Read Online Fear by Francine Pascal - Free Book Online Page B

Josh was saying, she knew it had to be a lie. She was fearless. Powerful. Josh didn’t want her like that. He wanted her weak. Afraid. That’s what they all wanted.
    Josh reached for her. “You have to trust me.”
    â€œNo!” Heather slashed out and knocked the syringe from Josh’s hand. The syringe struck the side of the kitchen cabinets and shattered. Glass and counteragent sprayed across the floor. “I’m fearless!” she shouted at him. “And I’m going to stay that way!”

Surprised
    HEATHER WAS STANDING IN THE middle of the kitchen. But she didn’t know why. Wasn’t she at school? Had there been some kind of argument?
    It took a few seconds before she realized she wasn’t alone. Josh was there. He was sitting at the kitchen table.
    â€œJosh!” Heather smiled at him. “Hey, what are you doing here?” She walked over to the table and sat down next to him. “Let’s get out of here and go do something. This place is so small.”
    Heather was very surprised when Josh began to cry.

GAIA
    A break is what you take when the stress is getting way too high. A break is what happens if you don’t take one. And if you think that’s funny, you’re probably getting real close to breaking.
    Which is where I am.
    You would think I’m used to things coming at me from sixteen directions. I mean, when did my 1ife ever slow down?
    Here are the current highlights. My father is missing. The one person I thought was going to help me find him is not only dead, he’s a traitor. Natasha is gone, too, and I think Tatiana blames me for that. She might not say it, but she knows that the real reason her mother is gone is because she got involved with Tom Moore and his insane daughter. I know Tatiana is counting on me to help find her mother, and I’d love to do that. Really. Love to find her and my dad, only I don’t have a clue. I’m in a completely clue-free zone. Oh, yeah, and Heather has gone majorly berserk. I don’t know what’s causing it, but I’ll bet my entire lifetime consumption of Krispy Kreme doughnuts that whatever is wrong with her was caused by that asshole Josh.
    I’d love to talk to Ed about all this. I’d love to just be with Ed. But if I so much as look at him, he’ll probably end up being the next of Gaia’s formerly living friends.
    No matter how bad I want one, I don’t ever get to take a vacation from being me. I’m stuck with the sucky job of being Gaia Moore 24/7. If you know somebody that’s interested in taking over, tell them to give me a call.

zero protection
    This was a bad idea. A really bad idea. A get yourself sliced, diced, and served up on a platter idea.

Vacation from Herself
    SATURDAY MORNING WAS PRIME time for the chess tables in Washington Square Park. Not long after dawn, people started drifting in. The tables got set up. The little pieces lined up just so. By eight o’clock half a dozen matches were under way. Some of the regulars did so much business fleecing the chess wanna-bes that they kept sign-up sheets where challengers could reserve a game time to get a beating. The best could be booked all day.
    Mr. Haq wasn’t the best. The cabdriver hung around the park every minute that his meter wasn’t running and was always anxious for a match. He played a decent game, there was no doubt about that, but he’d never be a master-level player. He lacked the killer instinct. He was a defensive player. He’d work through a dozen moves to save a pawn and never think about letting the piece go and zooming in for the enemy king. Sacrifice was not in his vocabulary.
    Gaia put her elbows on the edge of the table and rested her chin in her hands. “Are you going to move in this century?”
    Haq frowned but didn’t take his eyes off the board. “It’s not polite to ask such questions.”
    â€œWe don’t have a