Psychopathia: A Horror Suspense Novel Read Online Free Page B

the moon. But she knew better. That wasn’t the moon. Sitting up, she swung her legs out of bed and padded over to her desk under the window. The smell of summer came slinking in through the open window and made her smile. She loved summer, and especially this one. None of them had wanted to go home these holidays, so they’d rented a cheap cabin half an hour out of the city, and though it would mean a bit of commuting once they started their holiday jobs, they’d all carpool and it would be worth it.
    The memory of the night before gave her a frisson of fright . She plugged her phone into the computer and hit the button to transfer the files. She wanted to see the photos on a bigger screen.
    The sun inched across her desk as she waited, and she pulled the curtains, spreading them open to greet the day. Her computer beeped, and she sat down, clicking on the file and leaning closer to see.
    They still looked like pictures of the moon. She clicked rapidly through all four of them, disappointment settling in her stomach like a bowl of bile. Pausing on the last one, she squinted at it. This one was a bit better. The thing must have been rushing them when she’d snapped this one. It was bigger, blurred at the edges, not really moon-shaped. More of a…blob. A greyish, whitish…blob.
    But still. Tully knew what it was. Or rather she knew it wasn’t the moon – or anything natural. It had been something otherworldly that had scared them the night before. She remembered the fear, the moment when she’d frozen, Toby’s arms pinning her when he’d jumped down from the tree, the bush shaking. Otherworldly, and unnatural. She shivered, but in the morning sun, it was almost more from excitement than fear. She flicked the printer on, checked it had paper in it, then ordered it to print out the photos. She pinned them on her wall.
    Lara was in the kitchen, bent over, head stuck in the fridge. She turned and glanced at Tully with bleary eyes.
    ‘You’re up early, Lara,’ Tully said. She was generally the only early riser in the household. It was the one area she differed from her twin. He’d lie in bed all day if he could get away with it. Tully liked the mornings. They made her feel refreshed and vigorous.
    ‘I had the worst night’s sleep ever,’ Lara said, and slapped a packet of bacon down on the counter. ‘All night, bad dreams.’ She wiped a hand over her eyes. ‘I think it was you telling me those stories that did it,’ she said.
    ‘It wasn’t a story. I didn’t make it up.’
    ‘I know, and that was the problem.’ Lara leaned against the counter and fiddled with the ends of her long hair. ‘Matt and I were in the clearing – well, you can guess what we were doing…’
    ‘I don’t have to guess,’ Tully said, looking in the cupboard for the jam. ‘I saw before we left. Not to mention, that you two are always chucking off your clothes and getting down to business.’
    ‘Yeah, but what if something was watching us? What if the thing you saw had been watching us?’ She shook her head. ‘I can’t stop freaking out over the thought of it.’
    ‘What makes you think it was though? It was pretty busy scaring the crap out of us.’
    Lara put a strand of hair in her mouth and chewed on it. ‘Well, nothing. I mean I didn’t see anything, and Matt didn’t either.’ She spat the hair out. ‘But what if that was because we were too busy to look, not because there wasn’t anything watching?’
    Tully laughed. ‘You’ve never worried about an audience before Lara.’
    ‘Piss off. I’ve never done it in front of any ghostly perverts who wanted to watch before, either.’
    Plugging the bread into the toaster, Tully turned her attention to coffee. ‘I don’t think you have to worry about it, Lara,’ she said. ‘It was in the woods. Whatever it was, it was miles away from you and Matt.’
    There was silence for a moment. ‘What do you think it was?’ Lara was practically whispering.
    ‘I don’t