Alone On the Beach by Cathryn Grant

Author:Cathryn Grant [Grant, Cathryn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ghosts, Spirits, American Suspense, paranormal suspense, hauntings, Horror, psychological suspense
ISBN: 9781943142156
Published: 2015-10-21T05:00:00+00:00

Sixteen

The internet was a funny thing. It was supposed to be bringing the world closer together, creating a global community where average people on every continent were able to connect with each other, do end runs around their governments, especially the oppressive and murderous ones. But mostly, it seemed to be dividing people — helping them build ever smaller, more homogeneous communities and construct ever more elaborate masks. They hid behind pithy sayings and entertaining video clips and Likes and Favorites. You never had to talk to anyone or even write a comment to maintain the illusion of a friendship: Like. Like. Like. Like-Like-Like-Like.

Deb had hundreds of likes on some of her posts. She had a lot of comments too — many of them superficial. And her responses to those empty thoughts made Corrine wonder whether Deb actually knew some of the people who were commenting, the people she got into lengthy pointless discussions with about her spiritual views and the importance of supplementing the inadequate American diet. Of course she didn’t know them. They were customers. They lived all over California and she’d never met them. They were enthused by her enthusiasm. They loved her simple thoughts for the day and her two-sentence pep talks.

It was eleven o’clock on a Tuesday night. Cat was curled at the foot of the bed, purring until her whiskers vibrated, obviously pleased that Parker hadn’t been around for two days. Corrine put her fingers on the bedside light switch. She needed to get to sleep. Six a.m. was coming fast, but she couldn’t seem to stop scrolling through Deb’s page.

She’d gone back on Deb’s timeline to 2007, a long and tedious task, but she felt like she’d lived right next door during her marriage to Andy. She’d seen their vacation photos and heard about the gifts Andy gave Deb for her birthdays and Christmas. She saw their dinners out — Deb wearing heels every single time. Yet, in all Deb’s other photos, she wore workout clothes and athletic shoes. When she was with the Skinny Bikini gang, she wore flip-flops.

Andy had disappeared from Deb’s photo gallery about two years ago. But it was hard to determine whether that was because things were getting rough between them, or they’d actually split. She was very cheery on Facebook, so there was no evidence of any emotional fallout. Aside from that one note about the wonder of first love and wishing him a good life, there was nothing about the end of their marriage. Maybe Deb had a few ounces of discretion after all.

Corrine opened another tab and went to Google. She picked up her wine and took a long swallow. It was almost gone. She was going to do this. She wasn’t going to analyze for one more day, one more minute, whether it was dishonest or shameful or creepy. She set up a new email account, calling herself Sara McGregor, and returned to Facebook. She logged out of her profile and began the process of constructing a new profile.

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