Read Online My Daylight Monsters by Sarah Dalton - Free Book Online

bathroom cabinet and it turns out that he’s originally from Chelsea, not Camden.
    When Lacey teases him , he sucks air through his teeth. “Addiction is addiction, yeah. You take the piss all you want, I know my struggle. I know what’s real .”
    Lacey nods as though she’s finally found some respect for Marcus. The others nod too.
    “Mo , you’re up.”
    He shifts next to me and it could be the vodka but I’m very aware of his body so close to mine. My knees tingle.
    “Dare,” he says.
    Lacey twists her mouth to one side with a hint of disappointment. I know she wants to grill him about what happened with Yasmeen. I’m a little curious myself.
    “Fine, tell the most frightening story you can,” she says. “And if you want to use some of your psycho business , that’s even better.”
    “You serious? We’re up in the dark disused part of the hospital and you want me, of all people, to tell a scary story? Surely that’s a dare for you lot, not me. I’ve been to the dark—I know what it’s like.” Mo’s eyes flash.
    For a second , Lacey seems a little unsure of herself. Anka’s furtive eyes glance back and forth between Mo and the others. Yasmeen shifts uncomfortably in her seat.
    “We’re not afraid of you,” Lacey says with a forced laugh.
    “Just don’t scare the girls too much,” Tom warns.
    “So chivalrous,” Helen teases. “Fuck that, I want the crap scared out of me. Not that you’ll be able to, I’ve seen all the Saw films, and those Japanese horror films.”
    “I blow all them out the water,” Mo says. “Well, all right, if you’re sure. It takes place in a hospital.”
    Marcus snorts. “Original.”
    “It was way back before we had TVs and phones, before the First World War when needles were like torture devices and they didn’t pussy-foot around. It was when they had blood-letting devices and crude instruments that look like something out of a slasher movie.
    “ The corridors were dark at night. There wasn’t proper electricity—they used candles and lanterns to light the wards. Shadows flickered up the walls. It’s easy to sneak around a hospital like that. You could get by unseen, like an animal hidden by the dark of a forest.”
    “When’s the scary bit going to start?” Marcus asks, mid-yawn.
    “I’m getting to it,” Mo snaps. “It was a big hospital, with lots of doctors and nurses, plenty of patients. They all went about their daily business until one day, an old guy in his 80s went missing. He disappeared from his bed one night—without anyone noticing. The doctors searched high and low, but they couldn’t find him. His room faced the nearing woods so they guessed he’d run out in the middle of the night. Search parties combed the forests but they never found him.
    “ Almost exactly a week later, another patient went missing—a young girl this time. Her parents were distraught; they never thought their little girl would disappear like that. In a hospital, of all places. People are meant to be safe in hospital. That’s how things work. But they never found her. Then a young guy went missing, and the same thing happened. They never found him. They never found a body. The police were dumbfounded. They could only conclude that the patients had run away, but no one had seen people running around in their hospital clothes. It was like they’d disappeared into thin air.
    “ After the patients disappeared, everything calmed down. The hospital had a brand new wing open and everything eventually went back to normal. But there were still the legends and whispered tales. They never found the bodies and that created this huge mystery, the kind people tell each other at night. For years, different tales and theories spread through the wards. Some believed they were eaten by wild animals in the woods, leaving no carcass behind. Others thought the three of them ran off together and left the country. Maybe one of them was rich and they’d agreed to share the money