"Ty Drago - Shadowself" - читать интересную книгу автора (Drago Ty)

"I sorry...but you really should get some help."
He shrugged.

"I mean...if you could prove it..."

He looked up at her. "I can prove it," he said. "But even if I do, you won't believe. You don't
dare believe. Because, believing me is acknowledging the existence of your own
Shadowself, locked up somewhere inside your mind."
"How can you prove it?" Brenda asked. She looked paler...vaguely fearful.

"Forget it," Liam said.
Brenda leaned across the table suddenly, taking one of Liam's hands in both of her. She
held it up, and squeezed it. "You're right," she said. "Your story does scare me...mostly
because you don't look nuts. You look like someone whose been alone for a long time. I
know the look....I know the feeling behind it. Please...if you can prove what you said...then
prove it!"
Liam met her eyes and was silent for a long moment. Finally, he sighed resignedly and
spoke: "Look at the tabletop."

The girl blinked and looked down, still clasping Liam's hand. He watched her face. It was
several seconds before what she saw there registered. But, when it did, Liam felt her
fingernails dig into his flesh as what little color remained in her face drained away.
On the tabletop, cast there by the lamp above their heads, was Brenda's shadow; two small,
long-fingered hands, gently clasping...nothing.

"You don't have a shadow," Brenda breathed.
"Yes, I do," Liam said. "It's my shadow that I'm running from."

Brenda virtually threw Liam's hand back at him, recoiling in her chair. There she sat, staring
at him with horror-stricken eyes. Liam felt a familiar stab of pain at the revulsion in her
expression, but he absorbed it easily enough. After five years, he was used to it.
"I can't work in the daytime anymore," he told her evenly. "Except on rainy days. People
notice. Sometimes it takes awhile before they really grasp what's missing...but they always
do. Then, they're terrified. So for the past few years I've worked only evening shifts...so I
don't frighten anyone. I'm not a vampire, Brenda...or a ghost. I'm a man...a man without a
shadow."
Was there pity in the girl's eyes, intermixed with the revulsion? Liam wasn't sure.

"There's you're proof. I'm sorry Brenda," he said. "I'm sorry for the dreams you'll have..." His
voice trailed off as movement near the entrance caught his attention.

Something had slid under the crack beneath the door. As Liam watched, it slithered silently
into a nearby shadowy alcove, and regarded him with cold, blank eyes.
It had found him this quickly!

Liam's heartbeat leaped into overdrive. "I have to get out of here," he said, abruptly rising
from the table.

"What...what's wrong?" Brenda asked hesitantly.
"Nothing," Liam said, throwing a ten dollar bill onto the tabletop. "I just have to go. Thanks for