Dark Hollow Road (Taryn's Camera Book 3) Read Online Free Page B

the road of paranoia, but there was a tinge of apprehension nipping around the late autumn air. She was uneasy, but about what, she wasn’t certain.
    “It will be okay,” she whispered aloud. Matt shuddered beside her, and she patted him on the shoulder, comforting him in his sleep. Snuggling in closer, he cupped her face in his hand, and she rested her head against him.
    It would be okay. It had to be.
     
     

     
    T he surface beneath her was hard and broken; even just a tiny movement made it creak. A whiff of something unpleasant rose from the grimy floor. She was starting to get a little nauseous but continued to clutch the red plastic cup filled with the bitter whiskey; she wasn’t drinking it any longer but having something to hold grounded her a little. She needed to leave soon, she kept repeating it, but she hadn’t yet been able to get up.
    The flickering candlelight cast grotesque shadows upon the wall, their forms growing and then shrinking again as the flames shimmered.
    Male laughter flowed around her; a dense, heavy sound that resonated through the sparsely furnished room and chilled her. She tried to smile along with them, but her face was numb and her lips wouldn’t move into anything more than a thin grimace. In the darkness, the familiar faces took on carnival funhouse shapes, their features distorted. She shook her head to clear it as eyes bled into mouths and clown hands slapped legs and waved frantically about in the air.
    She wanted to get up, leave, do something but the voices, the shadows–even the flames–were closing in on her. When she opened her mouth to scream, only the faintest of whispers slid through her dry, cracked lips.
     

     
    T he dream left her cold and panicky. The feeling of almost immediate depression upon opening her eyes slapped her across the face; Taryn felt as though she were in the bottom of a well, seeing the world from far, far away. She didn’t know whether she should left herself go back to sleep or jump up and run downstairs to find Matt–her instant fix for human companionship.
    She opted to get up.
    Her head was pounding, full of something left over from her sleep. Her hip hurt, something that had been occurring more and more often, and she felt rattled. The hardwood floors were cold under her feet, and the chilly air gave her gooseflesh, but she didn’t stop to throw on her robe or pull on her thick socks. Instead, she went straight for the stairs. Below, she could hear the sounds of Matt in the kitchen as he banged around pots and pans and turned the faucet off and on. The noises were reassuring, a sign there was life in the house.
    “Hey you,” he smiled as she stalked into the room. Now that she was down there and looking at him, she felt a little silly at her sudden burst of energy and panic.
    “Hey,” she sighed. It was chilly down there and she regretted not throwing something on.
    “You okay?”
    “Bad dream,” she shrugged, trying not to let how upset she was show. “It’s fading.” She lied, but she didn’t feel like discussing it at the moment.
    “I’m making pancakes. I was going to wait and make them on your first day of school, but I was craving them this morning. Hope that’s okay.”
    She sniffed the air. “You putting chocolate in them?”
    “Of course.”
    “Sounds good to me!” Taryn wandered over to the refrigerator and took out a cold Coke. She opened it and downed half of it before she’d taken another step.
    “I don’t see how you can drink that so early,” he admonished in obvious distaste.
    “Not any different than people who drink coffee and put a lot of sugar in it. It’s just cold. And I need the caffeine. Believe me, you don’t want to be around me without it.”
    After they’d finished breakfast she gathered her painting supplies together and placed them on the dining room table. She was running low, but wasn’t in the mood to go into town. She’d try painting out on the front porch for a while, until