Read The Dead Game for Free Online Page A

the aisles.
    “Hi!” chirped Linda, trying to sound cheerful. “Sorry to have missed both of you at church on Sunday. I’d been loaded down with tourists. Are you and David coming to the party on Friday night?”
    “Of course we are! I wouldn’t miss it for anything. Finally, something exciting is about to happen in this boring town,” Mike enthused.
    “How do you know that this will be a good happening, and not one harmful to someone’s health?”
    “Don’t worry; everything will be just fine; even David is looking forward to it. A bunch of us are going; we’ll watch out for each other.”
    She knew that David was definitely not looking forward to the party, so why did Mike claim that he was? Out loud she curiously asked, “Did you know that Shirley and Hank are in their seventies? And they aren’t invited to the party.”
    “Who really cares how old they are? You worry too much about silly things. We’ll go to the party and have fun. No one will end up falling off the cliff into the ocean,” joked Mike.
    Annoyed with his weird sense of humor, she said goodbye and left the store. Mike could be a jerk sometimes—and he wasn’t too funny, either.
     
    As Linda crossed the street she reflected on how pretty the town was with its quaint multi-colored buildings; its picturesque park with flower-trimmed gazebo; and the pretty church with its tall bell tower and sparkling white color. She wondered again at the disparity in town from day to night. The town appeared beautiful during the day, but sinister and full of shadows after the sun set for the evening.
    She entered Minnie & Frank’s Grocery Store, which shared a bright red-and-white awning with the sheriff’s office next door. The grocery had two large corner windows with dark-green shading. She had never understood why each store had some kind of green tinting on its windows. Some stores had deeper tints than others: the grocery store, Hank’s auto shop, and Shirley’s store were more heavily tinted than the other stores along Main Street.
    Frank was working the register, while his wife, Minnie, was trying to soothe their crying baby. The playpen was set up in the center of the store—right in the middle of the long aisles of food where customers browsed while having loud conversations. Watching the baby scream and wail at the top of her lungs, Linda couldn’t understand why the playpen hadn’t been placed farther back in the store, where it was much quieter.
    Linda hesitantly walked up to Frank. “Did you receive an invitation to the party at End House?”
    Glancing back at Minnie, he replied, “No—we heard about it, but we aren’t invited.”
    Minnie added, “We have a baby anyway and it’s hard to go out at night.”
    “Of course,” Linda replied. “How silly of me! I should have realized that you wouldn’t be able to go.”
    Minnie moved closer and whispered, “Be careful….Don’t trust everything that you see.”
    Linda couldn’t answer because Frank was monitoring them very closely, casting warning looks at Minnie. She almost ran out of the store. They were strange, and she never did like the sound of their baby’s high-pitched cry.
    Unnerved because she hadn’t seen Shana all day, she dismissed Patty, locked up for the day, and walked around the corner to Shana’s mystical store. She opened the front door, causing the pretty bells to tinkle merrily, and called out for Shana, but there was no answer. She looked around the cheerful store with its large collection of perfumes and bottles. There was always incense burning and soft music playing. Shana’s store calmed her whenever she was stressed out.  Like today , she thought.
    She passed through the colorful rows of beads hanging from the doorway to the back room, and entered a room so dark that she had to squint in order to make out Shana’s still form sitting slumped over a table with cards strewn all across its shiny surface.
    “Shana! What’s wrong?” exclaimed Linda,