Read Online Chained by Jaimie Roberts - Free Book Online Page A

on his soup and placed it in his mouth. “My birthday… It’s January fifteenth.” He placed the spoon back in the bowl and ripped off a piece of bread.
    “How old are you ?” His question shocked me a little. It was quite unexpected.
    “Twenty.” Kit’s eyes widened a little. “Is there something wrong?”
    He looked me in the eyes for a moment, then shook his head. “When will you be twenty-one?”
    “July seventeenth.” I wasn’t going to sway from his questions. If he wanted to know, I was going to tell him. However, the next question shocked me.
    “Why are you on your own?”
    I looked up, meeting his piercing eyes. “What?”
    “You’re only twenty, but you’re always on your own. I never see you with friends or family. You just live here by yourself. Shouldn’t you be out enjoying life? Going to bars, meeting people?”
    “Shouldn’t you ?” I quipped. I felt like I had snapped a little, but he’d hit a nerve.
    He stared at me for a moment, but remained silent. He then carried on eating for a while. “You don’t have any photographs.”
    It seemed I asked all the questions, but Kit was making all the observations. I just didn’t like where they were heading.
    “What do you mean?”
    He pointed around my living room. “You don’t have one single photograph of yourself or anyone else.”
    My posture straightened. “So?”
    “So it’s just a little strange. Every house has photographs, memories.”
    I felt my heart rate pick up. The pain in my chest was almost unbearable.
    “Well, maybe I haven’t gotten any memories to display on my walls. Did you ever think about that?”
    Kit gave me a pained expression. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.” He sneezed again.
    “Bless you.”
    “Thank you.”
    I saw him sniffle. “Are you coming down with a cold?” I went to reach out to touch his forehead, but he shied away from me.
    I fell back a little and he looked over to see my pained expression. “I’m sorry. I have to go.” He shot out of his chair. “Thank you for the soup.” He quickly grabbed his coat and was out the door.
    I was left completely dumbfounded. One minute, he was angry; the next, compassionate; the next, he would get cold and run off. I couldn’t understand him.
    With a sigh, I grabbed all our dishes and went to the kitchen. I washed everything, put it all away, then got ready for bed. It was close to two in the morning, but close to four before I fell asleep. I was so busy tossing and turning all night, I slept right through my alarm.

Chapter 6
     
    It had been two days, but I hadn’t seen Kit. He agreed he would never go days without turning up, so I got angry with him again. However, once the anger subsided, the worry kicked in. Kit didn’t seem like the type to go back on his word, so I remained anxious throughout the whole of Sunday and today. I went to work last night and tonight, and I was just on my way home. I took the long route, disappointed when I looked back and never saw Kit. I was starting to get really worried.
    When I got back home, I had just put my coat on the hook and started up my kettle when I heard a knock at the door. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end at the thought it might be Uncle coming for another visit. It had been a few days since I saw him last and I doubted he would let many more go before he came for me again.
    When I looked outside, though, I saw nothing.
    Frowning, I put the latch on the door and carefully opened it. What I saw killed me. Quickly closing the door to unlatch the chain, I swung the door open and knelt down. Kit was huddled in the corner, shivering and clutching himself. He looked like he was barely keeping himself upright.
    “Kit!” I screeched, feeling the panic rise. I felt his forehead. He was burning up. “Kit, can you get up? You need to come inside.” He mumbled something that sounded like sorry, but I was too busy trying to get him to stand up. With a couple tugs, I managed to get