Double Dating with the Dead by Karen Kelley (best fiction novels to read .txt) 📗

Matilda shook her head. “No, no. She fell.”

The air left his body, and for a second he couldn’t breathe. “Where is she, Matilda?”

She pointed behind the house.

The well. Damn, he’d meant to warn Selena, but he hadn’t thought she’d explore the backyard and certainly not at night. What if she were…He swallowed past the lump in his throat.

“I have to get help.” He turned back toward the house.

“No time. You have to get her out now.”

He didn’t know what was going on, but he had a feeling it wasn’t just fear talking. He ran to the back of the house, calling over his shoulder, “Be careful. You might want to stay in the light.”

As he hurried to the well, sweat beaded his forehead, and it was all he could do to draw air into his lungs. It was as if he had a band around his chest that tightened the closer he got to the well.

“Selena!”

Silence.

He could see the hole where she’d fallen through. He got down on the ground and peered into the well. Oh, God, please let her be okay, he silently prayed.

“Selena, can you hear me?”

He listened. Nothing. No, was that a moan?

“Selena?”

“Trent?” Her voice was faint.

There was a slight shift of the shadows. His stomach turned over. She was alive. Thank God!

“Are you hurt?”

“I’m not sure. I fainted after I fell. My head hurts. I think I found Dixie and Wesley’s bones, though. Ewww. Can you get me out of here? It smells really bad, and I’d rather not stay here any longer than I have to.”

He breathed easier as her voice became stronger with each word. “I can’t reach you. Will you be all right while I go get something to get you out of there?”

“Hurry.”

“I will.” His heart was thumping madly in his chest as he jumped to his feet and hurried to the shed, praying every step of the way there’d be a rope or something. Right before he stepped inside, he saw Matilda leave. To call for more help? An ambulance?

He jiggled the door until he got it past the overgrown weeds that wanted to keep him out. It was too dark to see. As much as he hated to, he had to return to the house for some kind of light.

He hurried back into the hotel and grabbed the first thing he saw—candles.

Once inside the shed, he lit one and raised it high. No rope, but better still, there was a ladder propped in the corner. Wooden, rather than metal, but it would work if the rungs weren’t rotted.

He set the candle in a safe place and brought the ladder out, testing each rung. It looked safe enough to hold Selena’s weight, and felt as heavy as a ton of bricks as he carried it to the well.

“I have a ladder,” he told her.

Selena sniffed. It had seemed as if he’d been gone forever. Her head hurt, her right ankle ached, she was filthy and smelled to high heaven. It was mushy because of the recent rains, and there were bones. Ewww. Dixie and Wesley had been dumped in the old well.

“I’m going to lower the ladder,” Trent told her, but before he did, he held a candle over the opening. “It might not be long enough, but if you can get to the top, I can bring you out the rest of the way. Do you think you can climb it?”

“If it would get me out of here, I’d climb up barbed wire.”

As he lowered the ladder, she scooted out of the way. Ow. She felt as if she’d been trampled by a herd of angry bulls.

“Just take it slow and easy.”

“Believe me, I’m not going to sprint.” She grimaced.

“Are you okay? If you can’t make it, I’ll call the fire department.”

“Wouldn’t that make a good story: Psychic Didn’t See It Coming.”

“Don’t joke.”

“I wasn’t,” she mumbled as she reached for the ladder and began to pull herself to a standing position. Gingerly, she put weight on her ankle. It hurt, but she didn’t think it was broken.

“Take it slow and easy.”

She sniffed. It was dark. And she hurt. She wanted to go home. Not to her apartment, but home where her mom could pamper her and make her feel all better. She stopped her climb long enough to wipe the back of her hand across her nose. Yuck.

Slowly, she made her way up the ladder, one rung at a time. When she reached the last one, Trent reached down and took her arm so she could stand on the very top and helped her the rest of the way out of the well.

She fell into his arms, choking back a sob as his strength enveloped her. “I was just standing there and then the bottom fell out from under me. And there were bones down there and everything and you don’t believe ghosts exist and I found your notebook and yes I read it and you’re going to write a book that says I’m a fraud and I’m not,” she ended on a hiccup, knowing she was babbling, but it had been a really shitty day, and she figured she had the right to babble.

“It’s okay now,” he soothed, brushing her hair away from her face. “I’m here, and just because I don’t believe the same way doesn’t mean I don’t care about you. And I promise you that I’m not going to write a book about you. I know you’re not a fraud.”

“You do?” She looked up at him, not quite believing what he was telling her.

“Yes, I do.”

“How do you know?”

“Can we just get you in the house?”

“No, I need to know.”

He let out a frustrated sigh. “Call it faith or a gut feeling. I don’t know. It’s hard to explain. I just know.”

The rest would follow. She had no doubt about it. For now, she’d settle for what she could get.

She sniffed and caught the odor of the damp earth that clung to her clothes. “I