Read Alone for Free Online Page A

existing—of being alive—sent him into a fugue state of depression unlike anything he had ever known.  
    However little time had passed, it was enough. Eventually, the silence and monotony became unbearable, overshadowing even his fears of the shadow-being lurking outside. Dan convinced himself that the only way to end this nightmare was to embrace it. He tried to work up the nerve to walk outside and confront the entity head on.
    “But what if I’m not dreaming?” he muttered. “What if that thing is real? What if I’m the only one left?”
    He was still mulling this over when he heard a voice outside. It was a female voice, soft and faint, but noticeable simply because it was the only voice, other than his own, that he’d heard since Danielle’s ghost ... or vision ... or whatever she’d been, had appeared to him.
    “Hello,” the voice called. “Is there anybody here?”
    Dan bolted out of the chair, consumed with two thoughts. The first was that he recognized the voice. He was certain it belonged to Maria Lopez, the girl from next door. The second, more urgent thought was that Maria was in danger. If the shadow heard her calling, and got to her before he did ...
    ... well, Dan still didn’t know exactly what would happen, or what the entity’s intentions were. But they certainly weren’t good. How else to explain the terror that consumed him each time he encountered the thing?
    “Hello?” Maria sounded closer to the house now. “What happens next? Is this it?”
    Dan ran through the house and out the front door, sliding to a halt when he spotted Maria standing on the border of his yard and her parent’s property. He stood there gaping, his robe hanging open, dimly aware of how he must look. Maria caught sight of him at the same time, and gasped. Her eyes went wide, and one pale hand fluttered to her mouth in surprise. That was when Dan noticed that something was wrong.  
    Two things, actually.
    The first thing he noticed was that despite her normally dark complexion, Maria’s arm was pale. The second thing he saw was that blood had streamed down her forearm, all the way to her elbow. The gray, false-light from the fog made the sight look even more garish than it already was. There was a cut in Maria’s wrist, running from just beneath her palm to several inches down the underside of her forearm.
    If you’re going to do it right, Dan thought, cut down, rather than across. Isn’t that what they always used to say?  
    He opened his mouth to speak, but all that came out was a sigh.
    Maria said, “Holy shit!”
    “Maria,” Dan said. “Where did you come from? You’re hurt!”
    “Where did I come from? Shouldn’t I be asking you that, Mr. Miller?”
    He ignored her strange response, his attention focused instead on her obviously self-inflicted wounds. He’d known the girl suffered from depression. Most of the neighbors knew, in fact. And she had supposedly threatened suicide a few times. But to be confronted with this serious attempt, was altogether unnerving. For a brief moment, Dan forgot all about his predicament, and his missing loved ones.
    “You’re hurt,” he repeated. “Jesus Christ, Maria. We’ve got to get you some help!”
    Laughing, she took a step backward. “It’s a little late for that, don’t you think?”
    Dan noticed that the blood on her arm was dry. Instead of dripping, it had crusted like mud in the sun. When the girl took another step back, he saw that she’d cut both wrists.
    “Maria,” he said softly, “what have you done?”
    Instead of answering him, she glanced around the neighborhood and into the fog. “I don’t get it. I thought there would be more than this. And I certainly didn’t expect to see you here, Mr. Miller. I figured you were long gone.”
    “N-no,” Dan stammered. “I’ve been here the whole time. I thought I was alone. I checked your house before. Nobody was home. Where are your parents? Have you seen anyone else? Have you seen Jerry