Read Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) for Free Online Page B

couldn’t. Damen knew if he
did, then he could never leave, never escape; he felt, inside his
soul, that once his father was awakened, he would never be able to
survive the escape.
    He walked across the hall, to his brother’s
room, and stood motionless by the doorway also. He said his
goodbyes in a low tone and began walking away from the door; that’s
when he made a creaking noise in the floor, by his steel-toed
boot’s pressing against it. Damen stopped for an instant. The noise
was loud and very drawnout. The darkened hallway gave Damen a sense
of fear, terror; he knew he’d made a loud noise, and if anyone woke
up, he wouldn’t know, only because his vision, his sight, was
obscured by the dark. Yet, he still turned around to see if he’d
woken up anyone, especially Greg.
    Damen saw Greg still in the bed and felt a
pure feeling of relief. So he left the doorway and walked down the
hallway. Suddenly, he heard a voice ask, “Where do you think you’re
going?”
    He stopped in his tracks and turned around in
slow motion; the darkness was the only one who saw his fear. His
fears of the voice coming from his father ran through his mind as
fast as the rain hit the roof of his house. Damen closed his eyes
when he faced the direction that the question came from; he didn’t
want to show his fear-filled eyes to the creature, the monster that
was going to stop him from going. Before he opened his eyes, he
replied, “I’m going to Sugar Valley.” Damen’s new tactic, of lying,
was the only other option. Maybe he could escape still, without
confronting the truth about his leaving.
    “At this time in the morning?” the voice
asked. Damen opened his eyes, very slowly, and saw Greg.
    “Oh ... it’s just you,” said Damen in a
relieved tone. A smile came on Greg’s face, but he didn’t know that
Damen was leaving for good. He just was happy that he’d scared the
living hell out of him.
    Greg always scared Damen, and always treated
him like an outcast to the family. The only thing that he was good
for was telling Damen to follow his dreams, and he didn’t even know
what dreams they were.
    “Where are you really going?”
    Damen looked across the hallway at his
parent’s room, and slowly, quietly asked, “You promise you won’t
tell Mom or Dad?”
    Greg followed Damen’s eyes to his parents’
room, and thought that he was acting very strange at this time in
the morning. So, he said in a sarcastic fashion, “I promise.” They
both started to walk down the stairs, while Greg still awaited a
reply.
    Damen reached the downstairs and walked into
the kitchen when he said, “Well ... I’m going to try to make my
ambition come true.”
    “Oh, really? Well, if Dad wakes up, he’s
gonna stop your ass from making anything come true,” Greg laughed.
“Come on, seriously, where you going at this time in the morning?”
Greg then opened up the refrigerator and grabbed a carton of milk;
the light from the fridge reflected off of Damen’s face, and Greg
turned around to stare at him, waiting for a reply still. Suddenly,
Greg saw seriousness in Damen’s eyes, a type of seriousness that
only could be shown through a person’s heart, but instead, it was
showing its presence through his eyes now.
    “I am serious, that’s where I’m going. I’m
going to California,” Damen replied.
    Greg felt that this moment was getting too
corny, too soap-opera-like, and tried to add some sarcasm to the
conversation, to strike down the seriousness, and mellow out the
words. “What, are you going to try to become a movie star or
something?” Greg asked in a joking manner, pouring himself some
milk in a small glass at the same moment. He didn’t want Damen to
say “yes,” but Greg’s joking came to a halt, ended, and stopped for
good when Damen opened his mouth; and his words were nothing but
words of importance.
    “Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m going to try
to do.” Greg looked at him in shock.
    Greg didn’t want his