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)
He might be waiting.
But as she hesitated, Mr. Harvey came stomping up and swung one of the doors wide, letting in a blast of hot, muggy air. Tampa never really cooled down, except for a few months in the early part of the year, and it was only just past Halloween.
“Get…out,” he said through gritted teeth. “Now!”
And then, of course, Hanna had no choice but to leave—stepping out into the night and hoping that the thing that had been glaring at her through the window wasn’t waiting in the shadows to devour her.
2
HANNA
Thankfully nothing jumped out at her as she made her way quickly to her beat up Honda Civic, parked in the corner of the cracked parking lot.
The car was over ten years old and it broke down with alarming frequency, but it was all Hanna could afford. It was either the Civic or the bus—and a surprising number of people died on busses each year.
Hanna didn’t like riding with the shades of the dead—it was especially creepy when the bus was full and she could see living customers sitting in the same seats already occupied by ghosts. They always looked uncomfortable and often shivered and rubbed their arms as though they were cold. Even those without a Gift could often sense the presence of the dead, though they usually just thought it was getting chilly or the sun had gone behind a cloud.
Tonight the old Civic started right up, much to her relief. But once she had it started, she was at a loss for where to go. She didn’t want to go back to her empty apartment, not when she knew the Dark Entity was stalking her. He might come find her again, and she couldn’t face him right now—not on top of losing yet another job.
Hanna had never been able to hold down employment for long. The supernatural world interfered with her too much and other people sensed there was something different about her—something other, something wrong. It made them want to avoid or get rid of her. So she moved from one menial occupation to another, never holding any one job for longer than six months.
It was an exhausting way to live and that was before the Dark Entity had started stalking her. Now she felt close to the edge of some kind of mental and emotional breakdown. Not that she could afford to have a breakdown, Hanna thought dryly. Who would pay her rent if she did? She’d wind up homeless, on the street. No—she had to keep going, she told herself. Screw Denny’s—she’d find somewhere else to work. Right now she just needed to kill some time until daylight.
She drove to an all-night Wal-Mart and went inside to browse. She couldn’t really afford to buy much—all she had was the less than ten dollars she’d earned in tips that night and her bank account was nearly dry. But roaming the brightly lit aisles was better than going home to her dark, lonely apartment.
At last, however, Hanna was nearly dead on her feet. She’d been up almost twenty-four hours by that point and dawn was only an hour or two away. She decided to go home and risk getting some rest. She bought a large box of Kosher salt to renew her wards and finally left the store.
Driving home in the night, she kept thinking she saw the burning red eyes staring at her from the back seat. But every time she turned her head to look, it was only her imagination. She began to hope that maybe the Dark Entity had decided he’d done enough for tonight—maybe he would leave her alone for awhile.
God, if only he would! She was so tired and so alone. If only she had someone to go home to—someone to protect her and care for her. But Hanna knew that was never going to happen for her. Men sensed that she was strange and shied away from her because of it.
Of course, it didn’t help that she was extra curvy as well. She had a pretty face and long, golden brown hair and hazel eyes, but apparently none of that counted when your dress size was in the double digits.
Hanna kept a wary eye on the streets as she drove through her neighborhood—unofficially named “Suitcase City” because so many people moved in and out of the area so quickly. The Civic’s wheels rumbled over cracked pavement as she drove past abandoned cars up on blocks, littered yards filled with trash, and the occasional sex worker, strolling through the shadows cast by the streetlamps.
At last she got to The Carlton Arms—her apartment complex. Despite its grand name, it was little more than slum housing. The building where Hanna lived was grimy and dark, filled with cramped apartments that had bad plumbing and walls so thin the neighbors’ fights could be heard at all hours of the day and night.