HAUNTED PRINCE by DENIS DANIEL (children's ebooks free online txt) 📕

“I couldn’t leave you in your condition.” She said with a concerned look on her face,

I sighed and sat up because I had no plans of going back to sleep.

“Am I going to live a normal life ever?” I asked even though I knew she wouldn’t know the answer, but I had to get it out of my chest.

“I don’t know, but I know nothing last forever. I’m sure one day they will be over.” She held my hand in assurance.

“Thank you, I hope you are right.”

“I know I’m right.”

“Have I ever told you how I’m thankful to have you for a sister? Because without you I would’ve gone nuts by now.”

“I don’t really recall. But I’m glad to hear you say that.”

“Hey, what time is it? It seems pretty early.” I asked.

“No, it’s not that early, it’s actually four in the morning.”

“It feels like it’s a good time for me to take a shower.”

“Yah, I agree. So that we won’t be late because of your lazy butt.”

I shrugged and got off the bed and then headed to the bathroom, soon after Ashley left and headed to her room. I thought a simple shower won’t cut it so I decided to fill the bathtub with water, but I chose hot water this time because I knew cold water would drift me to sleep. It sounds weird but that’s how my body reacted, and I was still trying to put my head around it myself. I stripped off my clothes and jumped in and it was exactly what I needed, somehow soaking my body in water helped my mind settle, like be in peace.

Ever since I started to feel different my head felt like it was splitting and it was getting worse with time. Things got even more intense with the dead man, I couldn’t forget him and his limp body on the chair.

My mind kept reminding me I just killed a man, but other part of me tried to tell me that it wasn’t my fault. It’s kind of hard to fight with a vivid image and the fact that he got there and in such situation was because of me by sucking the life out of him. It became hard to blame anybody else.

The more I kept thinking the more I drifted deeper into what I did and I didn’t want to remember any of it, I decided to get off and take a shower then go to school. Not that school was any help to my situation, but staying home was much worse an option to take.

If I chose to stay home alone I knew I would go nuts so it was better if I went to school and endure whatever I was going to face there than survive insanity.

I got out of the bathroom and picked a casual gray t-shirt and black jeans and then matched with a gray hoody. I wore my all-star shoes and grabbed my backpack and I was ready to go.

At first I thought I was pretty early while I forgot all the time I spent in the bathroom. All that changed when Ashley barged in to tell me breakfast was ready right after I grabbed my backpack. So we headed downstairs.

“Morning mom.” I greeted mom soon after we got to the kitchen.

“Morning son.” She came and kissed both of us on the cheeks, “I gotta get ready for work; we have a meeting I don’t want to be late.”

Our breakfast was already on the table, so we started eating not very quickly because we weren’t late. Mom had a bad habit of switching the kitchen TV in the morning to hear the morning news.

Today’s news made me choke on the sausage I was eating. I wish I never heard but mom and Ashley were very interested.

“Today a man’s body was found in a dumpster this morning near Industrial Street.” The male reporter seemed like he was thirty or something said, “We have the chief of police with us here, maybe he can tell us something.”

Suddenly, he appeared on the screen and he had his usual exhausted expression.

Mom and Ashley were listening carefully; when she heard the news she came back to the kitchen right away.

“We are still investigating because the body was found early this morning.” He said

“Can you tell us who he was? May be he had relatives looking for him.”

“His name was Jonas Conner and that’s all we know.” Then the man I killed yesterday face popped up on the screen. My heart skipped a beat and I almost cursed, if Ashley and mom weren’t there I would have.

She promised she would take care of him not dump him on the street like that. I should have known, what would a teenage girl do anyway?

“He wasn’t living with any relatives, he was alone and haven’t gotten any missing person’s report.”

“What about the cause of death? What can you tell us?”

“He is being taken to the morgue as we speak to find out the cause of death. We will let you know as soon as the report come out. Excuse me.” And just like that he disappeared.

“Stay tuned for more, I’m Jeffery thanks for watching.” That’s the part I heard before the reporter disappeared as well.

My head was spinning again because this body was on me and I couldn’t deny it. But going to report it was out of options, I couldn’t just go and hand myself to that shark, the sheriff.

