The Monster Within Read Online Free

pretty old.”
    He patted her hand. “No, it makes us lucky.”
    Everything went black again. I blinked my eyes, begging my sight to return. Even seeing the dilapidated cottage would’ve been better than this. The darkness reminded me of death. Forms started to take shape as my vision slowly returned.
    What was that? How had I seen that man? And on his son’s wedding day? Maybe I hadn’t killed him. Maybe he’d just fainted in the car, and I was too scared to notice. Maybe the universe was trying to let me know I wasn’t a monster after all.
    “Hey, babe.” Ethan opened the door, letting the sunlight filter into the room. “Do you want—” I must have looked awful, because the second he saw me, he rushed to my side. “What’s wrong?”
    How did I answer that? I didn’t want to lie to him, not after all he’d done for me. I put my hand to my hip. “I hurt myself. It was stupid. My eyes are still a little sensitive to the sun. You know, from—”
    “Sure.” He didn’t let me finish my sentence. “Let me see. Did you cut yourself?”
    “I don’t know. I didn’t look at it yet.”
    He started lifting the hem of my skirt, trying to see how bad my hip was, but I stepped back.
    “What?” He looked hurt.
    “I—I’m sorry. Everything is making me jumpy.”
    “Including me?”
    That had been the wrong thing to say. Now I’d insulted him. “No.” I reached for his hand. “You know I love you.”
    “But you don’t want me to see you…naked.” He nodded, but I could tell he didn’t really understand.
    “I know we almost…once, but things are different now. I’m different.”
    He cupped the side of my face in his hand. “No, you’re not. What do I have to do to make you believe that?” He searched my eyes for an answer, but I didn’t have one to give. “You’re the same, and so are we.”
    “I just don’t know if I can pick up where we left off. I need a little time to adjust. This is a lot for me to take in all at once.” That was only half of it, but I couldn’t bear to tell him the rest.
    “Do you want me to sleep on the couch or something?”
    “No.” I took his hand again. “We can sleep in the same bed, but let’s take things slow, okay?”
    “Is that all that’s bothering you?”
    No, but I didn’t say that. Instead I leaned forward and kissed him softly on the lips. “What did you want to ask me when you came in?”
    I could tell he didn’t want to drop this, but he wasn’t going to fight with me over it. “I found some paint in the shed. It’s off-white. Do you want me to paint anything?”
    “Everything. This place needs a major face-lift.”
    “Okay. I’ll get started on the outside first while you finish cleaning up a bit in here.”
    “Thanks.” He started to walk away, but I held on to his hand, making him turn back to me. “I promise I’ll be okay, and we’ll get back to where we were. I just need time.”
    “You have a lifetime.”
    Yes, I did. Thanks to him. But after the incident at the gas station, I wasn’t sure that was what I wanted.
    I went back to the cabinet below the kitchen sink. It had come open when I bumped into it. I figured it was as good a place as any to store cleaning supplies, so I started digging through it. I found some old sponges, an almost-empty bottle of dish detergent, a few pans, and a wooden box. I shimmied forward, trying to reach the wooden box. My scraped knees rubbed against the edge of the cabinet, making me wince. I really needed to clean out those cuts and bandage them. This place was dirty enough to infect any open wound.
    I was about to stand up and take care of the cuts, but then I thought that maybe the wooden box was some kind of medical kit. It might have some Band-Aids or at least some gauze. I ducked my head and reached farther into the cabinet. My fingers wrapped around the box, and I pulled it out from its hiding place. I sat on the floor, ready to fix my knees. The box had no latch at all, but there were