Дмитрий Леонтьев – Don't trust anyone (страница 6)

But Charley seemed to be in a good mood and kept laughing.

“Come on,” Charlie said and glanced at Denny’s hands.

“What have you found?” he asked and snatched the book away from Denny.

It was a thin book covered with a thick layer of dust because of which Charley could not even read the title. He lifted it closer to his lips and blew strongly. After that they both got coughing fits from the dust particles in their noses.

“Sh*t,” Charley reacted but kept brushing the dust off the book’s cover. Then he read, “You will be next.”

“What the hell is this?” he asked and slowly turned the cover.

The book had only five pages. They could not make any sense out of it. On each page, there were only photos of a little boy.

On the first page, the little boy was standing on the porch with a book in his hands. On the second page, he was attentively studying something in the book. The third page showed a woman with the same book. She looked scared. On the next page, there was already a different boy standing next to the same book. The last page read, “You will be next.”

They noticed that several pages at the end of the book were blank.

“What the hell is this?” Charley asked and chucked the book.

“What does it mean?” Denny asked.

Then they heard a sound of thunder outside.

“We must go!” Charley declared. “It’ll soon start raining,” he added and they both dashed for the exit.

CHAPTER 5

“Where have you been all this while? Amanda asked Denny before entering the door.

“Hey mum, I…I was,” Denny wanted to explain.

“I already began to worry about you!” she interrupted him.

“I know and I am sorry I made you feel nervous,” Denny confessed, “but everything is fine with me.”

“Promise me, sweetie, that you won’t do that again! It is so late already to be walking alone,” Amanda asked him.

“I promise you, mum,” Denny answered.

• • • • • •

Denny was already sleeping when he heard a knocking sound under his bed.

He was sleeping on his right side facing the wall. One of his legs was not covered with the blanket.

At first, he thought that he had heard it in his dream and tried to ignore that. But somebody in his room kept knocking under his bed. Lazily, Denny opened his eyes. When he heard the noise again, he quickly jumped up on his bed, leaned to the wall and wrapped himself into the blanket.

“Who is here?” he asked sitting on the bed his legs pressed to his chest and his back tights against the wall.

He was so scared that he could not shout. An overwhelming fear seized him.

“Knock, knock,” sounded under the bed.

“Knock …….. knock, knock …….. knock,” pauses between the knocks became longer.

“Knock ……..……..…….. knock,” and then it stopped.

Denny was sitting afraid to move. He was breathing fast.

“Who is there?” he asked again hoping that, possibly, it was really just a dream.

Silence. Only the sound of the wall clock could be heard in the darkness.

Slowly, he put his feet down on the floor and felt that there was something under his bed. Denny rapidly ran to the desk and switched on the lamp on it.

It was dark in his room, only the light of the small lamp on the desk was lighting part of the room. Denny went up to the wall to switch on the ceiling lights in his room but he failed. The lamps above him blinked once and quickly exploded, all at once.

Denny looked at the wall clock.

“Deep in the night!” he said to himself.

He looked at his bed standing still.

Then, he slowly approached the bed and bent down to see what was under. He hoped there was nothing there. Under the bed he could only see that it was very dark. When his eyes got used to the darkness, he saw it.

Denny crept under the bed and stretched out his arm to reach it. Denny felt his palm touching something thin.

Hooking it with his fingers, Denny pulled it out. But when he finally saw what was under his bed, he jumped up and threw it away.

“What the hell?” he exclaimed.

“I’m going crazy!” he thought suddenly noticing the book lying next to him. It was the same book he had found earlier in the abandoned house. He pressed his hands to the temples and began rubbing them.

“I…I don’t know what’s going on with me,” he began to weep.

“It is Charley’s joke,” he said to himself. “I don’t know how but it is definitely him!”

Denny felt scared but decided to brave it out. He stood up and walked up to the book. Bending down, he grabbed it. The thin book with its black cover was now in his hands.

“You will be next,” he uttered.

Then, he quickly reached the window, opened it and saying “Get out!” threw the book out.

Denny took a deep breath and turned the handle on the latch to lock the window.

CHAPTER 6

“Good morning!” Amanda greeted her son in the morning and kissed Denny.

“Good morning, mum,” Denny answered, still lying in bed.

“You don’t look healthy,” she declared looking at him.

Denny was really feeling as if someone had taken his life energy away.

“I have a headache,” he complained and wiped his eyes.

Amanda touched his forehead.

“Am I sick, mum?” Denny asked.

“A mild fever,” she remarked. “I think that you have a cold.”

They felt a gust of wind blowing on their backs.

“Gosh, have you been sleeping all night with an open window?” she asked.

“But I remember that I closed it last night!” Denny recalled.

“Oh, sweetie!” she said closing the window with the handle. “Let me feel your feet,” she asked and came closer to the bed again.

“You should keep your feet warm,” Amanda said and removed the blanket from his feet to touch them.

“What’s this?” she sounded surprised picking up the black book.

Seeing the pictures in the book, Denny screamed with fear.

“Throw it away! Burn it! Get rid of it, please! I’m begging you, please!” he shouted.