The Hollow Places Read Online Free

he
had delivered the night before may only have been two years older
than Sarah. They had roughly the same figure; both studying; both
smart. He had ripped her from the world she knew and cast her,
gasping, to a fate unknown. How could he tell Sarah what he had
done?
    If the woman
was still alive, perhaps it was worse than having died. Perhaps she
was underwater, in the grip of the thing that had demanded her,
stripped of flesh and mind. Or perhaps she had been lucky, torn
into pieces and consumed. At least that way it would be over.
    Or perhaps
nothing happened down there. Maybe she was taken and returned to
her life, her mind broken, but physically in tact.
    Imagine it and
it was possible.
    It was not
difficult to distance himself from the consequences of his actions
while the Creature was with him. The whispers and Its guidance were
seductive. Afterwards, however, when the Creature left his mind, he
always had to face Sarah. No matter how deep he buried his
memories, seeing her would make them creep back up.
    “I don’t need
protecting any more,” Sarah told him. “I want to help you. You need
looking after.”
    Simon put his
hands over his eyes. His fingers were ice cold. “Let’s talk about
this another time.”
    “You treat me
like a kid,” she said, “but I see what’s going on. I’ve got
questions and I deserve answers.”
    “I've tried to
tell you,” he said.
    “You tell me
that it's dangerous and that the danger could come at any moment
and that I have to know where all the knives are and if I see
anything inside the house I've got to run and I've got keep my
mobile phone on me at all times and you're going to go out
sometimes and I have to avoid you, except its hard to tell when
that is, so if I can't avoid you I mustn't ask any questions; I
just have to do as I'm told and it will all be ok. This is
bullshit, Simon. We never talk about mum or dad. What happened to
them. Or you. Or what's going to happen to us. Or anything that
really matters.”
    “What really
matters is that you have friends. College. Prospects. You have a
life.”
    “What about
you?”
    “What about
me?” The confusion in his voice frightened her.
    “You're my
brother. I can help you.”
    “Yes, you can
help,” Simon said.
    “Tell me
how?”
    “You can
forget about trying to save me. I can look after myself.”
    “And I can
look after myself too, Simon, but maybe together we can beat
whatever it is that has us living like this.”
    Simon was
shaking his head before she had finished. Beat it? Beat what? It
was nothing and nowhere, and yet it could be inside him at any
moment. It was a compulsion and a thing in the water. Beat
that?
    'Living like
this'. Living like what? In a house, with food and drink and
heating, television, a bed to sleep in. It was home. What was wrong
with that?
    “I'm sick of
being afraid,” she said. “I want to know everything. Not just the
bits that you want to tell me. Because as it is, it sounds
crazy.”
    He was forced
to admit that he didn't want her up to speed after all. He wanted
things as they were, without questions, with their lives gently
overlapping when his mind was clear. She had played along until
now, fitting into the lie that had suited him. In her way, she had
been protecting him since this had begun.
    “Okay,” he
said. “I'll fill in the gaps. But I can't do this now.”
    “Then
when?”
    “I'm going
out,” he said. “I need to clear my head.” The house felt unsafe.
She was too close to the danger, too close to him. He had to get
away and unfurl the things in his mind so that he could repack
them, more neatly and tightly, strap them down so that they
couldn't fly when she reached for them.
    “You'll be
gone all evening,” she said.
    “I'll be back
tonight,” Simon said.
     

Chapter
Four
    Obeying an emotional need to return to the edge and
look down into the waves, but with a clear mind, not invaded by the
entity, Simon knew what kind of thoughts would emerge. It