Witch 13 by Patrick Delaney

Author:Patrick Delaney
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2022-06-06T16:00:00+00:00

Battleship hadn’t lasted long. That game was more boring than watching Mommy load the dishwasher. He could tell Georgia was equally bored. He’d watched her keep looking over at the TV, drumming her nails on the table, eyes barely open.

After the third game, he’d asked Georgia if they could take a break. At this rate, if he played another game his brain was liable to shut off because it was so bored. His plan worked like a charm. Georgia agreed, retreating to her chair in front of the TV, where a man was making his way through a dark house with a flashlight calling out for someone who wasn’t there.

Now he could do what he really wanted to do and go have a look around. Give the station his own personal inspection.

Georgia was snoring the way his Daddy did sometimes. The corner of her lip made a funny sound, sputtering like a boat engine, and her eyes were closed shut with her head tilted up at the ceiling. He saw her eyelids moving and guessed her eyeballs were rolling around underneath them.

Max tucked his satchel behind him and tiptoed to the closet, opening it and quietly unfolding a wool blanket that was tucked away. He watched Georgia sleep a moment as the train slid around the Christmas tree in loops, finding joy in the moment like he was at the North Pole in Santa’s Workshop. He smiled, then carefully draped the quilt over Georgia before making for the hallway.

Out in the hall, things were quiet. The horrible white lights brought an ache to his eyes, and he wondered if they were making things just a little bit colder in there than they were before.

He glanced both ways, finding nothing but ugly brick walls trailing in both directions. He listened to the rain trickling down the windows, the thunder crashing like fireworks and unsettling the walls.

He swallowed, tugging the strap of his bag, readjusting it.

Daddy’s door was closed.

So was Miss Sterling’s. But he could hear voices talking on the other side.

The witch was gone. He knew that much for sure. He’d heard Daddy take her away to the place where they kept the bad people. He was glad she was gone. He didn’t want her around, and he didn’t think Georgia did either.

There’s no such thing as witches. He listened to the words play over and over again in his head like the records. Only the words stayed. Lingered. They looped around in his head like the train, only instead of a Christmas tree in the middle, the witch was there instead, horrible and awful and scary.

He had to be sure.

He started down the hall, pressing himself flat against the wall outside Miss Sterling’s office.

He heard Sterling and Daddy arguing again, talking about grownup things. He thought hard about the last time he’d seen him with Mommy, smiling, and couldn’t. Had it been so long?

It was time to go.

He slipped past the office, listening to their voices fade away.

He passed by the threshold to another room and smelled burned plastic.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.