Read Online Worlds Apart by Daniel Kelley - Free Book Online Page B

were almost spoons in a drawer.
    “She’ll be fine. It will just take a while,” he said softly into Elyse’s hair.
    Elyse shook her head. “No,” she said. “She won’t.”
    Kurt closed his eyes; everything was slipping out of his control. After going to the morgue, he had tried to persuade Sonya to let them spend the night in her apartment, but she wouldn’t allow him or Elyse to encroach. He had entreated her to sleep in her old room at home, but she’d refused.
    Thankfully sedated and with a neighbor promising to watch her, Sonya had slipped into a fitful slumber, and Kurt had driven Elyse home.
    “Reginald – ” Kurt said, but Elyse tensed before he could even utter a second word.
    “Don’t,” she warned. “Just don’t, Kurt.”
    “I only wanted to say – ” he managed, but a shake of Elyse’s head cut off his unfinished thought.
    And that was it for conversation in the Smith household for the night. Two deaths in a little more than two weeks, and grief for both the baby and his father was beginning to throttle the joy in life Kurt had always felt was the best part of his life.
    He waited an appropriate ten minutes or so, and then relinquished his hold on Elyse and turned onto his other side. She didn’t move.
    It’s my actual life that’s becoming the nightmare, Kurt thought as he adjusted his pillow and settled his limbs.
    And then he slept.

Three
    It wasn’t the first clank that woke Kurt up. Instantly alert, his senses hyper-attuned to the room and house, he thought it had to be at least the third noise, maybe the fourth. The first few had worked into his dream, cloaking themselves with images that fit the sound. But too many, and his brain had given up and become attentive to the external world.
    There. Again. Someone had bumped into a table or a shelf. Shaking crystal, disturbed china, something.
    Kurt cautiously leaned to the side and reached under the bed. Exactly where it should be, the old shoebox contained his loaded pistol and an extra cartridge of ammunition. He lifted the box top and gripped the Luger. It didn’t matter how long it had been since he’d needed it; the weapon felt comfortable in his hand, a natural extension of his arm. Kurt sat up.
    Elyse’s light snores had stopped. “Kurt? What’s wrong?” she mumbled.
    “ Shh .” Kurt’s feet kissed the floor. Holding the pistol in front of him, he stealthily sidled to the closed bedroom door and reached for the knob.
    And the door exploded inward, smashing into his hand. Not uttering even a curse, Kurt stepped backwards, aimed at the center of the dark shape in front of him, and pressed the trigger.
    Nothing!
    Now he cursed, wondering if the pistol had jammed somehow in the impact with the door. The shape was hurling itself toward him, and he pressed the trigger once again with no effect before tossing the pistol aside and –
    BANG!!
    Jesus! Something had slammed into Kurt’s forehead with terrible force. A club? A blackjack? He felt blood dripping down his face, but that had actually sounded like a gun being shot, and both of his ears were ringing, which meant a gun had been fired – had the Luger belatedly done its job?
    The dark shape was retreating from the bedroom, and Kurt briskly wiped the blood out of his eyes and began to give chase. His head hurt like a son of a bitch and his balance wasn’t perfect – the doorway before him actually seemed to be inside of a kaleidoscope – but he was going to maim this guy, he was going to teach him an extremely brutal lesson in whose house not to rob!
    The intruder had closed most of the distance to the front door by now, but Kurt lowered his head and put some speed into it. A guttural roar filled his head and as well the entire house as he bared his teeth and prepared to ram his entire body into the prowler.
    His hip knocked into the side table by his armchair; he heard the sound of wood snapping. His left eye suddenly stung as the blood flowing from the wound above