Read Online Asylum by Madeleine Roux - Free Book Online Page A

else sent wind up looking like you sent it?”
    He was botching this spectacularly.
    Abby dabbed at her lips with a paper napkin and tilted her head to the side, considering. One loop of hair came free from her headband, brushing her cheek. Dan fought the urge to tuck it behind her ear. “I don’t think so,” she replied finally. “Not unless someone hacked your account or stole your password. Why? Do you think a ghost is using your email without permission?” She lifted her fingertips and danced them across the air, making an exaggerated booOOOOoooo noise.
    “Uh-oh, Dan, haunted dormitory, spooky, scary …”
    Dan smacked her hand lightly. But she did have a point. He sounded ridiculous. “Never mind. It’s nothing.”
    “No, no. What was the message?” Abby picked up her sandwich again. A sliver of tomato escaped, plopping onto the plate. It looked unappetizingly like a bit of flesh.
    “That’s the thing, I only caught a glimpse of the subject line. Then my browser borked and when I opened up my Sent folder, nothing was there. It had just disappeared. It’s like I imagined it.”
    “Disappeared?” But for a moment, she looked a little uneasy. At least she wasn’t laughing at him anymore.
    The waiter interrupted them, this time with an “accidental” cookie.
    “Could you not?” snapped Dan, shooting the guy a black look. “We’re trying to have a conversation here.”
    “Whatever, man. It’s cool.”
    Abby covered her mouth to hide a smile and watched the guy slink back to the cash register. “Aww, he’s just being nice.” She poked the cookie around on its little plate.
    “If you say so.” Dan crossed his arms and leaned back in the booth. He didn’t want to pursue the email conversation anymore; he knew he shouldn’t have brought it up.
    But Abby wasn’t done. “We were talking about your ghostwriter,” she said, encouragingly. “Was it a love note?”
    “No.” It came out a little hot, a little testy. “It was …”
    It was burned in his mind: “RE: Your inquiry regarding patient 361.”
    “Go on, I’m ready this time. I won’t tease. Scout’s honor.”
    Dan went back and forth, trying to decide how much to reveal. If he told her about the Sculptor, then she’d really stop laughing. But he was regretting having said so much already. “It was medical. About a doctor’s report or something,” he finally said. He pulled out his cell phone to look at his Sent folder, just in case the email had miraculously reappeared. It hadn’t.
    When he looked back at Abby, he saw that fleeting look of fear on her face again.
    “Dan …” Her lower lip quavered, something he would’ve found insanely hot under any other circumstances. “What if … what if …” Abby lowered her voice to a whisper, her eyes wide. He felt his pulse speed up. Did she sense it, too? That this really was no accident, no hallucination, but part of something much more sinister?
    “What if …” He almost couldn’t hear her, as a tremor of fear worked its way into her voice. She was leaning in closer and Dan felt himself doing it too, unconsciously drawn toward her. Abby’s voice came out in one rush.
    “What if you’re in a Scooby-Doo mystery?”
    “Oh, screw you.” Dan rolled his eyes, leaning back hard against the cushioned booth. He should have followed his first instinct—not to talk about it at all. He was actually really hurt by Abby’s reaction, especially after she had promised not to tease him, but he didn’t want to show it. So he joined her laughter and asked about her studio classes.
    And as talk turned from classes to favorite movies to what life was like as a teenager in New York, Dan felt less and less concerned about the email and the visions and the photos in the basement. This is why he’d come to NHCP. This moment, right here.
    Then his phone vibrated on the table. He’d forgotten he’d even left it there. He picked it up, meaning to turn it off, but noticed that it was buzzing