Read Online The Painted Darkness by Brian Keene, Brian James Freeman - Free Book Online

exhausted.
    Henry continued following the rabbit tracks, much more slowly, but soon he heard strange sounds like thousands of birds gathering in the trees above him. They were flapping their wings incessantly and cawing shrilly. He could feel their beady eyes tracking him as he in turn tracked the rabbits, which were following deer trails deeper into the darkest, thickest part of the woods.
    Eventually the tracks started up another hill, but Henry slowed to a stop in the snowy brush at the bottom. He wasn’t sure he had the strength to go on. The woods were as dark as night, and the cawing of the birds was louder than ever, and he couldn’t shake the idea that something was following him, even though he saw nothing when he spun around and looked where he had just come from. There was movement everywhere, but it was always just out of his field of vision.
    I need to find out what’s at the top of this hill, he thought, tracing the tracks with his eyes. Maybe the rabbits will be waiting for me.
    Or maybe not. At least he would know. He promised himself he would at least check the top of this hill. If he didn’t find the rabbits, he would start running home until he couldn’t run anymore, leaving the evil woods far behind.
    Henry climbed the hill, his legs burning from the strain. The birds screamed at him, the trees rustled and started pulling out of the ground again to follow him. Dark and light danced around him. His heart raced in terror, and he fell to his knees and crawled, pulling himself along with his hands. He got to his feet again, but he stumbled at the top of the hill, landing on his side in a beam of sunlight breaking through the tree cover.
    Henry’s eyes wanted to close, he didn’t want to see whatever monsters were about to devour him, but he made himself look around like he had promised himself—and when he saw where he was, his eyes widened and he felt his heart leap in his chest.
    The river route had taken him the entire way around town. Beyond the underbrush was a plowed parking lot and beyond the icy pavement was the Black Hill Community School. His father’s station wagon was parked by the front doors. There were no other cars in sight.
    Henry got to his feet, his mind suddenly very clear. The birds had vanished,the trees were back to normal and the daylight was bright and safe.
    With newfound strength, Henry climbed the snow bank created by the plow earlier in the day and he crossed the parking lot, taking care to avoid the slick spots. Mountains of plowed snow surrounded the tall light poles.
    Henry stopped on the far side of the parking lot. The rabbit tracks appeared there again, leading directly to the school’s front doors, only this time the tracks weren’t soft indentations in the snow.
    They were made out of blood.
Henry carefully approached the front doors, confused by the tracks and trying to decide how to explain to his father what he was doing here and why he was soaked to the bone. His mother would ground him for life if she learned where he had gone, and Ms. Winslow would probably never let him leave the house again, but the cold was crushing him and he had to get into the warmth.
When Henry pulled on the door, he was surprised it opened so easily. He had assumed the doors would be locked since the school was closed for the day.
He stepped into the well-lit hallway where the trail of bloody rabbit tracks continued, covering the floor between the rows of lockers.
The school was as silent as a tomb, with the exception of the buzzing lights above his head. There was no one to be seen anywhere.
Then the door slammed shut behind Henry and he was left standing alone in the hallway. Only he wasn’t alone. The coldness in his bones told him so.
THE PRESENT (9)
Preparing to Battle the Beast
H

enry is standing in the snow at the
    bottom of the rose trellis, wrapping his bleeding hands and feet with pieces of his shredded t-shirt when he hears the phone ringing in the kitchen. The sound is