Besides, explaining how I killed him was also a challenge you can’t just say you sucked the life out of a person. In court would be hard to prove that you are not mentally challenged. There was an exception though, that mad man, the sheriff to get a tiniest reason to throw me in a hole somewhere would be enough even if it was insanity to the rest of the world.

“Hurry up Steve, we need to go.” Ashley said while staring at me with her hand crossed on her chest.

I was surprised she finished her breakfast and I didn’t even notice. I finished my last bite and the rest of my juice grabbed my keys from the counter and we went to the garage.

I thought the ride to school would’ve been quiet but it wasn’t. Ashley received a text from one of her friends talking about her crush and she asked her for advice on what to do.

Ashley decided to include me in their little love matching shenanigans, she started to tell me about her friend and her crush and their story and she kept going on and on about it. She seemed very interested in them considering the way she explained it. She told me how cute the boy was and how good he was in sport and in class. How her friend wouldn’t a tiniest chance to be close to him. At the end I finally understood, her friend and the boy were best friends who didn’t know how to take that next step. It looks like they were shy.

“I think she should tell him,” I blurted after a while when Ashley finished her story and she was quiet.

“You think so? Won’t it be weird, I mean guys are the ones who ask the girl first.”

“In most cases yes, but your friend and the boy it’s different. The boy is afraid to lose the friendship that’s why he hasn’t asked her out yet. But if the girl ask first he won’t have to worry about it.”

“Man, Chloe would love that idea.” She got really excited with the idea that it seemed like she couldn’t wait to see her friend, she didn’t need to because we were already at the parking lot.

Quickly she got off and said a quick goodbye on her way to the entrance. She was the only person who could accept my idea and see it useful.

My only focus was to finish the week since there was nothing I could do about what I did. I couldn’t bring back the man I killed and I couldn’t go to the police because I knew I would disappear and I could never find the answers I was looking for. I was in school and I didn’t want to think about those things anymore so I shoved them at the back of my mind.

The day went on by quickly and I was surprised I didn’t see Alex the whole day. At first I thought she was avoiding me because of what happened, but after school she appeared out of nowhere at the parking lot while I was waiting for Ashley,

“Hi,” she greeted standing beside me and leaning on the car,

“Where have you been?” I asked without greeting her back.

“Dad came back and I had to give him the report, and other things.”

“Did you?” I asked pointing at myself because I could say the whole sentence.

“Relax, I didn’t tell him anything about you. But he asked about you.”

“What did he want to know?”

“Just how you are doing and f you’ve encountered any incident lately.”

“And?”

“Nothing. I told you your secret is safe with me and don’t worry about Iris nobody makes her do anything she doesn’t want to do, even my dad.”

“What about the guy you damped?”

“Yah, that was an irrational decision but don’t worry it can’t be traced to any of us.”

Sometimes when I looked at her I just couldn’t figure her out. She was acting like dumping a man’s dead body wasn’t a big deal, while I could still feel chills just by remembering it.

Talking about remembering; all over sudden I felt ashamed and guilt, I wanted to get away from her. I couldn’t stand looking at her, who knows what she saw while I was sucking that man’s life out of him.

“Look I know what you are thinking and it’s not your fault.”

“And whose fault was it?” I asked trying not to speak too loudly I kind of felt like someone was listening.

“That man was already dead.”

“What?” I wasn’t sure if I heard right.

“That thing stayed in his body for too long and so his brain died.”

“So you are saying that was a dead man walking?”

“A possessed dead man walking.” She responded with a little smile,

I never felt so relieved in my life, it was like a huge load was lifted from my shoulders. I sighed loudly and I could feel myself gaining strength because the more depressed I felt the weaker I felt,

“Hey,” Ashley found us talking; thank goodness she didn’t hear what we were talking about.

“Hi,” Alex greeted her, “I gotta go, and I have some stuff to do.” And just like that she was gone.

But before she did she gave Ashley a look I wish I could understand what it meant. And Ashley just nodded and turned her attention to me, then she smiled.

“You look better.” She said calmly,

“I guess you found the solution for your problem.” She said suspiciously and I knew what she was referring.

“Don’t start getting any ideas, there is nothing going on between her and I. She is just helping me with stuff.”

“Okay, if you say so.” She did press the topic but it was obvious she had an idea in her head.

“Come on let’s just go home.” I opened the door for her and she got in, I got in as well and soon we were on our way home.