Shades Read Free Page A

to leave!"
    "Your dad wouldn't want you to stand around out here," Bulmer stated.
    "Then tell him!" Tiller straightened and pointed into the darkness ahead of them. "Tell him!"
    At first Michael didn't see anything. Then, gradually, an ethereal shape seemed to materialize from the darkness just beyond the touch of the flashlight beam.
    The figure was vaguely man-shaped, then more details became clearer. The man looked like he'd been covered from head to toe in some kind of silver shimmer, like an image from a black-and-white film that had been computer-generated onto color film the way Michael had seen in some commercials. He was tall and broad, with a cruel face, tiny eyes, and a wide, hard mouth.
    The only thing that didn't fit was the short length of rope dangling from the noose around the guy's neck.
    "Do you see it?" Michael asked. He had to strain to speak.
    "See what?" Junior called down.
    Michael gestured with the flashlight, noticing how the beam shone through the garish figure and played over the rocks and cacti on the other side. "The ghost."
    "Don't see nothing," Flynn said.
    Michael wanted to turn to Flynn and demanded to know how he couldn't see the ghost. Instead Michael kept the flashlight beam focused on the sinister image. For the first time, he caught the silvery glints of rain passing through the ghost.
    "I don't either," Bulmer commented. "Give me a hand, Guerin. I want to get Tiller out of the rain. Maybe back to Roswell tonight."
    "No!" Tiller shouted, staring forward. "Don't you see? My dad wants me to stay here!"
    The figure at the other end of Michael's flashlight beam waved as if to indicate that Tiller should stay.
    Michael turned to Bulmer. "You don't see anything?"
    "No." Bulmer struggled to hang on to Tiller, who fought to escape. "I don't see anything."
    Tiller surged in the man's grasp, bellowing out curses, screaming out to his father. Michael helped hold Tiller back, having real difficulty in the muddy water swirling over his feet.
    As Michael watched, the ghost… the image, he corrected himself… broke into a run. Surefooted as a mountain goat, the specter seemed to have no problem at all running across the muddy ground. The hanged man sprinted across the short distance. His feet didn't disturb the water, and whatever noise he made didn't sound over the pealing thunder crashing through the heavens.
    "Noooooo!" Tiller yelled. Instead of fighting against Bulmer and Michael, he suddenly reversed his efforts and tried to flee. Bulmer barely kept his footing, and Michael dropped to one knee, feeling the mud close around him.
    In the next instant the ghost slammed into Tiller and Michael at the same time a bolt of lightning smacked the ground near them. A blinding moment of pain passed through Michael. He felt Tiller ripped from his hands, but that wasn't his main concern, because he suddenly fell backward, blown by some arcane force, and landed in the cold mud.
    Time returned to Michael in a rush. He actually felt his heart start again, feeling like the beat had been primed with a stick of dynamite or TNT.
    "Just lie still," Bulmer was saying.
    Michael pushed the man's hands away. "I'm okay." He glanced down at Tiller as he pushed himself to a seated position. "How's he?"
    "Out," Bulmer said. He laid a hand at the side of Tiller's neck. "He's got a strong pulse."
    Even as Bulmer spoke, Tiller groaned and his eyes flickered open. "Did you see it?" Tiller asked.
    "The lightning that hit the ground?" Bulmer asked.
    Michael gazed silently at the football-size crater that had opened in the ground. He tried not to think about what would have happened to them if the bolt had struck them with all the water around.
    "Not that," Tiller said. "The ghost. My father's ghost."
    Bulmer shook his head. "That wasn't a ghost, Tiller. That was just lightning that came way too close."
    "No," Tiller argued. "I saw my father's ghost."
    Michael found the flashlight he'd been holding till the incredible force slammed