Free These Unquiet Bones by Dean Harrison Page B

living room window. It was positioned with a hand waving hello, its death-head grin frozen in mocking laughter.
    She felt a chill that had nothing to do with the breeze that brushed against her face. She rounded the corner to the back door and re-entered the kitchen.
    Shutting the door, she listened for unusual sounds. She heard none.
    It was just your imagination. There are no ghosts.
    The floorboards creaked beneath her feet as she crept to the door at the end of the hall. A cold wave of apprehension washed down her shoulders as she entered the room.
    She looked around. The only disturbances she found were the cracked mirror and the photographs scattered on the carpet. As her fear thawed out, she bent down to pick them up.
    When she came across the wedding photo, she tucked it in a pocket of her jeans, dumped the others in the upturned shoebox, and returned it to the chest at the foot of the bed.
    Picking up the Louisville Slugger, she glanced at the cracked mirror. How was she going to explain that to her father? He never liked her snooping around in here. Especially after Grandma Snow died a year ago…
    Amy eyed the reflection over her shoulder.
    In that very bed.
    Turning away from the mirror, she stared at the floral bedspread. It was smoothed out and straightened. There was no sign that she had sat on the bed it at all. Feeling her body grow numb, Amy rolled her eyes around the room. “Grandma?”
    She wasn’t answered, but she half expected to be.
    Ghosts are everywhere, after all. When you least expected…
    I am losing my mind.
    With a slight quiver, she hurried from the room, and slammed the door on her way out.
    In her bedroom, she took the photo from her pocket and stared at the face she had come to call the Nightmare Man. Could it really be him?
    It sure looked like him. She saw some resemblance to Billy Brown, too. She wondered if it was just a coincidence, or if the two were somehow connected.
    What would her father have to say about this? Did he know the man in the picture? And what if he did? What would that mean?
    The Nightmare Man came by to collect a debt, and she was that debt.
    Amy thought about all those who blamed her father for her mother’s death, those who said he was responsible, those who said he knew who did it.
    Was there truth to those accusations? What would Dr. Massie say? Was she still projecting her fear onto her father?
    Amy felt sick to her stomach. She didn’t want to consider the possibility that her father was in any way related to the Nightmare Man, but there was always the possibility.
    What if?
    Hiding the photograph beneath her pillow, she reached for Romeo and curled into a tight ball. This did nothing to stop the tears that ran down her face as she closed her eyes and prayed it wasn’t so.
    She woke up when a heavy hand fell on her arm and squeezed.
    “Huh?” She looked up from the pillow, blurry eyed and confused.
    At first all she saw was a hulking shadow looming over her bed. A bolt of terror struck her heart.
    It’s the Nightmare Man.
    Her breath caught in her chest.
    No!
    She opened her mouth to scream but no sound would come out.
    He’s come to get me… come to collect me!
    The ghost had been right.
    Amy tried to escape the baleful presence hovering over her, but fear held her to down. She couldn’t move a muscle.
    So she closed her eyes, hoping death would be swift and painless.
    “The hell’s the matter with you, girl?”
    She recognized the voice, and hesitantly opened her eyes to see her father.
    “You left the back door unlocked,” he growled. “Anyone could’ve come in while you’re sleepin’.”
    She smelled liquor on his breath which raised a red flag. Afraid of being struck in the face again, Amy cringed. “Sorry.”
    But he seemed to be in control of his anger. .His demeanor lightened. “Sit up. I want to talk to you.”
    Relaxing, she did as told.
    Hank eased down on the edge of her bed. The look in his eyes softened as he touched the side