Maggie's Grave by David Sodergren

Author:David Sodergren [Sodergren, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Horror, Witches
Publisher: Paperbacks and Pugs Press
Published: 2020-10-08T05:00:00+00:00

17

They hit the tarmac at full speed.

Beth chanced a nervous glance in the wing mirror. Nothing but darkness.

Good.

Maybe Maggie was still up there, on the mountain. Hell, maybe she couldn’t leave it?

The van rolled on. There was a slight, almost imperceptible downward slope that kept them going further, but it wouldn’t last. Sure enough, the van slowed.

‘Should we get out?’ said Grady.

Beth shook her head. ‘Not until it’s slower than our jogging pace.’

Soon then, she thought. Very soon.

Loose gravel crunched under the tyres, as the old WELCOME TO AUCHENMULLAN, PLEASE DRIVE CAREFULLY sign rolled past.

She looked at Grady. ‘You ready?’

‘Don’t have much choice,’ he said.

She hooked her fingers in the door release, the metal cool against her skin.

‘This can’t be real,’ said Grady in a choked voice. He sounded like he was losing it, and she couldn’t afford to let that happen. He had been there for her when she got back to the van. Now she needed to return the favour.

‘Grady, listen to me. Maggie Wall is coming for us. I don’t know how, and I don’t really know why, but in two seconds we’re getting out of this van and running for our fucking lives. Do you understand me?’

‘Yeah,’ he said unconvincingly.

‘Grady, I can’t do this alone. I’m scared too.’

It was almost time. She grabbed his arm.

‘Are you ready?’

He nodded, his fists clenching.

‘Let’s do it.’

It was as good as she was gonna get for now.

Beth pulled the handle, and the door opened, the force of the wind pushing against it. She jumped, her feet landing perfectly, but the angle was all wrong. She lost her balance and fell, rolling onto her back. The van kept going, trundling past her. Grady ran to her, took her hand, and hauled her up.

‘You okay?’

Beth tested her weight, moving from one foot to the other. She was fine.

Thank fuck for that.

She didn’t want to be one of those idiots in a horror film who’re always twisting their ankles when they’re running from the killer.

With no one to steer the van, it swerved to the side, coming to rest at the foot of an embankment. Together, they jogged past, and Beth realised she would never sit in Steve’s dad’s van again.

Goodbye, Greener Pastures, with your mirror ball and your stupid old radio and your weird sex-cushions.

Grady set the pace. ‘Control your breathing,’ he said. ‘Three seconds in, three seconds out.’

Beth tried it. It reminded her of the one time she had accompanied Alice to her prenatal class. It was all about breathing exercises for during the birth, three seconds in, three seconds out. She remembered being so bored by it, feeling that Alice was slipping away from her.

God, she had been so selfish.

‘You okay?’ asked Grady.

She nodded, not wanting to speak, afraid of upsetting her rhythm. The backlit sign of the alley was visible through the early-evening gloom. Without realising it, she sped up at the sight, her feet pounding the road, each loose pebble stabbing through the soles of her running shoes.

The

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.