Read Death's Awakening for Free Online

her fingers out across the spiked blades, willing
herself to concentrate on the feel of the earth beneath her body
instead of the boy beside her.
    His head turned toward
her, the scent of his soap fresh in the air. She didn’t dare
turn toward him. She wanted to run away. To never feel like this
again.
    But at the same time,
she wanted to be someone else. She wanted to be the kind of girl who
knew how to handle this.
    Noah’s hand
brushed against hers and she sucked in a shallow breath. She froze,
an unfamiliar warmth deep in her stomach. She was drawn to him. She
wanted to turn to him. She wanted to know what it would feel like if
he kissed her.
    “Parrish,”
he whispered.
    Her pulse racing out of
control, she swallowed and turned her head toward him. Just as their
eyes met, a loud groan sounded from the street.
    Noah jerked up and
Parrish scuttled backwards, fear rising up in her chest. The sound
scared the crap out of her. It was unnatural. Pained.
    Her eyes quickly
scanned the dark pockets of shadow in between the street lamps. From
between two houses on the right, a man emerged, limping toward them.
He groaned again and clutched his stomach.
    Noah stood and stepped
in front of her, arms out as if trying to protect her. “Who is
that?” he asked. “Do you recognize him?”’
    Scrambling to her feet,
Parrish peered around him and watched as the man moved closer. “No,”
she said. “I’ve never seen him before.”
    The injured man had
made it across the street, and just as he stepped on to Parrish’s
front lawn, he bent over and began to throw up.
    Parrish winced and
turned away. She would have paid not to see that. Her stomach turned
and she shuddered, but then she looked back at him again anyway,
curiosity getting the better of her. “Should we go check on
him?” she asked, taking a step forward.
    The man collapsed, then
his body began to convulse.
    Parrish’s eyes
grew wide with fear. She took a step toward the man, but Noah reached
out and locked his hand around her wrist.
    “Don’t,”
he said. His mouth was tense and his grip was firm. Serious. It
scared her. With his free hand, he pulled his cell phone from his
jeans. “I’m going to call an ambulance.”
    She shook her head and
looked back toward the man. “Shouldn’t we try to help
him?”
    Noah released her
wrist. “I don’t think you should go anywhere near him,”
he said. He glanced toward her house. “Go inside. Stay away
from anyone who looks sick.”
    The image of the woman
near the shrimp bowl flashed through Parrish’s mind. She
swallowed hard. “What’s going on?”
    Noah shook his head.
“I’m not sure, but—” His words broke off and
he put his mouth against his phone. “Yes, a man collapsed in
front of my house and I think he’s having some kind of
seizure.” He paused, then gave the address for Parrish’s
house.
    Parrish backed away,
but didn’t go inside. What the hell was going on?
    Noah’s dad was
some kind of doctor, right? Was something going around? She crossed
her arms in front of her chest and waited, but as soon as Noah hung
up the phone, he made another call.
    “Dad?”
    That was all she heard
before Noah sprinted toward the sick man. His body had stopped
convulsing, but she couldn’t tell if he was still breathing or
not. Fear pulsed through her like fire and she tapped her toes
impatiently on the grass.
    Soon, the wail of
sirens sounded in the distance.
    As the ambulance pulled
up, Zoe’s music stopped and the guests from the party poured on
to the front porch.
    “What’s
going on?” her father asked, coming up by her side.
    “I don’t
know,” she said. “This man, he just appeared out of
nowhere. He’s really sick.”
    Her father took off in
a sprint toward the man’s body, but Noah lifted his hand to her
dad’s chest and said something Parrish couldn’t make out.
Her father turned to look back at his guests, his face gone white as
a sheet. He nodded at whatever Noah was saying, then