Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 83353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
“There she goes,” she said quietly into her phone. “She’s finally going home at last. Who knows how long she was stuck in that awful place? Maybe fifty years or more! But now she’s going to be with her mom in the afterlife.”
As she spoke, a strange thing happened. Though she had never seen it before, suddenly a tunnel appeared in the sky above her. It was filled with a warm, golden light and Sam could see a woman’s figure standing there, waving for Michelle to hurry and come to her.
Sam frowned. But she wasn’t supposed to be able to see the entrance to the afterlife! None of the living could see it—not unless they were right on the brink of death…
And then a hard, cold hand snaked around her throat and squeezed.
“All right, Ghost Girlie,” rasped a low, angry voice in her ear. “You’re coming with me—we’ve got a date!”
15
R’ORN
R’orn landed his ship right beside the abandoned building and hurried to get out. But he froze for a moment in the doorway, plotting his way into the human structure.
This was going to be tricky. He needed to stay in the shadows and out of the moonlight as much as possible in order to keep his Beast at bay. Already he could feel it demanding to be let out, like a prisoner rattling the bars of his cage. But for Samantha’s sake, he had to keep it locked up inside. It wasn’t safe for her if the Beast came out. If it—
And then he heard a strangled scream and all his thoughts went right out the window as he plunged into the night.
16
SAM
“It’s me, Ghost Girlie—Slasher69!” the male voice rasped in her ear. “How come you ignored me, huh? All I wanted was a date, but you wouldn’t even answer any of my comments! You even tried to report me!”
“Because every single comment you left me was sick and disgusting!” Sam gasped. His fingers wrapped around her throat made it hard to breathe—let alone talk. She couldn’t see his face—not just because it was dark, though. He was wearing a Halloween mask—a demonic one with elongated features and a twisted grin. It reminded her of one of those awful home invasion torture porn movies where the guy with a mask breaks in and subjects the helpless family to terrible abuse.
She had the canister of pepper spray in her hand, but the mask was going to make things difficult. Maybe if she could spray the stuff right in his eyes, she could buy herself enough time to escape. But what if the mask blocked it and he didn’t let her go?
Oh why hadn’t she gotten herself a different weapon? Like a stun gun. Or a real gun? She could have gotten one easily enough—Florida’s ridiculous new gun laws meant that practically anyone could go buy a gun at any time and carry it around with them wherever they went with absolutely no consequences.
“You should have answered my comments. You should have met me for a date,” Slasher69 rasped. “But you didn’t—you rejected me and now you have to pay the consequences!”
He lifted his other hand and Sam saw the gleam of metal in the moonlight.
A butcher knife! Oh my God, he’s going to stab me to death!
She thought about trying to rip the mask off but there was no time.
“Let go of me, you asshole!” she shouted. And lifting the canister of pepper spray, she blasted a stream of the toxic stuff at the eyeholes of the demon mask.
Slasher69 jerked his head up and gasped but didn’t let go of her throat. In fact, his grip only tightened, cutting off more of Sam’s air and making her feel like she might pass out.
“You little cunt!” he snarled, shaking his head and Sam saw that she must have missed. Though the acrid scent of the pepper spray hung in the air, the mask had protected her attacker from the worst of it. In fact, she was worse off than him. The fumes burned her eyes and the insides of her nostrils, making her choke and cough.
“Leave…me…alone!” she managed to croak out.
“Never! You’re going to pay for ignoring me, Ghost Girlie! Pay with your life!” he snarled.
The silver blade rose again, flashing in the moonlight. Sam tried to brace for the impact. Would it hurt very much, being sliced to ribbons? She was very much afraid that it would.
Should have listened to Aunt Luna! Shouldn’t have sent my Protector away! she thought dimly. Oh please…
But though she waited, the knife never came down. Instead, she heard a choked cry of pain from the man holding her.
Looking up through streaming eyes, she saw that a huge hand was locked around Slasher69’s wrist.
“Let go of her, you fucker!” a deep, familiar voice growled. “How dare you hurt my female?”