A Place So Wicked Patrick Reuman (children's ebooks free online TXT) 📖

A muffled groan issued from the other side. She took that as a greeting and pushed the door open. Trevor was laying there, the blanket up to his neck, staring across the room at the wall. But his eyes were blank like he wasn’t actually looking at the wall, but instead, just looking into nothingness.

She sat down beside him. The bed sank just a little with her weight. She placed her hand on him and patted softly.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” he mumbled. “I’m fine.”

He looked…grey. She just stared at him for a moment, wondering what to say or do. She didn’t like seeing him this way. He wasn’t coughing or sneezing, which should have been a good thing, except then what else was making him sick? If he was sick, like sick-sick, then he would be coughing or something like that.

“What’s—what’s wrong?” she asked. “Please tell me, Trev.”

“I just…feel horrible,” he said, just barely over a whisper. “Like…every inch of me is sick. I feel tired, and exhausted, and just…crappy.”

“How is your stomach?” she asked.

“My stomach, my head, my arms, my legs, my feet, everything hurts.” He looked up at Paisley, seeing the concern in her eyes. “But I think I’m starting to feel a little bit better. I probably just need a little more rest.”

Paisley wasn’t buying it. What he had been doing, which was lying in bed, clearly wasn’t working. She wanted to grab his arm and force him outside, away from here, out into some fresh air. She knew that didn’t pass as a medical treatment, but she just wanted to do something. She wanted to help. She felt a tear building up in the creases of her eyes and rubbed them away with the base of her hand.

“I don’t suppose you want to take a walk with me,” she whispered, now as quiet as he had been. “Maybe it would be good for you.”

He pulled the blanket even further up and mumbled, “No,” before rolling over to face the other wall.

“Well, let me know as soon as you feel up to it and we’ll go do something,” she said, even though she didn’t think he was paying much attention anymore.

She stood and exited the room, closing the door softly behind her. In the hall, she froze a moment, staring at the door across from her, the one that led to the attic, her mind recalling the sound she heard the night before. Toby hadn’t answered them when they asked how long he had been up there—not really. Maybe it was him going up there last night that she heard. The thought seemed logical enough and comforted her just a little.

She just needed to clear her head. She used to take walks in her old town, often with the company of one of her friends. She hadn’t settled in enough here to get around to things like that. But it was exactly what she needed right then. Even as she walked down the stairs, heading toward the front door, she imagined the cool breeze running through her hair, tossing it around, and the calming sound of it wisping by.

She closed the door quietly, not really wanting anybody to bother her or ask her where she was going. She wasn’t even sure yet where she headed or where she would end up. Hell, she hadn’t even been past their road yet.

Her first decision was right or left. She looked both ways, the breeze she so awaited already grazing her skin. Left was the direction they had come from when arriving in town, so she figured the right would have more to see.

All the houses on her road seemed so quiet and lifeless. Nobody was outside, no kids playing in yards, or even cars in driveways. But it was early in the day still so maybe everybody was still at work. That didn’t account for the lack of kids, though. It was a beautiful day outside. She couldn’t imagine kids voluntarily staying inside.

A car passed by ahead, eclipsing the mouth of the road as it zipped by. It was a refreshing change from the ghost town she felt like she was walking through. Immediately, just up the road a way, on the other side of the street, she saw two kids playing in a front yard behind a short metal fence. The ends of her lips crooked up in a smile. The two looked almost the same size, maybe even the same age, reminding her of her and her twin brother.

She continued mostly in a straight line, not wanting to make turns, getting herself lost, especially since she hadn’t told anybody where she was going. That was, until she saw a playground just down the road on a street that extended off from the other side of the road she was currently on. With a quick glance in both directions, she darted across the street. The park lay at the base of a large field. Off in the distance, she saw the signs of a long-forgotten baseball field, the lines where the runners would sprint from one base to the next, mostly covered in overgrown grass. Only because of the light reflecting slightly off the old rubber, she could see one of the bases, the home base, she thought, at the far end of the diamond.

Unlike the relatively lively road she had just split off from, this one, unfortunately, looked rather deserted. She saw a faded, maroon merry-go-round at the nearest end of the playground. Not far from it was a seesaw with one end of it up high, the other touching the ground. She wondered again where all the kids were. The place was entirely deserted. It was saddening.

She heard a light screech, that of metal rubbing against metal. It pulled her attention to the opposite end of the playground where