically begged me. I mean it , Lyn, you need to find new friends. There is something wrong with that one.”
    The shock of her words stung me like attacking wasps. Backing away from the house , I ran home. My throat was tight with sadness. I had never done anything to her to cause her to feel that way about me. I knew that morning that she didn’t like me and she had confirmed it just now. Bursting into my house, I ran past my mom who seemed to want to keep talking. I didn’t feel like it so I went upstairs. I fell onto my bed and cried until I drifted to sleep.

Chapter 3
     
     
    Hearing the hinges squeak , I realized my door was opening. I shoved my face into my pillow, unable to speak to my mom about anything right now. I didn’t know how long I had slept and I didn’t care. I wanted only to be left alone for a little while. Cold air entered the room and I pulled the covers over my head. “I don’t want to talk,” I mumbled. There was no response, so I lifted my head, checking to see if the coast was clear. My face was met with another and it wasn’t my mom. She stared into my eyes, the fair-haired woman that I had seen last week. I gasped as she pulled out her comb and started to brush my hair. I felt sick and scared. What the hell was she doing?
    “So beautiful. So perfect ,” she whispered. “I would kill for hair like yours. I would kill to be you.”
    “Who. Are. You?” I managed to say. She smiled a wicked smile that showed rotten teeth behind her beautiful lips. I cringed , pulling away from her, and she dropped the brush on the floor.
    “Look what you made me do!” she yelled. I pulled my covers over my head , willing her to go away.
    “Go away , go away, go away!” I yelled back.
    T he covers left my hands as she ripped them off of me. She moved her face close to mine, her rancid breath stinging my nose. “I can’t leave.” I shut my eyes as tight as I could, hoping she would leave. I didn’t know why she was being so awful to me. She was obviously stuck here like the rest, but yelling at me wasn’t going to get me to help her. I felt the air shift and guessed she was gone. When I opened my eyes, she was no longer in my room.
     
    Later that night, at dinner, I finally had to see my mom. We sat like a happy family at the kitchen table. I pretended I didn’t see a ghost, and my parents pretended they liked Ephraim sitting with us at the table. He had come over to see me while my mom cooked, and stayed to eat at their insistence, but now it seemed tense. I prayed they wouldn’t say anything to him about what we started to discuss in the car.
    “So ,