Captives (Nightmare Hall) Read Free

Since they don’t know I’m out here. And since they probably aren’t expecting to meet anyone out here in the middle of the woods on a night like this. Scaring them could send them racing back down that hill.
    If scaring them doesn’t work, well, it’s all their fault. They’ve spoiled everything. So if more drastic measures are called for, they have only themselves to blame. Not me. It’s not my fault.
    Why are people always getting in my way? Why can’t they leave me alone?
    Before the night is over they’ll wish they had.

Chapter 3
    E RNIE DODD SAT IN front of the computer in his small, cluttered room in Devereaux Hall on the campus of Salem University, his fingers poised but unmoving on the keyboard. A large, framed photo of Molloy sat at his elbow at an angle that made it look as if she were smiling directly at him. Shaggy, dark brown hair touched the shoulders of his denim jacket as he tilted his head to listen to the words of the campus radio announcer who had interrupted Ernie’s train of thought by beginning his announcement with the phrase, “Special bulletin.”
    Something about the weather, Ernie guessed.
    Instead, as Ernie listened attentively, he heard, “This news just in. University officials have announced that the body of Dr. Milton Leo, a member of the Salem faculty and a practicing psychologist, has been discovered in his campus office. According to police, Dr. Leo’s death was caused by repeated blows to the head with a blunt object. There was no forced entry of the premises, and the whereabouts of the assailant at this time are unknown.
    “Police report there is a list of suspects who will be questioned immediately. Those names have not been released.
    “Dr. Leo’s only survivor is a daughter, Tanner Melissa Leo, a sophomore at the university.
    “This station will provide more details on the incident as they arrive.”
    Then, as abruptly as it had ended, music began again.
    Murdered? Dr. Leo had been murdered?
    Ernie, his hands still poised on the keyboard, felt sorry for Tanner, who had only recently reached some kind of peace with her father. Because of a divorce when she was very young, she hadn’t known him when she was growing up and had only come to Salem to live with him so she could go to college. They’d had some rough moments; everyone knew that Dr. Leo was a cold fish. Completely the opposite of Tanner. But was that reason enough to bash in the guy’s skull?
    Ernie’s eyes moved to Molloy’s photograph. He thought of Molloy finally making it to Salem even though her parents didn’t approve,
    “They’re never going to like me,” he told the photo matter-of-factly. “We both know that, Molloy. And it’s going to make for a pile of problems somewhere down the road.”
    Didn’t matter. Well, it mattered, but they’d handle it. He wasn’t giving up Molloy. He’d put up with a lot of garbage in his life because he knew that was just the way things were.
    But then, on a really rotten, cold, rainy day in October of his junior year of high school, he’d met Molloy Book.
    At Christmastime of that year, Molloy had said, although he hadn’t asked how she felt about him because he hadn’t had the nerve, “I really like you a lot, Ernie Dodd. And I think I’m always going to.” And all he’d given her, all he could afford to give her, was a stupid tape he’d made of her favorite Christmas song, and his football sweater. She didn’t seem to care that it wasn’t a cashmere sweater or expensive jewelry.
    He wasn’t giving up Molloy. Not for anything.
    Thinking about her sent his eyes to the watch on his wrist. The placement of its hands jolted him upright. Eight-thirty! Eight-thirty? That couldn’t be right. If it was really eight-thirty, Molloy would be here by now. She had said six, and she was never late. Six o’clock, she’d said. Two-and-a-half hours ago?
    Ernie got up and strode to the window, tried to look out. He saw nothing but a slick veneer of rain