Free The Dark: A Collection (Point Horror) by Linda Cargill Page A

until Harry finally came up
for air.
    "It's getting
really late. Time we got you home."
    It was hard to
understand her sudden attraction to Harry. She'd never felt
anything for any guy except Doc. It was as violent as it was
unexpected.
    Before starting up
the car again, Harry looked back down the road the way they'd come.
This time he paused much longer before continuing on.
    "Ah ... do you see
something?" Bianca asked.
    "No, it was
probably just a night owl I heard."
    Night owls did not
drive cars, though. Bianca still thought she could hear sounds from
another car.
    They were getting to
the really deserted part of Old Church Road. It was so dark that
Harry's high beams weren't cutting far into the murk. The road
was becoming much narrower. Live oaks with gnarled, twisted,
overhanging branches, which in places formed a tunnel over the road,
crowded in upon them. Harry had to slow way down. He obviously
couldn't see a thing.
    The darkness was
starting to weigh upon Bianca's mind. Night mists floated through
the window and touched her with wet, cold, icy prickles, though the
air was still hot.
    "Harry. . ." She
wet her lips. "Could we . . . could we turn on the lights inside
the car?"
    She couldn't help
herself. The darkness was becoming so oppressive that she was pulling
at the top of her T-shirt. The darkness touched her with fingers
around her neck.
    Harry flicked the
lights on without making any teasing comments about her phobia. She
could trust him the way she could trust nobody else. He wasn't
complaining, though lights inside the car at night made it harder for
him to see.
    The lights weren't
doing the trick. Bianca still felt uneasy. She supposed it was the
fact that her memory was starting to come back. The encounter with
the killer in the ladies' rest room had spooked her completely. She
felt as if someone was going to reach inside the car and grab her by
the neck.
    She remembered the
last words of the killer as he had left her sitting on top of the
toilet seat. "Now don't you dare leave there, or I'll know."
    Bianca had left the
rest room all right. She'd even left the building. She turned and
looked behind her into the darkness. She could swear she heard a car
following them, though she couldn't see any headlights. She
wondered if Harry had heard that sound, too. She wondered if that was
why he'd been turning around in his seat and peering over his
shoulder every other minute.
    Could the killer be
coming after her, right now when she was most vulnerable — in the
dark?

    Chapter 7
    Droplets clouded up
the windshield. Harry turned the wipers on. One got stuck. He leaned
out the window and gave it a whack.
    Bianca couldn't see
out the back window very well, couldn't tell for sure who was
following them. The Rambler was making all sorts of clinks and
clacks, whirrs and buzzes under the hood. Did she hear another set of
car tires? Was it her imagination, the night mist, or what?
    Br-r-r-r-ring!
    Bianca jumped six
inches. The sound was coming from her purse. She fished out her cell
phone.
    "Hello?" she
answered in a tremulous voice.
    "Bianca? Thank God!
I was getting worried. Your parents said you weren't home yet."
    "Doc!"
    Normally she'd be
overjoyed. He was always like the breath of sanity in an insane
world. Tonight he'd been angry at her. She wondered if he still
was.
    Harry mouthed the
words. "Who's that?"
    She covered the
receiver with her hand. "Remember the guy you met at the movie
theater? The one with the fancy suit jacket, the white shirt and
pocket watch?"
    "Are you still out
with that Fellini boy?" There was a tone of disapproval in Doc's
voice. Usually Doc sounded objective and neutral about everything.
    "He's driving me
home right this minute." Bianca swallowed hard.
    "Good!" Doc said
impatiently as if he were looking down at his gold pocket watch. "How
much farther do you have to go?"
    Bianca whispered to
Harry. "How much longer until you get me home? The turn-off to my
house is up ahead."
    Harry