The Eternal Ones Read Online Free Page A

than that. Everyone knows I’m a happily married man.”
     
    NOW, IN THE EVENINGS, after she’d been put to bed, Haven listened to the muffled sounds of her father arguing and her mother weeping. She knew people were saying that something had happened between her father and Veronica. Though her father swore he was innocent, the town had turned against him. The scandal led Veronica to flee Snope City in shame, and few people shopped at the Moores’ store anymore. They’d travel all the way to Unicoi for a pack of nails or a can of paint. Money was scarce and bills couldn’t be paid. And thanks to Imogene Snively, the whole town believed that Ernest Moore’s sins had brought Satan to Tennessee.
    Once the house was dark and silent, Haven practiced controlling her visions. The very first night she heard her parents arguing, she had whispered one last goodbye to Ethan and then set to locking him out of her head. She learned to empty her thoughts the moment she felt the hot flush begin to creep up her legs. She battled the visions whenever they appeared and prayed on her knees that they wouldn’t return.
    Haven worked hard, rushing to cure herself before the devil could destroy her family. Eventually her other world grew fainter and fainter until it disappeared altogether. She’d almost managed to forget Ethan’s face when she came home from school one afternoon to find Imogene packing her things in a suitcase. Ernest Moore was dead, and her mother was missing. Imogene had been given custody of Haven, and the girl was moving to her grandmother’s house.

CHAPTER SEVEN
    For several months after her father’s death and her mother’s disappearance, Haven developed the curious habit of spying on the citizens of Snope City. She’d hide behind a hedge while Mr. McGuinness mowed his lawn or perch on a tree branch outside Ms. Buncombe’s living room while the old lady watched her stories on an ancient TV. She knew that Mrs. Dietz, who claimed to have a glandular problem, hid her Milky Ways in an empty box of laundry detergent. And she’d seen Mr. Melton visiting his sister-in-law’s house in the middle of the afternoon when his brother was still at work. But it wasn’t just people’s secrets that Haven was after. She suspected they changed when she wasn’t watching—that the face they wore in public was peeled off when no one else was around—and Haven wanted nothing more than to witness the moment when their true natures were revealed.
    She had to give up her new hobby when her mother returned to Snope City. There was simply too much work to be done taking care of Mae Moore. Haven knew that her mother had been rushed to the hospital after she heard her husband had been killed in a car crash. While Mae was missing, Haven was told that her mother was sick in the heart. Imogene said it quickly and quietly, as if eager to get the subject out of the way. Haven knew without asking that she wouldn’t be allowed to visit. She imagined her mother lying in a hospital bed, hooked up to wires and IVs as she recovered from a heart attack. But when Mae had finally stepped through the door of Imogene’s house, Haven could see that her body worked perfectly. It was somewhere inside that Mae Moore had broken.
    Haven made her mother’s meals twice a day and sat with her as she stared blankly at her oatmeal or scrambled eggs. Eventually Mae began to pick up her own fork. Later she started to talk again. But the real Mae—the one who laughed and danced and sang as she cooked—never really came back. She accepted her wealthy mother’s financial support and even agreed to let Imogene keep custody of Haven. Without a husband, responsibilities, or even a job to keep her busy, Mae Moore became little more than a ghost, condemned to wander the house she’d once escaped by eloping with Ernest Moore.
    Practically an orphan, Haven turned to the only person left to trust—Dr. Tidmore. Though it was no longer mandatory, Haven continued to