Read The Portal ~ Large Print for Free Online

on.
    “Keep your feet off of the floor,” she said to Cody, just in case. He scrunched up his knees.
    After dabbing blood from the wound, she grabbed one of the bleached towels and taped it to Jay-Jay’s chest. When finished, she covered him with the rest of them.
    “What’s going on?” Anthony returned with his arms folded. “Is he going to live?”
    Jay-Jay’s breathing seemed strong considering. And he was young. All of this played in his favor. Still, she couldn’t take her eyes from the trail of blood that led from the front door.
    “Phil really needs to hurry,” she said. “Was there a phone in the office?”
    “There’s no dial tone.”
    She sat in a chair next to the fire, her hands sticky with blood. With her sleeve, she wiped her forehead. All they could do now was wait. When Phil arrived, the two boys could take Jay-Jay to the hospital, and she would split off with Cody.
    Hold on—
    “Where’s Cody?” she asked. Anthony looked around. Sharp objects filled every inch of the garage. And that hand could be anywhere.
    “Baby.” She raced behind some type of drill press. “Where are you?”
    A faint giggle somewhere in the distance.
    “Cody,” Anthony shouted.
    “Shhh.” She waved at him. “Don’t move.”
    He stopped, leaving only sound of rain. Something scraped above them.
    “Where are the stairs?” she asked.
    “You have to walk behind the pickup to see them.”
    “Stay with Jay-Jay,” she said. “I’ll get him.”
    She felt her way to the stairs in near darkness and raced up. At the top, a suspended catwalk led to a doorway. Light crept underneath.
    Cody said something, but she couldn’t make out the words. She ran down the hall and shoved the door open. Her stomach dropped. He sat alone on his knees, rocking back and forth in front of a desk. In his left hand, he held the razor blade that she’d used to cut Jay-Jay’s shirt. His eyes were open, but they had rolled back to show only white.
    “No.” He held up the knife, and said to the wall. “I won’t do that again.”
    The lamp on the desk buzzed brighter. She could have sworn it was hotter, too. Shadows moved across the walls, until the light popped into complete darkness.



CHAPTER 8
    V ivian didn’t dare breathe. With the blade in Cody’s hand, she couldn’t move to him. What if she tripped? She couldn’t shake the image of her baby bleeding in her arms. Through the only window, electricity cracked the sky. Briefly, the light showed Cody’s position. She raced over and pulled the knife from his hand.
    “Cody,” she whispered in his ear. “It’s okay. Mommy’s here.”
    “No.” He pulled away. The darkness returned. “I don’t want to do it.”
    “Baby, we have to go.”
    Outside, more veins of lightning branched dangerously close to the metal warehouse. With his eyes rolled back, he reached for the window. Again darkness.
    “Killing twelve early this morning,” a thin voice called out.
    Just feet away, a radio had turned on. It dialed through the stations. Celine Dion melded into La Bamba, until only a gentle shushing sounded. Whispers came through the static first. Then children’s voices, dozens of them, chanting and giggling.
    “Screw this.” She picked up Cody.
    The voices from the radio grew angry, hissing against her eardrum.
    “Ring a ring a roses,” Cody said. Neither his voice nor his rigid body possessed the playground innocence of the rhyme. “Pocket full of posies. Ashes. Ashes.”
    Trailing one hand on the wall for guidance, she found the door and raced down the catwalk.
    “We all fall down,” he said.
    “Everything’s going to be okay.” Carefully, she descended the stairs into the dim light of the trash can fire.
    “We all fall down,” he repeated between frantic breaths. She choked back her tears when she saw that his eyes were still white.
    “You found him,” Anthony said as she ran up. He was sitting on a chair next to Jay-Jay.
    “We need to get out of here,” she