AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I move to the window. “Just keep her from hitting her head. She’ll be fine. We’ll—”
“Fine? Fine? Does she look fucking fine?” Garrett meets my eyes. “You think there are monsters out here, Laney? No. The monsters are in there.”
My heart twists, but even as Jayla strides forward to take over, I say, “You told me to look after our daughter. I will give you whatever you need to help Sadie, but you are not bringing her in here.”
Sadie convulses, her body rocking up, head and feet barely touching the ground. Garrett tries to pull her down.
“No!” Madison shouts as she rushes to the door. “Don’t try to stop the seizure! You’ll hurt her!”
Garrett either doesn’t hear her or doesn’t care. He’s pinning Sadie by the shoulders as her entire body jerks and heaves, limbs flailing.
Then she stops.
Sadie lies there for a moment, her chest heaving as if she’s panting.
“She’s breathing,” Madison says. She’s over at the door, and I open my mouth to tell her to get back, but she only presses her fingertips against the glass. “She’s definitely breathing.”
Madison’s relief is palpable, and it brings tears to my eyes.
“She is,” I say. “She’s still—”
Sadie levers up. She hovers there, sitting upright. Garrett reaches for her, and she collapses against his shoulder.
“She’s okay,” Madison whispers. “She’s—”
Sadie’s head whips up, and Garrett screams. He falls back, hand to his shoulder, blood pumping between his fingers. A chunk of flesh hangs from Sadie’s mouth. She spits it out and lunges for him with a banshee shriek.
TWENTY-NINE
Garrett’s hands fly out, but he doesn’t have time to get away before Sadie’s on him, clawing and biting and howling like a cornered beast.
A blur to my left.
Jayla lets out a cry and lunges toward the door. That’s when the blur takes form. It’s Madison. Outside.
Madison is outside and running for Sadie and Garrett with Kit’s baseball bat raised. I wheel toward the door, but Jayla’s in my way, and we collide, each of us scrambling to get free of the other.
Outside, Madison starts to swing the bat at Sadie’s head. Sadie has Garrett pinned beneath her. He’s fighting, but she doesn’t seem to feel his blows. Then her head jerks up just as that bat swings, and she leaps.
It happens so fast. Impossibly fast. One second she’s on Garrett, and then she’s on Madison, and someone is screaming.
I’mscreaming.
I’m at the door, clawing it open, and it is like the worst kind of nightmare, where you only need to cross a few feet and somehow, you can’t. I am moving, but it is not fast enough. Madison screams, and the world goes red. All I see is Sadie—the thing that was Sadie.
That thing has Madison, and there is blood. Blood flying. My niece’s blood. Mydaughter’sblood. My brilliant, beautiful, amazing little girl’s blood.
I grab Madison. I have no idea how I got there, and I don’t care. I only care that I have her in my hands, and I am ripping her away from that thing. Then Kit and Jayla are both there, dragging Sadie off.
Blood. Oh God, there is so much blood.
Madison’s shaking, her eyes huge. Her mouth works. Saying my name.
Blood flows from her neck. From herneck.
There’s a scream, and I think it’s me. Then I see Sadie, held back by Jayla and Kit. I see Sadie. Actually Sadie—the woman I know—in those eyes, and I see absolute horror.
“M-Madison?”
