Echoes of the Dead Read Free Page B

monstrous, near Anime size, and hair in dirty blonde ropes offered a sweet, innocent disguise. Caitlin was always happy and Kelsey a little jealous.
    “I thought I’d lost you two.”
    The music shifted. The three silver-shirted boys danced toward them.
    “I’m taking a break,” Kelsey said.
    “Me too. I need another drink.” Brit grabbed Caitlin by the wrist.
    “What?” Caitlin’s alcohol-slick eyes were on the boys in silver.
    “We don’t want to lose you to the wolf pack.”
    The three friends skirted to the crowded dance floor’s edge. Caitlin craned her neck to watch the boys in silver. Kelsey fell into her chair, suddenly feeling very tired.
    “You two want anything? Another Midori Sour?”
    Kelsey shook her head. “I’m good, thanks.”
    “I could use another screwdriver.” Caitlin held out her half-empty glass. “Pretty please.”
    Brit rolled her eyes and headed for the bar.
    Caitlin pulled her glass to her lips. Kelsey grabbed her forearm before she took a drink.
    “You don’t want to do that.”
    “I don’t?” Caitlin pouted. “Why not?”
    “You left it at the table. Anybody could have slipped something in there.”
    “Oh my God.” Caitlin snorted. “You are such a mother, Kels.  Lighten up.” Caitlin pulled her arm away, and a little liquid sloshed from the glass as the lights went out over the table.
    “We hoped you ladies would have stayed on the dance floor.”
    It was the nose, the leader of the silver-shirted wolf pack. His buddies grinned at either shoulder. Up close, his nose was big, ridiculously big, and Kelsey couldn’t stifle a giggle when she remembered what Brit suggested about boys with big noses. Big noses mean big…
    “Some of us would have,” Caitlin said. She wrapped her tongue around the tiny black straw in her glass.
    Kelsey rolled her eyes.  She let her gaze stray across the room and fall on a tall man near the entrance. A flare burst in her memory. Johnny .  She hadn’t seen him in almost five years, not since graduation, but it was him. His tall, cut features gave him away. Several years hadn’t changed anything about his face, his sleek, angular cheekbones and firm chin. Kelsey could almost feel his blue eyes, even across a dim club filled with people. He wasn’t dancing, just standing near the wall, almost like he was waiting for someone. Maybe looking for someone. Kelsey’s stomach knotted.
    “…and our unit ships out at month’s end.”
    Kelsey snapped back to her immediate vicinity. “What? Are you trying that old line?  C’mon, boys. Really?”
    Big nose blinked hard at the word boys .
    Caitlin kicked Kelsey’s leg under the table.
    “Whatever.” Big Nose frowned. “I can see you’re not interested.  We were talking to your friend.”
    Brit returned balancing three drinks in her hands. She read the look on Kelsey’s face. “Looks like I’m missing the party.”
    Kelsey glanced at Johnny again. The dance floor lights flashed red and blue and white. “I was just leaving.” She climbed from her chair. Big Nose looked her up and down as she stood, and the two baboons at his shoulders did the same. She hated feeling dirty when a greasy boy eyed her like a cut of meat. She wanted a shower, to clean off the slime he’d heaped on her.
    “Not bad,” he said.
    Kelsey’s fingers curled into a fist at her side. “Fuck off.” She started to walk away.
    He grabbed her wrist. “You wish, honey.”
    Kelsey yanked her arm from his grasp. The flight across the club blurred in her head along with the music’s pound and her feet against the floor. She heard Brit’s voice bark her name twice, “Kels—Kels.” Shapes shifted and contorted, silhouettes of people, cardboard cutouts.  Her head spun.  By the time she worked her way across the room, Johnny was gone.

Chapter 2: Sarah
     
     
    Sarah knitted her fingers together in her lap. She squeezed them until the knuckles turned white and let the blood flow back again. She’d had three