Read Online Darkness & Shadows by Andrew E. Kaufman - Free Book Online

found it.
    Suddenly, she ran ahead of him and spun around. Slipping a camera from her pocket, she grinned and said, “I want to take your picture, right now! I want to remember this moment forever.”
    Patrick shielded his face with both hands. “I’m a mess.”
    “You are not!” she said. “You look hot. C’mon!”
    Patrick let his hands fall to his sides, rolling his eyes.
    “Lose the pouty face, handsome, and smile big for me.”
    She was about to take the picture—but suddenly her mouth dropped open, and the camera fell from her hands, hitting the concrete, popping into pieces.
    He rushed to her. “Baby, what’s the matter?”
    Marybeth looked like she was trying to talk, but nothing came out, her eyes rounded by fear, her gaze fixed behind him. He spun around but saw nothing.
    “Baby?”
    She turned and ran.
    “Marybeth, wait!” Patrick shouted and went after her. “What’s wrong?”
    She kept running, and Patrick chased her all the way to the cottage. Inside, he found her in a rattled frenzy, sobbing hysterically, and stuffing her belongings into her suitcase.
    “What happened?” he said, standing in the doorway. “What’s the matter?”
    “We’ve got to get out of here!” she said. “We’ve gotta leave,
now!”
    “But what’s going on? What did you see back there?”
    When she didn’t answer, Patrick reached for her wrists and gently pulled her toward him. He looked directly into her eyes, and fear stared back—no, it was worse than that. It was terror.
    In the calmest, firmest voice he could find, he said, “Tell me what’s the matter.”
    She squeezed her eyes closed, shook her head.
    He tried again, a little firmer. “Baby,
please.
Tell me.”
    Then in an instant, her terror spun into rage. With surprising force, she shoved him hard, sending him sailing backwards. He landed with a crash onto the end table, and it collapsed beneath him. Patrick lay there for a moment, speechless and stunned, his back stinging with pain, the wind knocked from his lungs. Marybeth looked shocked as well, perspiration and hair stuck to her trembling face, breathing tortured and strained. Just minutes before, he’d been sure he was hopelessly in love with this woman. Now he wasn’t even sure who she was.
    Marybeth ran over and dropped down beside him, throwing her arms around his shoulders, sobbing. “Baby, promise you’ll never let anyone hurt me.
Please,
just promise me.”
    Patrick didn’t say anything—he was too stunned.
    Within minutes they were on the road and heading back toward campus. Marybeth sat frozen and dazed, eyes fixed ahead. Then, in a small, fractured voice she muttered, “Oh, Patrick… this world will break your heart.”
    He glanced at her. He wanted to know what she meant, but after seeing her reaction at the cottage, was afraid to ask.
    And just like that, their wonderful weekend was over.
    The next day, Marybeth fell into her typical pattern—as she often did after one of her frightening outbursts—becoming overly affectionate and somehow managing to erase everything that felt wrong for Patrick. It worked every time.
    Now, all these years later, he wondered if whomever she was running from that day had caught up with her again.
    More waves crashed into the shoreline, jarring Patrick from his thoughts.
    More questions without answers
, he thought.
More uncertainty.
    More of the same.

C hapter F ourteen
    C HAPTER F OURTEEN
    Patrick stared out the window in Dr. Ready’s office, his mind drifting deeper into waters of ambiguity, his expression marked by sadness.
    She watched and waited with patience.
    His voice seemed as far away as his gaze when he said, “It took me a while to come to terms with the shock. That she’d been alive all these years, and now…”
    “Now what, Patrick?”
    “Now come the feelings.”
    “What kind?”
    He let out a weighted sigh.
    “What feelings?” she said again.
    “It’s like losing her twice.”
    She settled into her chair. “Let’s