Free The Mysteries of Holly Diem (Unknown Kadath Estates Book 2) by Zachary Rawlins

a confined tiger. “Sit
down.”
    The tips of my fingers and my lips tingled. I sat down
in the center of the room, and lowered my eyes, oppressed by the lexicon of
confinement.
    With feigned glee, April flopped into the pile of
stuffed animals. She emerged holding a chain of paper dolls cut from thick
white construction paper. Most of the dolls had a limb torn from them. The doll
at the end of the chain was missing her right arm.

    All I could do was wonder how April had gotten hold of
a pair of scissors – and where they were now. She has a real talent for
concealing contraband, but then again, so did I. That sort of thing was a basic
life skill, back at the Institute.
    “Remind you of anything?”
    April reached hesitantly for me, and I flinched. She
smiled at my reaction, stroking my cheek, letting her fingers linger across the
stubble. She must have felt me shiver.
    “Where did you get the scissors for those dolls,
April? Do you still have them?”
    One gnawed fingernail slid between the top buttons on
my shirt, undoing one and then another, leaving my collar wide open. April
circled around me like a shark, dragging her fingers through my hair. After
several revolutions, she came to a halt in front of me, standing between my
outstretched legs. She grabbed a handful of my hair and used it to force my
head back.
    “Don’t change the subject, Preston.” My name dripped
from her lips like motor oil. “Did you do this?”
    I knew the right answer, but perversity runs deep. She
walked circles around me, toying with what looked a severed power cord, taken
from the toaster in the kitchen.
    “Do what?”
    She wrapped the cord gently around my neck, fussing
over the symmetry like a lover gifting a necklace.
    “Someone attacked Sumire,” April said, pulling the
cord taut across my throat. “Was it you?”
    “I could ask you the same question.”
    “Answer me, Preston.”
    The cord tightened. My eyes stung and watered, and my
breath was labored.
    “Is this my fault? Do you feel neglected? I have been
sleeping in Sumire’s bed, after all.” Her eyes sparkled with deceit and
cruelty, and I swooned. “Did you get lonely?”
    “The last time Sumire was stabbed, you were the
responsible party,” I said, downplaying my own role in the incident. I grinned
despite the way she twisted my hair. “Did you cut that cord off the toaster?
Because there won’t be any more peanut butter toast if…”
    The cord cinched tight.
    “Be honest with me, Preston.” April pressed her knees
against the small of my back, and black spots appeared in my vision. “Did you
hurt Sumire?”
    She allowed a tiny bit of slack, and my head swam as
the blood flooded back in.
    “Not possible.” My voice was a croak. “She’s
invulnerable.”
    She pulled it tight again. I’m not sure if I blacked
out for a second, or just thought that I did.
    “Tell me the truth.” April demanded the impossible
imperiously. “Did you do this?”
    I gasped and squirmed. The whole scene was like a
fever dream. I couldn’t decide how I wanted it to end.
    “Don’t pretend.” April jerked my head back furiously.
“I know you, Preston. We know each other. Remember what you did to me?”
    I couldn’t forget – and believe me, I wanted to.
    “Remember the maid at the motel in the desert, the one
you caught listening at the door?” I did, but there were extenuating
circumstances. “Or that cute boy at the gas station – the first one, I think,
that we came to, after leaving the Institute – the boy with cowlick who made a
phone call?”
    That one drew a blank.
    “You are capable of anything, Preston,” April
whispered, rattling my brain in my skull. “That’s why you are so dear to me.”
    The world was dim and distant by the time she let up.
The words trickled out of my crushed throat.
    “Wasn’t me.”
    I could not tell whether she laughed, or sighed. April
tossed the cord to the carpet, and then helped me to sit up.
    “You are always worrying