Read The Dark: A Collection (Point Horror) for Free Online Page A

dinosaurs roamed the earth and you weren't so
famous."
    Marianna looked like
an Amazon with huge, powerful shoulders. She threw Bianca up against
the wall.
    "Give me your
autograph. I won't budge without one."
    "I — I don't
have any paper!" Bianca pleaded. At least Doc wasn't here to see
her grovel.
    "We'll use the
toilet paper." Marianna reached into an empty stall and yanked a
big handful off the roll. "After all, that's where I met the big
heroine of my life. That's how I'll always remember you, cringing
on top of the toilet seat with your legs up. You were shaking like a
cat cornered by a mutt!"
    Marianna threw her
head back and screeched. She held her belly, rocking back and forth
with laughter. Then she lunged forward and thrust the toilet paper at
Bianca.
    "Sign!"
    Marianna was leaning
so close to Bianca that the paper was in her face. Marianna breathed
down her neck, her breath hot on Bianca's skin. It couldn't get
any hotter if Marianna had turned into a fire-breathing dragon.
    "I — I don't
have anything to sign with." Bianca wriggled her way around
Marianna's huge frame.
    Bianca thought, If I
can only get out the door! She remembered that feeling of desperation
from two years ago. Her body shook.
    "We can't let a
little thing like that stop you, can we?" Marianna gushed in her
deep, Georgia accent.
    Marianna rummaged
through her denim handbag. She reached into the various pockets,
retrieved a tube of lipstick, and waved it in Bianca's face.
    "This is the Honey
Cinnamon and Spice flavor I wore when Ricky kissed me the last time.
It tastes so good he couldn't get enough." Marianna tried to
smear it on Bianca's lips.
    Bianca jerked away.
    "It's only
fitting I give this lipstick to Ricky's new girlfriend, who won him
fair and square, on account of the fact that she's so rich and
famous. I warn you, though, sometimes my lips are bruised for days
afterwards.''
    "I — I don't
want to wear your lipstick." Bianca forced herself around Marianna.
    Marianna's female
football player frame towered over thin, petite Bianca. Marianna
blocked her way to the door. Her big chest heaved up and down with
mirth, making her breasts shake.
    Marianna grabbed
Bianca's hand. She forced the lipstick tube into it by prying
Bianca's fingers out of fist formation one by one. Then she pressed
Bianca's fingers around it.
    "I want a nice
autograph I can show to my grandchildren and claim I knew the famous
Miss Bianca Winters." Marianna eyed her wickedly.
    Bianca tried to write
her name on the wad of toilet paper. She kept on ripping the thin,
flimsy stuff.
    "I — I can't do
it."
    Marianna threw the
toilet paper into the trash can.
    "Write your
autograph real big so everybody can see it!" Marianna pointed to
the glass mirror on the wall behind the sinks. "All I have to do is
pull Ricky in here. He'll be real impressed with his brave, new
girlfriend." Marianna's voice dripped with sarcasm. "He'll
want all his buddies to see it."
    Bianca could imagine
the kids in the school laughing at her. Doc would shake his head.
"You mean after all the time we've spent together, Bianca, you
couldn't think of a more clever way to defend yourself."
    Bianca dashed for the
door.
    Marianna tackled her.
She pried Bianca's hand away from the door handle and hurled Bianca
against the mirror. Bianca's shoulder hit the glass. It cracked.
    Marianna's violet
eyes were blazing. "You aren't leaving this ladies' lounge
until you write I AM A BIG COWARD and sign it BIANCA WINTERS in red
lipstick. Because that's what you are — a total coward."
    Marianna did a
demonstration. She wrote the letters as big as she could on the
mirror. There could be no mistaking what she wanted.
    Tears of panic and
terror, humiliation and shame, rolled down Bianca's cheeks. She
turned to the mirror and did what Marianna demanded.
    Bianca thought, Is
she going to spring on me and shoot me when I'm done? Is this just
my final humiliation, my epitaph? Is she the killer who's been
waiting around for