And By God's Hand You Shall Die: A Horror Novel by David Sodergren

Author:David Sodergren [Sodergren, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Paperbacks and Pugs
Published: 2023-06-27T22:00:00+00:00

15

Dead.

Joseph was dead, and they had killed him.

Candy staggered into the wall. “Why are you doing this?” she shouted. “Why?”

No one answered. She took a step, putting all her weight on her damaged foot, her eyes closing in agony. She had to move, had to warn the others, and as she limped along the corridor, her hand pressed to the wall for support, she thought it had never looked longer, nor darker. Ahead, she focused on the light of the waiting room, a beacon of sanity in the freakish gloom.

They had killed once. They would surely kill again. Joseph had done nothing to deserve that. Unless they somehow knew about the priest? Were they aware that he was dead, and that she had killed him? How could they be? It was impossible. Absolutely impossible.

She winced as her foot pressed uncomfortably against the floor. God, she was making slow progress. She hadn’t even reached the basement yet.

Ahead of her, someone was walking along the corridor.

She raised her hand, prepared to call out, but when she saw the way they moved, a deep, primordial unease from within prevented her.

The person was grotesquely emaciated, like they had been stretched on a medieval torture device, their limbs gangly and overextended, causing them to walk in an uncoordinated fashion that reminded Candy of a baby giraffe. Were they coming towards or away from her? She waited, watching. It was hard to tell.

Away.

They were walking away from her. So where had they come from?

The basement?

Frozen with horror, she watched in silence as the figure lurched awkwardly down the corridor. In each hand, it held something long and thin. Spikes? Candy couldn’t tell. She was too far away, and the lighting was mercifully inadequate. All she knew was that it was safer to remain in the shadows. The figure resembled the thing she had seen in the basement too closely.

She waited for the nagging, insistent voice in her head to tell her she was crazy… but the voice had been rendered mute.

The sinister figure reached the end of the corridor and turned up the stairs. Then, it was gone. Candy stood a while longer, waiting for the dreadful pounding of her heart to subside, then resumed her journey. She tried to hurry, ignoring the pain in her foot and passing by the basement door without realizing it.

Rambunctious voices drifted from inside the waiting room. Martha’s boomed above everyone else, but she sounded different to her usual bullish nature. Almost apologetic?

“I’m sorry,” Martha was saying. “The girls will be here shortly.”

“This is no way to run a business,” complained one man. “It’s ridiculous.”

“Martha!” shouted Candy.

“See? There’s one of them now,” she heard Martha say. “I’ll even take five dollars off as an apology for the inconvenience.”

“I think your girls need some discipline,” said another man.

“What you do with the girls is up to you. Just don’t leave any permanent marks.”

Candy opened the door and stumbled inside. She dropped to her knees in front of Martha. The woman stood with her hands on her hips.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.