Twisted Dreams Read Online Free

Brooke.”
    I force my own smile. “Elizabeth.”
    The smile remained fixed, though her eyes dropped down my body, taking in my tee and sweats. “Oh my God, that’s so pretty. I just love those old-fashioned names.”
    Ouch, I knew it was coming. A jab in the ribs with a verbal knife.
    My grin felt frozen. “Thanks.” An idea suddenly occurred to me and burst from my mouth before I could stop it. “But everyone calls me Beth.”
    “Beth … sure,” she said. “Here, let me help you with that.”
    “Oh, no,” I shook my head. “I’m fine, really.”
    “Don’t be silly.” She reached out and grasped the sides of the box still circled in one arm. “I’ve got it.”
    Her hand brushed against mine. I got a flash of her sitting on a double bed, the coverlet beneath her covered in tiny embroidered pink roses. Her knees were pulled up to her chest as she cried into a pink stuffed rabbit—the same one, I noted, which now sat on her pillow.
    I shook my head, trying to dispel the unintended invasion of her privacy. I couldn’t be sure if what I’d seen came from her past or future. I wasn’t sure which option I even preferred.
    Unaware of my visions, Brooke took the box from me with two hands and staggered under the weight. “Jeez, what the hell have you got in here?”
    Oh yeah, books. I’d forgotten about the books.
    I grinned and took the box back, lifting it easily. I deposited it on the desk on the side of the room my new roommate hadn’t yet occupied. Glancing over to her side, I realized she’d unpacked already. Tubes and pots of hair products, makeup and body lotions all teetered on the surface where her school work was supposed to go. A laptop with a pink cover sat unopened beside them.
    “Your folks leave already?” I asked.
    “Oh,” she gave a shrug, her silky blonde hair sliding over her shoulders. “They didn’t bother coming. They hate goodbyes and figured if I’m old enough to come to college, I’m old enough to drive myself as well.”
    “Yeah, me too. Welcome to our independent lives.”
    She offered me what I felt was her first genuine smile.
    I shrugged my backpack off my shoulders and set it beside the single bed that was now mine. “So have you come far?”
    “Not really. My family actually live just outside of town. They own a few thousand acres of the forests and lands west of Sage Springs.”
    “Oh, right,” I tried to hide my surprise. She was close enough to be living at home and traveling in to school daily. “A few thousand acres? That’s a lot of land.”
    “They own a mining company, and so they’re really busy.”
    “Is that why you’re staying on campus?”
    Brooke shrugged. “I’m used to staying away. I’ve been at boarding school since I was eleven.”
    Again, I tried not to judge, but I couldn’t help feeling sorry for her. As bizarre as my own family’s setup was, they’d never sent me away and would have happily kept me under their roof until I turned thirty.
    Not bothering to unpack, I left my stuff on my bed, made my excuses to Brooke, and headed back out.
    I walked away from the dorms and went back to the central building on campus. Through the main doors, I made my way down a couple of different corridors, my shoes squeaking on the polished wood floors. I pushed open another set of heavy, arched doors and entered the place I’d been aiming for.
    The accommodation for the students had been added on more recently in the history of the college, and contained none of the atmosphere of the main building. In the hushed silence of the library, I could sense the history of this place. Somewhere above my head, pipes ticked, as though the building itself had a heartbeat. This was the one part of school I’d been excited about spending time in since I’d decided which college I wanted to attend. The library not only housed my favorite things in the world—books—but was also the base for the school newspaper, The Sage Gazette. I’d applied to become a