Read Online The Flip by Michael Phillip Cash - Free Book Online Page A

doing as she pleased. She was afraid of them andfound herself backed into a corner when she felt their presence. The air always thickened, making movement difficult. She glanced around, making sure she was alone. Smiling, she let her hands linger near Brad’s face and felt him shudder as she slid them down the back of his body. She longed to press up against him, inhale his maleness, lose herself in his embrace. She swirled through him, lightly caressing his heated skin, willing herself to form, feeling the weight of gravity pull her cells together. The dense sensation of her skin encasing pressed down with crushing weight. Breath crystallized in her lungs; her nose inhaled the deadness of the house and the aliveness of Brad before her. Light hurt her eyes; her fingers blindly reached out to tangle themselves in the long hair cascading downBrad’s back. Brad spun, his eyes widening as she took vague shape before his startled face. She was a chimera, the shadow play of light and darkness, indistinct and almost transparent. Pursing her lips, she leaned in to kiss him.
    Brad blinked, his eyes wide, when he was distracted by the chandelier to the right of them. It started swirling, faster and faster in a wild dance, spinning in a dazzling array of lights, sparkling in a circular motion, looking like a Catherine wheel. Bright arcs of light were spat from the many branches, hissing as they struck the walls, hitting with the rapidness of a machine gun. Brad ducked, a blast sizzling across his shoulder blades, ripping his shirt and leaving a smoking trail behind it. The pop of the lightbulbsshattered the silence. Brad flew out of Tessa’s ghostly embrace to land on the floor, rolling toward the stairs.
    “Nooooo. You sent them to torture me, Gerald. I hate you.”
    Brad heard a female scream as a burst of electricity found him like a heat-seeking missile, creasing the skin above his ear, pushing his head into the wall with a loud
thwack
. Stars exploded inside his head, and he knew nothing more.
    Tessa roared with frustration, her semitransparent form shrinking until it disappeared into nothingness. Blackness descended on the landing to surround the unconscious Brad. It hovered over him,obliterating all light and sound. Slowly, two human shapes formed, one bending over the prone man, a long white finger touching his face.
    “You were too rough.” The voice was in a frequency so high only a dog would hear it.
    “He’s a big boy.” The other being shrugged. It was tall, with a shock of pure white hair. The eyes were a laser blue in its almost transparent face. It wavered, fading in, and grew stronger, becoming more solid.
    “Are you going to do anything?” The other form was definitely female, with the same white hair in a neat bun. She was almost as tall as the male. They wore iridescent suits that reflected the weak sunlight. She bent over and caressed Brad’sslack face. He groaned, and she rose, hiding her hand behind her thin back.
    “We won’t have to. He’ll remember nothing. We have to go. He can’t see us.”
    “We can’t just leave him like this. What if Tessa comes back?”
    The male cocked his head. “Gerald is consoling her.” He laughed, his bright eyes luminous.
    “You frightened her,” the female admonished. “You’re not supposed to.”
    “It’s what I do best. Come, we must leave. Look, he wakes. He will go to the attic now.”
    “I think not. He’s bruised. You hurt him.”
    “He has to go into the attic, Marum. Don’t interfere.”
    Marum huffed, walking through the banister to disappear into the woodwork of the opposite wall.
    Her companion shook his head and muttered, “Women.”
    Brad rose on all fours, his nose running, his eyes tearing. He touched the ripped corner of his shirt, feeling the raw skin where the spark had singed him. He looked around, shook his head with disbelief, stood up, and gripped the banister as he weaved just a bit. His phone broke the silence, Julie’s face