Suburban Gothic by Brian Keene & Bryan Smith

Author:Brian Keene & Bryan Smith [Keene, Brian & Smith, Bryan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Deadite Press
Published: 2021-07-29T08:00:00+00:00

THIRTEEN

Audrey ran—not only from Mark Hereford and the other killers—but from Chuck’s final moments. She couldn’t shake the image of his head separating from the rest of his body, and how he had still been aware. In the darkness, she kept seeing Chuck’s eyes, blinking, as the albino held his severed head aloft and bathed in his blood.

It had all happened so quickly, and although she’d seen it go down, she couldn’t quite believe it. Chuck—someone whom she had been intimately involved with both physically and emotionally for years—was now gone. Just…gone. He was no more. She would never speak to him or hear from him again. Her relationship with Chuck had been the longest of her life. With the one notable exception of her bisexuality, they’d shared everything together. No one had ever known or understood her as completely as Chuck. How could he be gone? And how could it have all happened so quickly? And why?

She thought back to their last private conversation, in the parking lot of the sports bar. If she had known then it would be their last, she would have talked about something different. She would have told him what he meant to her.

No amount of praying or magical thinking would bring him back. The enormity of the loss was staggering, almost more than Audrey could take. A part of her wanted to give up and die, just lie down on the dirty floor of the empty department store and let the rampaging savages take her.

The larger part of her, however, wanted to live.

More than that, she wanted blood.

Vengeance.

Audrey stopped running, crouched down, and remained still. She held her breath and waited. She had already removed her headlamp, and was now concealed in total darkness. She listened for sounds of pursuit, but all of the action seemed to be further away from her current location. It was hard to tell. The bizarre makeshift architecture and the darkness and shadows all combined to do weird things to sound and sight. She heard screams and echoes and laughter, but couldn’t tell who it belonged to or how far off it was.

Again, the slack features of Chuck’s face as his murderer held his head aloft came to her mind. She pushed the thoughts away with a shudder and focused instead on the gun in her backpack. The Sig Sauer had a fully loaded magazine, and she’d had the presence of mind to pack half a box of spare ammunition, as well. She might not have quite enough bullets to kill every one of these savages—their numbers, from the brief glimpse she’d seen, had been stunning—but there was definitely enough to send a whole bunch of the nasty motherfuckers straight to hell.

Slowly, Audrey unzipped the backpack, holding her breath again as she did. The zipper sounded impossibly loud, and she half-expected one of their attackers to hear it and come lunging out of the darkness. When none did, she pulled the weapon free. Relief washed through her as she felt the comforting weight of it in her hand.

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.