The Unseen

The Unseen Read Free

Book: The Unseen Read Free
Author: Hines
Tags: Ebook, book
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were whipped into silence by angry and sadistic nuns wielding leather strops. No nuns at all in his orphanage; in fact, Lucas hadn’t even seen a nun until he left the confines of the orphanage at age eighteen.
    Still, even his most vivid memories of the orphanage were painted in broad strokes. He hadn’t formed any close friendships with anyone there, couldn’t even really say the names of any other kids, now that he thought about it. He saw their faces in his memories, of course, but that’s all they were: faces. Even the teachers and staff were little more than that.
    Instead, he remembered the roof. From his room, shared with so many other children, he had a clear view of the window. And through that window, when he ventured to it, he saw a far-off land of light and magic. He would find out later that those lights were the Metro DC area, but in his six-year-old mind, they were simply a promise. A promise of something he didn’t fully understand but wanted to find.
    He spent many hours in the dead of night admiring the far-off lights, imagining himself in that mystical place. Later, when he was older, he would open the window, crawl through its narrow space to the asphalt-shingled roof, and lie on his back staring at the lights, reaching out now and then and imagining himself grasping those lights in his hands.
    That’s what had started his creeping. Staying outside on the roof for a few hours invariably led to searches by the staff, and Lucas would catch glimpses of them inside the house, looking for him. After watching them for a while, he would pick a time to climb back through the window, wander down the hallway with the wood-slat flooring, and innocently ask, “Were you looking for me?”
    Why the other kids never said anything, he did not know. Maybe it was the bond of a shared secret. But it continued for several years, without his increasingly longer sojourns being discovered.
    This, he knew, is what had awakened the Dark Vibration inside. And for the many years since, he had been feeding that Dark Vibration.
    (Humpty Dumpty had some great falls.)
    These words weren’t a totem that transported him to his Happy Place. They were cruel reminders that he had no Happy Place.
    He slammed a hand against Noel’s desktop, jarring the framed photo out of its place a fraction of an inch. He bit his tongue, kept his eyes tightly closed, blocked the uninvited words from his mind.
    (Humpty Dumpty had some)
    (Humpty Dumpty had)
    (Humpty Dumpty)
    When he opened his eyes again, he was in control. The door to uninvited whispers of his past had been shut, and he was firmly in the present. Here in Noel’s cubicle.
    To watch Noel, to see her at work, he would have to build an observation deck. And in the open like this, there was really only one place to do it.
    He looked above him at the acoustic tiles of the ceiling, calculating what he would need to do. Then he moved. Even though he’d spent several hours today lying motionless on top of the elevator car, when Lucas decided to move, it was smooth. Effortless. Liquid.
    He boosted himself up onto Noel’s desk, reached overhead, and pushed one of the ceiling tiles out of the way. He smiled at what he saw. Just as he’d hoped, the poured concrete floor of the next story was hidden a few feet above the tile.
    More than enough room.
    He unshouldered the dusty blue nylon backpack—his constant companion—and unzipped the main compartment. Inside were all his tools of the trade: a flashlight, a utility knife, some climbing rope, a few sets of webbed rigging he’d built himself, and several other items. He selected a small hand drill and set down the pack for a moment. He tested the divider between Noel’s space and the adjoining cubicle, then stepped on the thin edge and balanced himself there effortlessly. His head was now in the space left by the removed tile, and he held up the hand drill just in front of his face as

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