Red Hands: A Novel by Christopher Golden

Author:Christopher Golden [Golden, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Horror, Thriller, Mystery, Science Fiction, Fantasy
ISBN: 9781250246301
Amazon: B084M1QWY7
Goodreads: 49127402
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2020-12-08T06:00:00+00:00

* * *

Rue drove through Jericho Falls as if there were nothing out of the ordinary going on. Several people walked their dogs on rainswept sidewalks. There were a few other cars on the road, all of them with headlights on to cut through the gloom of the stormy afternoon. But this wasn’t the Jericho Falls that Rue had known her whole life. An orange neon Open sign glowed in the front window of Al Forno Pizza, but only because someone had neglected to turn it off while abandoning the shop. Barrio Taqueria and the Red Hen Market had their lights on, and there were people inside—quite a few people, actually—but nearly everything else had closed down.

The icy knot in her chest seemed to get heavier, like a cannonball inside her, weighing her down. As dreamlike as the scene around them had become, she felt its reality, and that made it worse. A metallic taste in her mouth troubled her, and she thought she might be sick.

Is this shock?

It occurred to her that the things she felt might not be shock but instead the fading of shock. The morning had been the worst minutes of her life. The BMW, the screams, people dying in the street, Ted losing his son and ex-wife, Maeve running off after what had happened to her.

Poor Ted, she thought numbly. She had seen her best friend hit by a car that morning, and now it didn’t even make the list of the top traumatizing things she had witnessed. The hits kept coming.

At least she might be able to do something to help. She could try, anyway. Better than hiding like everyone else. Better than staying home and hibernating or getting drunk like …

Rue shuddered. The thought that had bubbled up—better than staying home and getting drunk like Ted—made her feel horribly guilty, and yet she couldn’t shake her disappointment in him. She loved him and she understood him, but she had spent her whole life hoping he would be better.

She took a left at the Speedway. It was hard to tell in the rain, but the gas station was open. The place had a run-down look that verged on postapocalyptic. Faded sign, old pumps, and a little market that looked more like a seedy liquor store. She was out on the southern edge of town. Another mile or so and she’d reach whatever roadblock had been set up.

Instead, she took a left on Pumpkin Patch Lane. A charming name for an old farm road. Up ahead, the lighted sign of the Candlelight Inn gleamed. When Rue had called the SRC, she had spoken to a youngish-sounding man named David, who had sounded more than a little surprised that Walker had enlisted her help. The next thing he’d said still echoed in her thoughts.

“That’s Walker, though,” David had told her. “Always improvising.”

Rue hadn’t liked the way he’d said it, but her misgivings hadn’t changed her mind about helping. If anything, it had made her more determined.

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