Read Experiment in Terror 06 Into the Hollow for Free Online Page A

put-out. He looked up at the ceiling and the spaces around our heads without really looking at us. “If you would just give me some more time with them, they’ll back off.”
    Dex and I exchanged a glance out of the corner of our eyes.
    “Are you talking to us?” I asked Maximus.
    “Max, who is it?” my mother’s voice rang out.
    “Fuck,” I swore under my breath. I think a part of me thought I could get moved out of there without anyone noticing and I could just leave them a note or something. It felt an awful like I was running away from home and, you know what, I was OK with that. 
    “Perry, what-” she said then stopped dead as she saw Dex. Her face went from impassive Swede to full-on IKEA rage. “What the hell is he doing here?”
    Impulsively, I grabbed Dex’s arm and said, “Mom, we need to tell you something.”
    “We?” she questioned, her voice turning up into an ugly sneer. She marched toward us and suddenly I was afraid of her throwing a punch at him. I had deliberately picked 2pm knowing that my dad wouldn’t be back from his classes until at least 4pm but maybe my mom had always been an equal threat in the abuse department.
    “Mrs. Palomino, it’s all right,” Maximus said, putting his arm out to catch her. She shrugged away from his grasp and continued until she was straight up in Dex’s face.
    “You get the fuck out of this house and stay the hell away from my daughter.”
    My jaw nearly plummeted to the ground. I had almost never heard my mother swear before and on top of that, she was acting like she actually gave a shit about me.
    Dex managed a small smile and without faltering said, “I’m afraid that’s impossible Mrs. Palomino. I’m here for your daughter. I’m going to be doing the opposite of staying away from her. She’s moving in with me. She’s coming to Seattle.”
    My mom cackled like a witch, her face fighting between belief and disbelief. “You really think I would believe that?”
    She looked at me with incredulous eyes. “Why is he here, Perry? Did you invite him?”
    I looked at Dex who was keeping his eye on my mom and then I turned to Maximus. He gave me a sympathetic smile and I knew I had no choice but to bite the bullet.
    I met her blue-eyed gaze with what little reserves of strength I had left. “Dex is telling the truth. I…I don’t think I should live here anymore. I think it’s time for me to move out.”
    She blinked at me a few times, her brain trying to fight the sincerity she heard in my voice. “But…pumpkin. That’s OK. We can work through this. Just don’t move in with him.”
    “I can’t wait. There is nothing to work out. I need…I want to get out of here. Now. I’m going with him. I love you but it’s time for me to go.”
    Her face fell into quiet lines. A flash of bitterness swept across her brow.
    “You don’t know anything about love,” she said in a low voice, her accent heavy.
    I hadn’t prepared for that remark. That stung. That felt like a blow to the chest and a kick to the guts and I tried oh so hard to not let that all show up on my face. There were so many things I could launch into if I had the chance, but this wasn’t that argument.
    “I’m sorry,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. I noticed Dex had inched closer to me until his hard arm was flush against my shoulder. “I’ve made my choice.”
    I tried to brush past her and go for the stairs but to my utter surprise, she pushed at my collarbones until I stumbled back a foot or two.
    I felt Dex’s hands grab my arms and hold me with a vice-like grip while my mother came up to me, her once pretty face now boiling red with anger, her eyes sparking like a defensive animal.
    “You’d choose to go with him over your own family?” she sneered. “You’d give us all up over a man? A good for nothing man who left you pregnant and on your own with only your family to look after you!”
    Earlier, I had started to think that Dex was breaking some new