Читать книгу All the Little Pieces - Jilliane Hoffman - Страница 13

The girl burst out of the woods, hobbling on what remained of her battered foot and a possibly busted leg. She could hear the revving of an engine, the screeching of tires as they spun out, the bang as the car collided with something. Please, lady, wait! Wait for me!

She saw the Crazy, standing there in the middle of the street, waving goodbye as if the lady in the SUV was his wife, off to run an errand.

‘Stop!’ the girl screamed at the Explorer that was hauling ass down the block. But only a squeak came out. In her hand she clutched a chunk of Swamp Thing’s face that she had managed to rip off with her fingers.

For a moment she thought she might beat the odds again. Odds that had been against her since she’d first stupidly climbed into the Cute Crazy’s car two nights ago to make a little cash. Odds that would’ve had her dead already, or hanging from that beam in that shack. But she’d made it out of the horrible place that stunk of death, with its walls and floor stained with blood and torn fingernails and its floor of broken glass. A place she knew others had not made it out of. She’d made it across fields in the middle of a storm in the middle of the night. She’d survived being hit by a car as the Crazy Brothers hunted her down. She’d walked on shredded feet. She’d made it here. She’d found civilization in the middle of nothing but cane fields. She’d found a lady actually sleeping in her car in a town where there was not a single other soul around. It had to be a miracle. It had to be. She was so close to a happy ending – it couldn’t end here. It couldn’t end this way. ‘Stop! Please!’ she barked.

She saw the flash of brake lights and started to cry, but then the SUV turned down a street. Her body finally gave out. It could take no more. She collapsed on her knees, surrounded by garbage, her arms outstretched. Her leg felt like it was on fire. ‘Come back!’ she screamed.

But her voice barely made a sound. Fear had claimed it.

Swamp Thing was behind her – he wanted his cheek back. She tried to crawl away, but didn’t get far. He found her feet and dragged her like a caveman might, back toward the woods. Her fingers clawed at the asphalt.

The last thing she saw before the woods consumed her, and the mud and leaves and rocks filled her nose and mouth and eyes, was the other Crazy – the one she’d thought was handsome when she’d danced for him, with his long, dark waves and his scruffy beard and intense eyes. He had a hard body and strong hands. Hands filled with cash and, as her friend Loni liked to say, green made every guy look good. But the tall stranger hadn’t needed much help in that department. Now he was standing in the street, facing the direction where the SUV had driven off. His arms were raised up to the sky and he was laughing. As she was being dragged to the slaughter, he was laughing into the rain. Now she could see him for who he really was, for what he really was. He was the Devil, dressed all in black, daring God with his outstretched arms to come down from the heavens and perform one last miracle for His little lost lamb.

But there were no more miracles to be had. Not tonight.

The clouds gathered, seemingly at his command, consuming the moon again, and the biblical rain started up once more, washing away the drag marks that her body had left behind.