Phantasmagoria: A Psychological Horror Novel by Josh White

Author:Josh White [White, Josh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-05-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 30: Stephen

“What in the fuck was that?” Corentine screamed as she stormed down the steps and burst into the game room. She was a tempest raging with pure, murderous fury in her eyes.

“Look, it wasn’t anything personal!” I protested, something mostly true. I did need to get back inside to finish my painting—To Youth, I planned on calling it—and it was Corentine who put us in that position. No amount of her stomping around would change that.

“The fuck it wasn’t!” Corentine shouted, bearing her teeth.

In that moment I didn’t see small, beautiful, slender Corentine, but the titan from Goya’s Saturn Devouring His Son, a monstrous beast with wild, rolling eyes. Before I had time to think I’d taken two steps backwards.

I waited for Miguel to jump in, but he slumped next to the fire and gazed up at the crossed antique rifles above.

“Corentine,” Anna said, getting off her barstool. “I’m glad you came down. I was going to check on you later.”

Corentine’s lips relaxed around her bared teeth and her intense stare weakened, but the alpha dominance she exuded remained strong. “It’s pretty fucking obvious how I’m doing.”

Anna shrugged as if to say, “You got me there.” “I think we all need to talk, anyway.”

As her face turned a darker shade of maroon, Corentine’s throat muscles strained and looked like old ropes hanging from the mast of an old wooden ship. “You’ve got to be kidding me! What could I possibly have to say to them? ‘Thanks for putting me in the stocks and throwing tomatoes at me’? No, I’m fucking good, thanks.”

“It’s about Dr. Kane.”

Corentine stared at Anna, nonplussed.

“What about him?” Miguel asked.

Anna bit her lip. “I don’t know how to put this, but…I’m concerned about him.”

“About him?” Corentine growled, her voice drenched in incredulity. “About him?”

“I get your point, Corentine, but he impacts everyone. We have to be concerned about him if he’s…if he’s lost, somehow.”

“Lost?” I asked. “What do you mean?”

Anna took a sip of water. Too good for alcohol, I guess.

“Something is weighing on his mind,” Anna said, her speech quickening. “He looks rough. I don’t think he’s sleeping; maybe he has his own sleeping disorder he’s never revealed. All I know is he’s changed since we’ve been here.”

“His own sleeping disorder? Come on!” I laughed. “That’d be like a drug addict teaching D.A.R.E while shooting up between classes!”

“It’s more common than you think,” she said. “It’s like how therapists sometimes have their own therapists to make sure their personal issues don’t interfere with their ability to treat their patients. He may even feel qualified to help us because of it.”

God, she’s such a know-it-all. I want to strangle her sometimes! Just wrap my hands around her neck and squeeze and wring and squeeze until the light leaves her eyes…

I snapped my head back in surprise. While always there, those kinds of thoughts were becoming more frequent since coming to Aeron Hall, and I associated them with getting even less sleep than normal. I recalled the nightmare—that nightmare, the only one that mattered.

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