Free The Orphan by Christopher Ransom Page B

description of those texts, the boy’s laughter at the end. She said she felt watched, like someone was here. But you checked the alarm yourself and there were no texts on her phone. Why would a boy break into our house, and what else could it be if not her imagination getting the better of her?’
    ‘It was four in the morning,’ Darren said. ‘Maybe she had a nightmare.’ But he didn’t sound like he believed that anymore than she did.
    ‘I asked her. She wasn’t sleeping. She was up texting Chad.’
    ‘Like I said. A nightmare.’
    ‘Oh, stop. He’s a good kid. And more importantly, she’s a good kid. She knows how to take care of herself.’
    ‘Good. Glad you have that under control. I’ll know who to come to when he gets drunk and cheats on her.’
    Beth set down her coffee. ‘Is that what’s bothering you? Chad? Somehow I don’t think Chad is responsible for your insomnia, or that bandage on your hand.’
    Darren shot her a look of warning.
    She shot him one right back. ‘You think I didn’t notice? At least twice last week. It used to be an hour or two. Now it’s all night. I don’t always hear you get up, but I always know when you come back.’
    Darren sipped his coffee, winced.
    ‘You were out there until seven in the morning, Darren. What time did you leave? Tell me the truth.’
    ‘A little after one.’
    ‘Six hours,’ Beth said. ‘Are you avoiding me?’
    ‘No, Beth, that’s not —’
    ‘Are we girls driving you batty around the house? You’ve been running a company for the past fifteen years, now all the sudden you’re stuck with us. You can tell me. If that’s the case, I get it, I just want us to be honest here.’
    He was shaking his head. He looked at her warmly. ‘Honey, the fact that I’ve even given you reason to ask that makes me feel horrible. I love spending time with both of you. You can’t even begin to understand how much I missed the two of you all those late nights, the weekends on business trips. I’m not avoiding you, okay? I promise you that.’
    She believed him. ‘Then what is it?’
    ‘It sounds so stupid, but…’
    ‘It’s not.’
    ‘The nightmares,’ he said with a sigh. ‘They’re worse than ever.’
    ‘Is it still the same version? The fire?’
    When he looked at her, she almost didn’t recognize his expression, it was such a rare one for him. He was genuinely scared.
    ‘Oh, honey. Hey. You’re really rattled by this thing. Okay, let’s talk about it.’
    ‘Here we go,’ he said.
    ‘Is it the dream itself or the number of them that’s spooking you?’
    ‘Both, I guess. It’s the same as before. I’m trapped, I smell smoke, I can hear the flames coming closer. I don’t know if it’s this house but it’s our house. There’s just this roar all around, everything’s burning, and I always know when I’m struggling, near the end, that’s it’s too late.’
    ‘You’re going to die in the fire? Is that —’
    ‘No. Too late for you and Raya. It’s already gotten both of you. I can hear you screaming, dying like something in a gas chamber.’
    ‘God, that’s really awful.’
    ‘What’s worse is, it doesn’t feel like a dream,’ Darren said.
    ‘They never do when you’re in them.’
    ‘No, this is different. When I wake up and realize it’s not real, I’m still convinced it is, or it’s going to be. Almost like I can feel it coming. I realize it sounds crazy, but I believe it’s going to happen. I really do.’
    ‘Listen to me,’ she said. ‘It’s not going to happen. You checked all the fire alarms. Now you’ve got me on high alert. We’re careful. The house was inspected when we bought it, the guy said the electrical would last another twenty years. There isn’t going to be a fire. This isn’t about a fire, anyway.’
    ‘Then what’s it about?’
    Beth took a moment to gather herself. She didn’t want to upset him more by suggesting he was the one who needed psychological counseling. She tried to think