Peekers by Kealan Patrick Burke

Author:Kealan Patrick Burke [Burke, Kealan Patrick]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Horror, +READ, +UNCHECKED
ISBN: 2940011158445
Goodreads: 10184882
Publisher: Kealan Patrick Burke, via Smashwords
Published: 2010-12-26T08:00:00+00:00

* * *

The sun returned.

As he stormed home, Larry considered calling the police, but quickly realized he had nothing to tell them. At least, nothing they'd take seriously. Officer, my reclusive elderly neighbors subjected me to some weird kind of hide-and-seek game. Can you send someone over to chastise them?

Right.

Oddly, the droning from the woods was almost comforting now, and as he stepped on to the loamy grass in his yard, his shadow stretching out ahead of him, the jagged song of the engines helped to keep him from thinking about the Hoffmans, and the voice from the kitchen he was supposed to believe hadn't come from the man in the doorway.

Strange people, he thought, and shook his head. Then he wondered if instead of contemplating their curious behavior, he should call someone to check on them, just to be sure they hadn't lost their minds entirely. Would he be able to live with the guilt if Agnes took a spill down the stairs, or Zach, driven by the certainty that his wife was an imposter, attempted to be rid of her?

Ultimately, he decided it was someone else's problem.

At the steps to his deck, he glanced over his shoulder at the unusually quiet neighborhood he had just left behind. Where was everybody today anyway? Where were the irritating, pampered yip-yap dogs only yuppies seemed able to tolerate? Where were the businessmen and unhappy housewives smothered in expensive robes, waving their husbands goodbye with more relief than adoration?

Something else struck him as odd then, just as he'd been about to mount the deck.

The paper.

The pointless, unwanted local rag filled to bursting with trivial and mundane stories about trivial, mundane people. Today, for the first time in as long as Larry could recall, it hadn't been delivered, and now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen it on any of the driveways around the new neighborhood either. Not that he'd exactly been looking for it.

He allowed the roaring woods to drive him inside before his morning ponderings led him to start questioning who the real senile old fool was, and cast a glance at his neat, carpeted, and straight stairs while he filled the kettle and boiled some water for a cup of green tea.

As he puttered about the house, comfort and complacence began to smother the chill that he'd carried with him out of the Hoffman house, and he turned his mind toward the rest of the day. There were chores to be done. There were weeds to be pulled and fallen twigs to clear, but he'd only managed to plan as far as tea, cigar, and television before the telephone's shrill cry interrupted him. With a mutter of derision, he waved a hand at it and let it go unanswered. A quick check of the caller ID revealed a private caller, which made it ignoring it a guiltless exercise. Satisfied, Larry took his tea and an unspoiled cheroot into the living room.

Strange, strange people, he thought, with a grim smile, as he set his tea on the coffee table and thumbed the remote.

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