Page 33 of Echo
“Our officers will not go up the mountains until morning. Especially not Rinah farm.”
“Do you know something I don’t?” Now the panic really set in, and I knew I’d sell the devastated damsel no problem. “What do I do?”
“Do what you have to. But help won’t be there anytime soon.”
Fuck this.
I ran towards the front door as a shadow walked across the window, where I’d left the curtains open.
His chuckle on the other side of the door made me freeze before I flipped the lock. “You can’t run fast enough.”
I ran across the house to the kitchen, ready to bolt out the back door. By the time I got there, he was laughing on the back porch. “I told you, Little Rabbit. You’re already trapped.”
A man couldn’t do all of this.
I grabbed the keys and ran down the hall to the crazy room that I intended to board up. I went into the room, grabbing the salt. My sweaty hands fumbled the bag, but I was able to get a line of salt over the threshold.
Tossing the bag aside, I grabbed the sage candle and lit it blindly with a match.
“Come on out,” Mark’s irritated voice said from the hallway.
“Fuck you!” I willfully held back tears, not wanting to show this thing how weak I felt.
“Madison,” Aurelio whispered. “Are you here?”
It wasn’t Aurelio. I could believe he’d tracked me down. I could believe if I called for him, he’d have a jet headed my way. But he wouldn’t show up until I asked for his presence, otherwise, he never would have let me go.
But that also meant this thing was in my head.
I backed away from the door to sit against the altar, waiting for him to come down the hall.
Chapter 12:
Constantbangingstartedmeawake.
It took a long moment for all the gears in my brain to get moving. I was still sitting against the altar.
I’d passed out after I’d waited for hours for the thing to come down the hall. Eventually, exhaustion won out. The sage candle in my hands was down to nothing, and I was lucky I didn’t spill the hot wax on myself when I jolted. I blew the flame out.
The sound of a fist pounding on wood, refocused my attention to what had woken me up in the first place. I stuck my head out over the salt line, but kept my feet firmly planted inside. My eye scanned the hall for any suspicious movement or shadows.
I listened for any movement or footsteps, but it was impossible to hear over the increasingly loud knocking that sounded like it was from the front door. With a deep breath, I tip-toed down the hall, peeking around the corner to the kitchen, like a teenager trying to avoid their parents.
I let my eyes sweep over the kitchen, before rushing to the doorway to the living room to do the same.The early morning light filtering through the open curtain made it easier to see.
The only sign something was amiss was Mark’s dead body where I left it. The blood stain was mostly dried on the hardwood and that couch was done for.
“Police,” an angry voice on the other door announced.
Yes! I quietly went to where the door was, glancing up the stairwell to make sure no one was watching me.
As my fingers touched the lock, the vivid memory of the thing resembling and sounding like Mark halted me in my tracks. Instead, I pushed aside the blinds of the window.
A uniformed man with a scowl and dark rings around his gray eyes stared back at me. “Open the door.”
Was he real? I whispered, “Is it safe?”
The sunshine gave the unamused officer all its light as if to assure me that he was who I thought he was. “Don’t make me tell you again.”
