Read The Sisters: A Mystery of Good and Evil, Horror and Suspense (Book One of the Dark Forces Series) for Free Online Page B

house is about a block and a half away from yours, between Jefferson Street and Howard. It’s also facing the shore. I inherited it from my aunt. She died this past fall.”
    “I’m sorry,” Sarah said.
    “Well, she lived to a very ripe old age and seemed to have no regrets. She went in her sleep at a rest home nearby―about the way I would choose to go, I guess.”
    Sarah did not reply right away. Nathan’s wine had come, along with the rolls, and George was hovering, waiting for the dinner order. She fished her menu out from under the rolls and ordered quickly, a Chicken Caesar Salad. Nathan also made his choice from the specials menu: Chicken Alfredo, with a side salad of spinach. He lifted his glass of Chardonnay and tinked Sarah’s upraised glass.  “To chance meetings,” he said, though he could not remember who in the world he was quoting. The line seemed appropriate, though, and he wanted the evening to go well. Sarah smiled at the toast and replied, “To chance meetings,” and took a longer sip this time.
    The talk turned in many different directions that night and later each wondered at the ease of the conversation―the seemingly effortless way in which two people brought together in a small seaboard town on a wintry night could talk―about themselves, about their friends, their work, their beliefs in everything from politics to religion and everything in between, finding so much in common that it later stunned them both.
    At the time, however, the conversation just seemed wonderful, and a happy coincidence that each should be so instantly interested in the other.
    Dinner came, accompanied by more wine, and the unceasing flow of dinner talk went on. In fact, long after dessert had come and gone, Nathan and Sarah still sat completely and totally involved with each other. George was cleaning up after the other diners, the last of whom was departing, when Nathan finally broke his attention away from Sarah long enough to notice they were the only ones still in the restaurant and that the time was well past 9 p.m. He could hear the wind whistling outside and he had no doubt they were in for a long walk if they could not find a cab. He motioned to George, and asked for the check. Sarah protested and reached for her pocketbook, but Nathan insisted and said truthfully that he had not enjoyed dinner so much in a very long time. Sarah, now flush with wine again (and, she thought, after promising herself only last night to cut back) did not protest long. The matter was therefore quickly settled and a cab was called.
    George reappeared with the check, which Nathan promptly paid, including a generous tip, and they headed for the door. “Your cab should be here any minute,” the waiter said. And even as he spoke, the door blew open and a stout, short man of indeterminate racial heritage stood there, asking who had ordered a cab.
    “That would be us,” said Nathan and, taking Sarah by the arm, they trudged out into the storm.
     
     

Chapter 4
    They tried later to understand why Nathan had not gone inside Sarah’s house when she invited him. The snow was howling and it seemed ludicrous for him to go off to his own big silent house. Surely this structure was more than enough for the two of them, particularly on a night like this. But the moment was an awkward one, and ended only with a warm embrace and a smile from Nathan, who turned abruptly and fought the wind and driving volleys of snow back to the waiting cab.
    Sarah raised a hand tentatively in a parting wave before going inside, but she could barely see Nathan get into the cab, and so she entered the empty hallway and closed the door behind her. The brass lock tumblers fell into place with greased precision when she turned the knob and she imagined uncomfortably for some reason that she was now locked in just as well as others were locked out.
    Nathan paid the cab driver and began pushing his way through mounting snow drifts toward his front door. The