Read Online I Am Phantom by Sean Fletcher - Free Book Online Page A

out
of here. Sorry to ruin your fun, kid, but Sykes isn’t some monkey to gawk at.
He’s a killer.”
    “I’m
not here to gawk, I’m here for answers.”
    “Is
that right?” The orderly rested his hands against the bars. He seemed to be
thinking.
    I
looked over the bars of the cell. “How the heck did you get in there in the
first place?”
    The
guard sighed exasperatedly. “I came in here to check on Sykes.”
    “And
he trapped you in there?”
    “Geez,
are you the freaking chief of police? We had just given him his medication for
the day and I wanted to make sure he wasn’t having a negative reaction to it.
It’s potent stuff.” The guard put his hand to his face, like he was almost too
embarrassed to admit the next part. “I didn’t see him in here so I opened it to
check and…well the door closed on me.”
    I
snorted. “Fine. Where do I—”
    “On
the wall,” the guard said. He held out a card. “This room has its own power
source, but this should unlock it. Hurry up!”
    I
found the panel on the wall and swiped the card. There was a small beep and I
heard the door slide open.
    Then
the lights turned back on. The cage was suddenly empty. The orderly stood
inches behind me. A faint smile lay dead on his face as if amused by the whole
situation.
    He
wasn’t an orderly. It was him. Sykes. The man who had sent me the note; who had
claimed to be like me.
    There
was a body in the corner of his cell, contorted and twisted like it had been
roughly yanked and broken to fit between the bars.
    Sykes’
face was angled like a viper; his eyes never left mine, like a predator’s
stare, hypnotizing its prey before it struck. They were as pitiless as a
wormhole, sucking in light but letting none out, and every movement, every
twitch of his bloodied-meat-pink-tinged skin to his fleshy nostrils gaping open
and taking in my smell seemed calculated and prepared. He took off the orderly’s
shirt and I gasped.
    His
chest looked as though it had been grated over a barbed wire fence a hundred
times until there was nothing left but raw, pulpy flesh. But the more I stared
I realized the lines had a pattern; they were tallies, though to record so many
of what I didn’t want to know.
    “You’re
not much to look at,” Sykes said.
    I
couldn’t respond. I was too afraid that any sudden movement would make him kill
me. I could feel the anticipation his fingers held, twitching as they ran
through his smoky hair. Twitching to get around my neck.
      “I can’t believe you actually listened to
my note. That’s very brave, or very stupid. Or,” he leaned in closer. Even that
simple movement displayed sheer power and litheness, like a cat. Like a hunter.
I wasn’t sure, even with my enhanced abilities, that I would be faster than
him.
    “Or…You
really are the same. You must forgive me. I’ve been waiting so long for someone
with my same abilities that I find it a little hard to believe.” He backed away
and I finally was able to step back and take a breath.
    “Wait—you
sent the note? You’re the one who got me the scholarship to Queensbury?”
    Sykes
smiled wickedly.
    There
was no way, and yet I couldn’t help asking, “What do you mean you’re like me?”
    Sykes
was looking past my shoulder. I heard men yelling from down the corridor. A
moment of elation overtook me. But it was quickly squashed. They wouldn’t be
able to stop Sykes. And I didn’t want them to. I needed answers and he had
them.
    “Hurry
up and tell me why we’re the same. You know—you know what’s happening to
me?”
    “How
naive. You really want to know? Follow the sewer on Rines street East until you
reach it. Two days from now. Midnight.” The men were nearly on us.
    Sykes
reached back into his cell, his eyes staying locked on me. He grabbed a jacket
and slipped it over his torn up chest, then pretended to tip a hat to the body
in his cell. “Thanks, Frank. Hope a chiropractor can work out those kinks. And
you, kid. Your assistance