The Monster Within Read Online Free Page B

shuddered. “We should close some of the windows now. It’s getting a little chilly outside.” He put the bag on the table and started shutting the windows. If only that were the reason I was shivering.
    I opened the bag and saw dinner consisted of crackers and bottled water.
    “Sorry, they didn’t have black licorice.” Ethan put his hands on my shoulders. “I’ll check the general store in the morning. They usually have that kind of stuff.”
    “You’ve been here before?” I took a seat and opened the box of crackers.
    “A few times, when I was a kid. My aunt and uncle used to come here in the summer. My mom and dad let me come with them sometimes.” He looked around. “Obviously that was a long time ago.”
    “Obviously.” The décor wasn’t from this century. I laughed but immediately felt guilty. I couldn’t be happy, not after…
    “You can decorate it any way you want. Doesn’t matter to me.” He shoved a whole cracker into his mouth and took a swig from his water bottle.
    I smacked his arm. “You’re going to choke.”
    “What, you don’t know mouth-to-mouth?” He grinned, and bits of cracker spilled onto the table.
    “Very attractive.”
    “Just trying to make you smile.”
    There wasn’t much to smile about, but I didn’t want Ethan to think I wasn’t grateful to be alive, to be here with him.
    I reached for his hand and squeezed it. “You don’t have to try to make me smile. I’m happy just being with you.”
    “Oh yeah?” He raised an eyebrow, and I knew he was up to something. “Then let’s try a round of ‘Where would you rather be?’”
    I laughed. It was a game we used to play when the cancer treatments made me too sick to get out of bed. “You sure you want to do that?” I mocked him, gesturing at the dilapidated cottage.
    “I think I can handle it. Lay it on me.”
    “Okay.” I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. Part of the game was picturing yourself in the place you wanted to be. I was usually so good at it that I could smell the ocean and taste the salt in the air. My dream place was the beach. I hadn’t been there since I was diagnosed with cancer. My parents went all out and got us a week at the best resort in Myrtle Beach. We drove twelve hours there and back, but it was worth every leg cramp and crappy oldies song Dad had made me suffer through. I loved the beach. And they’d let Ethan come along.
    “Earth to Sam,” Ethan said. “Did I lose you to this dream location?”
    “I’m walking out on the pier at Myrtle Beach. The warm breeze is blowing through my hair. The waves are gently crashing against the shore, and I’m holding hands with this smokin’ hot guy.”
    “Anyone I know?”
    I shrugged and opened my eyes. “Maybe.”
    “Oh, I see how it is.” Ethan nodded. “All right, what’s fair is fair. My turn.” He closed his eyes. A devilish grin formed on his lips, but then he reached across the table and took my hand. “I’m having dinner with the most beautiful girl in the world, and we are about to start our new life together. Just the two of us. And there’s nowhere I’d rather be.”
    A single tear escaped my eyes, and I smiled. Because that was Ethan. Absolutely perfect. For a moment, I forgot that I was a monster who didn’t deserve him.
    There were no dishes to clean up, so after we put the box of crackers in the cabinet over the stove, we were finished with dinner. We looked around the place, trying to figure out what to do next.
    “Want to watch some TV?” Ethan walked over and fiddled with the ancient TV in the living room. I watched as he pressed every button on the set and the remote, but all he got was static and more static. He gave the screen a good whack with the palm of his hand before giving up completely. “Or we could talk.”
    The couch cushions were airing out in the yard so it wasn’t like we could sit comfortably, even if the TV was working. We were slumming it.
    “Actually, I’m kind of beat. I think