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

two years to waste me?
    Marianna grabbed a
stick of bubble gum from her purse. She leaned against the wall,
chuckling to herself at the entertainment that Bianca was providing.
    "You know Ricky
doesn't love you, don't you? He's still gonna come to me when
he gets horny. He's horny as a devil. He doesn't like his
girlfriends skinny and wimpy like you. Doesn't like them so
mealy-mouthed and weepy."
    Bianca had only gone
out on a first date with Rick because Doc had told her to. What Rick
really thought was the farthest thing from Bianca's mind as she
scribbled I AM A COWARD with the lipstick tube.
    "You're a rich
girl, Bianca. The Shipleys are going to give you that big, fat trust
fund. Ricky likes a woman with lots of cold cash. Looks like you and
I are going to share Ricky."
    Marianna stuffed more
bubble gum into her mouth. She leaned into Bianca's face and blew a
bubble until it popped on Bianca's nose. "You hand over the
money. I'll dish out the sex."
    Marianna stomped her
foot and laughed so loudly that Bianca felt her eardrums would burst.
Bianca tore off toward the door. She didn't look back as she raced
across the empty lobby. She flung open the doors to the theater and
plunged headfirst into the darkness. In a panic she forgot where Rick
was sitting.
    "Oh, ex-excuse me!"
She bumped into everybody.
    "Hey, girl, you
blind or something? Watch where you're going!" kids hissed at
her.
    She spilled
somebody's Coke.
    "Oh, I'm sorry!"
    "Clumsy bitch!"
    She knocked into
somebody's elbow. She spilled his popcorn.
    "I didn't mean
it!"
    She sat down on the
wrong guy's lap.
    "Get off my
boyfriend!" A girl gave Bianca a shove on the behind.
    Bianca blundered
around in a nightmare, looking for a blond shock of hair. She spotted
a guy with his elbow sticking way out into the aisle, draped over
what used to be her seat. He was dropping popcorn all over the floor
while he stuffed it into his mouth.
    Bianca tapped Rick on
the shoulder. She stooped down low and hissed into his ear. "You
have to take me home." She was aware of the two off-duty policemen
sitting not far away. But she didn't dare to say anything to them.
    "Are you crazy?"
Rick gawked at Bianca. "I've got to see how many more people this
maniac lady can kill in the rest of the movie. She's going ape. Ten
bodies in the last five minutes!"
    His eyes shone with
glee as if he couldn't get enough of this murder and mayhem.
    Bianca had never
dreamed that Rick would turn her down flat. After all, wasn't he
supposed to be her date?
    Bianca couldn't
just stand here in the aisle and clasp and unclasp her hands. The
Black Widow, who had killed her lover eons ago, was shooting more
people. It looked like a massacre. It turned her stomach.
    "Hey, sit down,
girl! You're in my way!" Kids started to complain about Bianca.
    On this humid night
Bianca could smell the damp, moldy odor of the old building that
hadn't been cleaned lately. That combined with the stink of old
beer. Somebody must have sneaked it in. It added to the smell of
spilled Coke several days old, along with the scent of stale popcorn,
and the stench of hundreds of kids sweating into their shirts with
all the suspense. Bianca's head spun around.
    She fought back the
urge to rush out of the building. Doc had told her to avoid what he
called "panicked flight". It would undo all the good she had done
herself by finding a date and coming here in the first place.
    "Listen, Rick,"
Bianca held on to her last shred of reason, "I'm sorry. I — I
can't stay here one more minute."
    All the kids in the
theater turned around in their seats and hissed "Sh-h-h-h!" at
Bianca. Their eyes glowed red. They didn't look like people any
more. They had hideously distorted faces and bloodthirsty expressions
like a bunch of murderers.
    She darted her gaze
over to where Doc was still sitting with the gorgeous nurse with sexy
legs. He'd always told Bianca to come to him to talk things over
when she grew desperate. But she didn't know if she could make