Maria’s whole body shivered like she was freezing to death. Terror locked her muscles and she couldn’t move. But she had to move. She had to find some kind of way out of there.
Were all the windows bricked-over? Maybe some of them weren’t. Maybe she could get out of a window, climb down somehow. Or get up on the roof. The roof sounded a lot better than waiting around for those freaks to come back.
Maria heard something soft. Faint. Nearby.
Some kind of scratching sound.
She concentrated on listening, but couldn’t hear anything above her own labored gasping. She took a deep breath, held it in.
And could still hear the breathing.
Raspy, wet breathing.
Right next to her.
Someone else is under the bed.
“I’m Teddy.”
His voice was deep, rough, and hearing it that close scared Maria so badly her bladder let loose.
“I’m gonna bleed you, girly girl. Bleed you nice and long.”
Then something grabbed Maria’s legs, and she screamed louder than she’d ever screamed in her life, screamed louder than she’d ever thought possible, kicking and clawing as she was dragged down through the trap-door in the floor.
One Year Later
“Why don’t you go with your grandmother,” Mom said, wiping the sweat from her forehead and replacing it with a streak of grime. “Take JD for a walk.”
Kelly Pillsbury frowned at her mother, who’d been trying to change the flat tire for more than ten minutes now. The last nut refused to come off. Each of the women had taken a turn with the tire iron, but it was rusted on tight. Grandma was the one who suggested a squirt of WD-40. Now they were all waiting around for the lubricant to soak in, loosen the nut up, so they could get back on the road.
“I’m cool,” Kelly said.
She took a furtive glance at the wilderness around her. More trees than she’d ever seen, covering the hills and mountains in every direction. It was gorgeous, and being out here made Kelly forget her established role as a sullen tween. Make that teen. She was turning thirteen in only three days.
Something caught her eye at the tree line, alongside the winding road. A quick streak that looked like a man.
A man darting behind some bushes.
But it had been too big for a man. A bear, maybe?
No. Bears don’t wear overalls.
Kelly squinted into the woods, but the figure didn’t reappear. She listened for a moment, and heard only the faint click click click of the wind spinning the rear wheels of their three bikes, bolted to the rack on the Audi’s roof. After a moment, Kelly believed she’d imagined the figure, that her eyes were playing tricks on her after such a long road trip.
Who would be way out here in the middle of nowhere anyway? We left modern civilization two hours ago, the last time we stopped for gas.
She looked back at her iPod and unpaused her game, Zombie Apocalypse, on level 64, with only ¼ of her health left. Kelly had never beaten level 65, and she’d been playing the game for more than a month.
“Kelly?” her mom said.
“Huh?”
“That wasn’t a suggestion.”
“What?” Mom was seriously breaking her concentration.
“Go help Florence walk the dog.”
Kelly flicked the touch screen, pausing again. Mom had her bare arms folded, her muscles popping up like a man’s. Kelly subconsciously checked her own arms. She prided herself in being strong, but she never wanted to look like that. Never. Muscles on women were gross.
“Grandma’s doing fine.”
The women both looked at Grandma. The sixty-five year old was tugging on JD’s leash. JD was sitting on the road, licking himself between his legs. At over a hundred pounds, the German Shepherd weighed about as much as Grandma did.
“Kelly. Don’t make me say it again.” Mom lowered her voice. “Give her a chance. Please. For me.”
Kelly sighed loudly and rolled her eyes, even though Mom never said please. Then she tucked her iPod into her fanny pack and stalked over to Grandma and the dog. It was bad enough that Grandma was coming to live with them after the Iron Woman race, but Mom had also insisted Kelly give up her room and move into the much smaller third bedroom.
Totally unfair.
Kelly didn’t understand why Grandma was moving in anyway. She and Mom had some kind of falling out years ago, after dad died, and Kelly hadn’t seen her grandmother since she was six. She had no idea why they’d been out of touch for so long, but now here they were, pretending to care about each other. One big happy.
“Stubborn, isn’t he?” Grandma let the leash go slack. Like Kelly, she was dressed in jogging shorts and a loose tee, though even at her ancient age, Grandma filled the clothes out better. “I don’t think he likes me.”
“He only walks for me and Mom. If he didn’t like you, you’d know. He’d be growling and the hair would stand up on his back. C’mere, JD.”
At the command, JD’s ears pricked up and he pranced over to Kelly, the leash pulling out of Grandma’s hand. He bumped his massive head into Kelly’s hip, and gave her arm a lick. He then switched to licking the scab on her knee—a training injury from a few days ago.
Grandma walked up to them. She wasn’t as muscular as Mom, and just a bit shorter, but the resemblance was amazing. When the three of them stood next to each other, it was like looking at the same woman at different stages of her life. Each of them also wore their blond hair the same way, in a ponytail, though Grandma’s was mostly gray.
“Want to go north?” Grandma said, pointing her chin over Kelly’s shoulder. “I hear a waterfall. We could go check it out.”
“I don’t hear anything.”
“You will, as we get closer. Come on.”
Grandma moved at an easy jog, cutting across the road, into the thick trees. Kelly lived her whole life in southern Illinois, flat as a bowling alley with no flora taller than corn stalks. West Virginia, with its mountains and forests, seemed like a different country. It was beautiful, but Kelly refused to admit it aloud, sticking her nose back in her iPod whenever Mom or Grandma pointed out something pretty during the long drive. She didn’t want to give either of them the satisfaction, still sore about the bedroom thing, which Mom sprung on her when they picked Grandma up at the airport yesterday.
Why didn’t Mom give up her room to Grandma? It was all a bunch of BS.
No, not BS. It was straight-up bullshit.
Just thinking about the swear word made Kelly feel older. She frowned, then followed her grandmother.
Ten steps into the woods, Kelly felt like she’d been swallowed. The trees were everywhere, and she lost all sense of direction. Grandma weaved through the forest like a jackrabbit, her pace increasing, and Kelly began to fall behind.
“Slow down! JD can’t keep up!”
In fact, JD was doing fine. Kelly was also doing fine, at least in the stamina department. She’d trained for seven months for the triathlon, and was enormously proud to be the youngest contestant this year. But Kelly was used to running on asphalt, not rocky wilderness. Her steps alternated between jagged outcroppings and soft dirt that sucked at her gym shoes. Kelly spent so much time watching her footing she was afraid Grandma would get too far ahead and disappear.