The Liar of Red Valley by Walter Goodwater

Author:Walter Goodwater [Goodwater, Walter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Horror
ISBN: 9781786184399
Google: tY82EAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Rebellion Publishing Ltd
Published: 2021-09-27T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Oh shit oh shit oh shit. The Laughing Boys.

Sadie wanted to run but her legs wouldn’t move. No, no. With everything else she’d been doing, she’d forgotten about the Laughing Boy. Though the headlights were nearly blinding, she thought she could see wisps of demonic blue light floating out there in the night. Coming closer. There were a lot of them. And they weren’t coming to ask nicely.

You have to go. Now.

Finally moving, she ran back to the kitchen and gathered up the old ledgers and shoved them deep into her backpack. She thought about running for her mom’s car, but that would mean going toward the Laughing Boys, and they’d blocked the driveway anyway.

She’d have to run.

The laughter was coming through the walls now. And the voices.

“Come on out!”

“We won’t hurt you! Just give us what we want!”

“Yes we will! Make her hurt. Make her scream!”

“We want to taste her agony!”

She burst out the back door into the night. The Laughing Boys were still all out front and didn’t see her break for the trees. There was no moon and she could barely see the uneven ground, but that didn’t slow her.

She hadn’t made it far before her foot caught on something hidden in the darkness and she fell hard. Pain shot up her leg from a turned ankle, but she bit it down until her eyes watered.

“We know you’re in there!” came a voice from near the house.

“We’re going to make you hurt, stupid little girl!”

Sadie lay motionless in the dry leaves. The Laughing Boys had the house surrounded now. There were at least a dozen of them, maybe more. Some had baseball bats, some knives, others just closed fists. Their strange laughter filled the night. What would happen when they didn’t find her or the ledgers? Would they leave?

She heard broken glass. They were inside.

She needed to move, to get away while they were distracted. But when she slowly got to her feet, her ankle screamed at her and her vision swam. She had to rest against one of the trees to keep from losing her balance.

“Where is she?”

“Find her! Find her! We want to play!”

Something crashed inside the house. More glass shattered.

Sadie limped around to the trees on the side of the house. She knew these well; she’d played among them her whole life. She couldn’t get away fast enough, but she could hide. As everything she owned was smashed up inside her house, she found the tree she was looking for. She started to climb. It hurt—it hurt like hell—but even with her twisted ankle, she was able to find her footing.

The tree’s rough bark felt good as it bit into her hands. She tried not to think about the pain or the fear and just focus on that bark and on climbing just a little higher.

When there was nowhere left to go, she settled into the crook of two large branches, where she’d sat many times as a girl. It used to be smooth here, worn down by her frequent visits.

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