Read Nancy K. Duplechain - Dark Trilogy 01 - Dark Bayou for Free Online

tried to get all of the feathers out of my mouth, to pull them from the back of my throat, but there were too many and I thought, This is how I will die .
     
    I crawled out of the chapel room, trying my hardest to breathe. I yanked open the doors and fell onto the other side of the threshold. I gasped for air and found that I could now breathe. I hurried to shut the door behind me. I looked up and saw that I was no longer in the funeral home. I was at Clothilde’s house. I was on her front porch, looking out onto the large pond in front. The pond was choked green with algae and, in the center of it, in a small crawfishing boat we called a pirogue, was Lyla. She was frantically waving me over. I got up and ran down the front steps of the long porch and up to the pond’s edge.
     
    “Come here!” she yelled to me. “It’s safe here! Hurry!” I looked behind me and the front door was slowly opening. I saw the scarred hand reaching around the door frame. I looked back at Lyla. “Hurry, Aunt Leigh! It’s safe here!” she called.
     
    I stepped into the pond and started to wade my way to her. I struggled to trudge though the water, but the thick plant life at the bottom was tangling my feet. I kicked off my shoes and tried to swim the rest of the way. But at that moment, I saw a white dove darting toward Lyla.
     
    “Behind you!” I called to her. She looked back and screamed as the dove turned into a large crow. It knocked her off the pirogue and she fell into the water. “Lyla!” I screamed. I swam to the center of the pond and dove in after her. It was too dark to see. I felt around for her, but I couldn’t find her. I picked my head back up and, right in the water in front of me, was the man. I screamed. The Dark Man , I thought. This is what Jonathan saw. But I refused to believe it.
     
    “You’re not real! This is just a dream!” I shouted.
     
    He grinned at me. “It’s a good day for a burial,” he chuckled.
    I woke up, soaked with sweat. My sheets and pillowcase were damp, and the blanket was on the floor.
     
    The dream stayed with me all the next day and the day after that and the day after that. Every night for the next two weeks, I had the same dream. I finally told Shelly I needed more time to recover from David’s death. That was a lie. I was very good at pushing things aside in order to get the job done. But I couldn’t shake that dream. Shelly told me to take all the time I needed.
     
    I took her up on that offer and started making plans. I felt foolish all to hell, but I’d never been so worried about someone in all my life. All sense of rationality left me and, not knowing what I was going to say or do when I got there, I packed up my black ‘07 Mustang and drove back to Louisiana. All I knew was that Lyla needed to be protected from something and I had to do it.

4
     
    Home
     
    T he desert, at sunrise and sunset, is one of the most beautiful sights on Earth. Even at night, you can see more stars than anywhere else; countless diamonds shining through a sea of black velvet. I drove all night, for eighteen hours, through Arizona and New Mexico, going down I-10 East. I watched as the oranges and pinks and reds stacked up on top of each other and blanketed the earth as far as I could see. It was breathtaking.
     
    Exhausted, I finally pulled over in some little town in central Texas. I stayed at a Best Western and barely got any sleep. I didn’t dream, but my mind nagged me all night. I didn’t know what I was going to do when I got back to Abbeville. How long would I stay? What would be my excuse for coming back? What if this really was all just my imagination working overtime, brought on by the shock of David’s and Michelle’s deaths? What if, by coming back, I just make it worse for Lyla and Clothilde … and myself?
     
    I awoke at 6:00 AM with a headache. I took a cool shower, forced myself to eat the continental breakfast and tanked up my car. At the gas station, I bought three