Read Online The Soul Thief by Leah Cutter - Free Book Online Page B

but he couldn’t get his fingers to work.
    “It’s okay if you do die,” the man told him just before he walked out the door. “I’ll just use your soul too.”
    Hell if Franklin was going to let that happen.
    He kept trying to press buttons when suddenly the phone in his hand rang.
    Did he do that?
    He managed to press the “On” button.
    “Hello?” he said. He was impressed by how normal his voice sounded.
    “What the hell is going on out there?” Karl yelled.
    “I been stabbed,” Franklin said. He was losing his grip on the table.
    That was okay. It was much better down on the ground.
    Oh. Or even more better outside.
    “Franklin—Franklin!”
    Karl’s voice sounded tinny and far away.
    “I’m here. Going outside,” Franklin added.
    If he were gonna die, it was gonna be in his cornfields.
    Hopefully they’d find his hat and bury him in that too. As well as his good Sunday suit. And maybe the green shirt that both Julie and his cousin May liked.
    “You ain’t dying. Not until I come and personally kick your ass,” Karl said. “I’ve already called 911. They should be on their way.”
    “In nine-point-two minutes,” Franklin said.
    The door was already open. Franklin pulled himself outside.
    He felt as if he could breathe, finally, though the pain in his side made it hard. He rolled over onto his back, his head on the edge of the porch, just so he could see the stars.
    Franklin weren’t afraid to die. He’d done his best. Even Mama would say that he deserved his peace.
    Was that sirens in the distance? Or just the cycling of the cicadas?
    Franklin took as deep a breath as he could and closed his eyes.
    If only he could have seen Julie one more time.

Five
    FRANKLIN FELT AS though sand glued his eyes shut. He scrunched them tighter, before finally prying them open.
    First thing he saw were the white walls of the hospital. A white curtain hung on his right, separating his bed from the next. He wiggled his toes under the white blanket.
    Oh dear lord. That was a mistake. Just that little movement woke up the rest of his body. Everything hurt. From his fingernails up to the roots of his hair, down his shins. Even the soles of his feet.
    He’d been stabbed, right? Franklin thought about it, trying to feel the wound.
    It felt…different. Like there was still a part of the knife stuck inside him, a hard line of silver pain.
    That damned idiot hadn’t come back and stabbed him a second time, had he?
    But Franklin couldn’t find any other parts of his body that hurt like the knife wound.
    He was reaching for the nurse’s call button, to get someone to tell him what the hell had happened, when Julie came bursting in. She was in regular clothes, not her nurse scrubs, a snug-fitting purple T-shirt that would have made Mama frown and jeans. Her soft brown hair was mussed, like she’d been in a hurry that morning. She looked nice, her eyes more green than brown.
    Franklin couldn’t help the happiness bubbling up inside him at the sight of her. “Hey darling,” he said, reaching out his hand for hers.
    Julie took his hand, then leaned over and kissed his dry lips. She smelled wonderful and womanly.
    Not that he was in any shape to do anything about it.
    Huh. It might really be love if he felt like that about her even when the rest of him felt like he’d been dragged along three miles of gravel road.
    When Julie straightened up, she fixed Franklin with a glare.
    Where’d Julie learn to do that? To make him feel so guilty just with a look? Or was it a woman thing? That now Mama, May, and Julie all knew?
    “I don’t ever want to find you here again. I mean it, Franklin Kanly,” Julie said. She held onto his hand when he would have pulled it away. “You scared me silly when I got the call that you was here.”
    “Sorry,” Franklin said. Though it wasn’t really his fault. It weren’t as though he stabbed himself.
    “I got stabbed. By that blade. Eddie’s knife,” Franklin said. The line of hard