Read The Dark for Free Online Page A

me awake at night sometimes. Like tonight, when I’m finding it hard to slow down, it takes a greater effort to control the gift.
    While at the window I take a deep breath, drawing in some of the cool breeze that’s blowing. It’s then I notice a silver flash over the mountain. It creeps me out. I shut my window and hop back into bed, hoping that strange bright flash is not the beginning of another eerie storm.
    This time when I close my eyes my mind drifts towards sleep. I sigh deeply, relaxing further, and at last my body is succumbing to the peaceful state needed to make the transition. I lie in this drowsy state of half-sleep, half-wakefulness for a few moments, when images start to form inside my head, and I wonder what’s going on. Am I dreaming?
    I see a beautiful lake with a family of ducks wading in the shallows, surrounded by water lilies. There’s a wooden deck jutting part way into this lake, with a boat moored to a pole by a looped rope. It’s small and painted red with blue writing on its side. A woman is sitting on the deck to the right of this boat, her legsdangling in the water, shoulders hunched forward. Her hands are folded over each other in her lap. She’s looking down at her hands as if she’s holding something precious there. Even though I can’t see myself in this dream, I sense that I’m walking on the deck towards this woman, every step taking me nearer to knowing her identity and discovering the secret she is guarding in her palms.
    The dream intensifies. I can hear the click-clack sounds my shoes make as they strike the boards beneath my feet. For a second I think the woman hears me too. She looks to her left, but remains silent. It’s enough time for me to recognise her though. She’s Laura Roberts, Ethan’s mother.
    ‘Mrs Roberts?’ I ask in my dream.
    She doesn’t respond, just appears to look through me.
    ‘Laura? What are you doing?’ I peer over her shoulder. ‘What have you got there?’
    I see her hands clearly, and the sight of that much blood has me gasping and stepping backwards. My own hands come up to cover my mouth as I take a closer look. Trying not to retch at the sight, I study her carefully. She is bleeding from vertical slits to her arms that stretch from her wrists to half way towards her elbows. Blood has soaked through her skirt, through the timber decking, to the water below. A long-bladed knife slips through her weakening fingers to splash softly into the lake.
    I try to scream, but find myself sitting up in my dark bedroom, the dream very much still with me. I shake my head to rid myself of the image, but it doesn’t disappear. It’s as if there is more to this dream that I mustsee. Gathering my thoughts, I try to reach out to Laura, but some invisible force holds me back, as if my role is to watch and not interfere. Shocked, and unable to get rid of the image of Laura Roberts attempting to kill herself, I scream out.
    My scream brings Matt, with my mother behind him, bursting through my bedroom door.
    ‘What’s going on?’ Mum pushes past Matt in her hurry to get to me. ‘Did you have a nightmare?’
    Matt comes over to the other side of my bed and switches on my bedside lamp. The room fills with light that hurts my eyes. I squint and try to cover them; that dream still causing my heart to pound like a horse at full pelt.
    Mum pushes the hair off my forehead with tender stroking fingers. ‘Are you OK?’
    ‘She’s all right, Mum,’ Matt says. ‘I’ll look after her.’
    Mum looks at me and I try to reassure her. ‘He’s right. There’s nothing to worry about. It was just a dream. You can go back to bed. Really.’
    She hesitates. ‘Are you sure, darling? Can I make you a warm cocoa first?’
    I force a smile to my face. ‘No, I’m fine, really. I don’t need anything.’
    She finally relents. ‘All right, but if you want to talk you know I’m just across the hallway.’
    ‘I’ll call out if I need you, but Mum, I’m