Doomed Read Online Free Page B

something to be desired. If there’s a storm, or even just a really windy day, we lose the phone and sometimes even electricity.
    I glance outside. The sky is growing dark, but without a cloud in sight. And the trees are barely moving. Still, thatdoesn’t mean anything. I’ll give whoever’s in charge of this kind of thing at the phone company a few minutes to figure it out and then try again. No big deal.
    But just then, the fan on my laptop starts running full speed. The screen blinks off and on. It whirrs some more and then does the same thing again and again. I rush over, try to shut it down, but it won’t do anything. Won’t budge from Pandora’s Box. I try to force the game closed, but it doesn’t work. Nothing does, and I’m starting to get a little nervous.
    What
is going
on
?
    I head for the stairs, for my mom’s office, with some half-formed plan of checking out her computer, making sure it’s okay. I’m halfway up before I register the unnatural silence in the house. Waste of energy or not, I always have something going, always have some noise around me. It helps me feel less alone. In this case, I know I turned on the TV as soon as I got downstairs, started streaming
Supernatural
.
    But the TV isn’t streaming anything—instead, there’s just the bright blue AT&T U-Verse screen that usually comes up whenever I first turn on the TV.
    Are you kidding me?
Totally frustrated, I go back down the stairs. I push a few buttons, but nothing happens. No streaming. No regular TV channels. Nothing. The TV signal’s out, too. Terrific. Emily’s going to love that when she comes here tonight.
    At that moment, the light over the stairs flickers off, on, off, on, off, on again.
    I hate the dark and I panic, am out the front door before my brain even registers leaving as an option. Either the utility companies are having the mother of all bad days orthe house is suddenly possessed. Whichever it is, I’m done trying to figure it out.
    I pause at the end of my driveway, try to decide what to do. I’m being stupid, I know I am, yet I can’t bring myself to go back inside. Maybe I should check with the neighbors, see if they’re having the same problems I am. If they are, then it’s no big deal. I can go back home and get ready for the birthday dinner that suddenly feels like it’s a million miles off.
    And if they’re not having the same problems?
a little voice whispers in the back of my head.
What then?
    I ignore it, shove it back down where it came from. So
not
going to deal with that eventuality right now.
    Instead, I try to figure out which neighbors to crash in on. To my right are the Hensons, but they’re both doctors and usually aren’t home until eight or nine. To my left are the new neighbors, the ones who moved in a couple of weeks ago. I haven’t even met them yet.
    After a quick mental debate, I turn left, praying the new people are home and that they don’t mind answering the door to strangers. Especially strangers who are having a really, really weird day and look a little crazed because of it.
    By the time I get to their front door, about five minutes have passed even though I came close to running the whole way. That’s because out here houses are a lot farther apart than in your regular suburban neighborhood. Most of the homeowners—especially the celebrities looking for a retreat from Hollywood and the crazed paparazzi that stalk them—are
very
big on privacy.
    I ring the doorbell, and when no one answers in the first five seconds, I start pounding on the door. Please, God, let someone be home. I don’t want to go back to my house alone right now.
    After another minute, the door flies open, and I look up, up, up … and straight into Theo’s eyes. I’m not sure which one of us is more surprised.
He’s
my new neighbor? But how has he lived here two weeks without me seeing him? Or Eli? We go to the same school, have the same schedule. Surely I would have noticed.
    But I didn’t, and