The Cruelty of Thorns: A Dark Paranormal Romance by AJ Church

Author:AJ Church [Church, AJ]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nytshadow Publishing
Published: 2024-08-13T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22

MYRA

A new threat

THE PLAN FOR Saturday morning’s trip to the lake was for everyone to meet up in the parking lot at 8:30. There were eleven of us going, to be split among four vehicles. Ron had said not to worry about breakfast as we’d grab something on the way.

I got up early and dressed then waited for Kristin to do the same while checking my phone. Every day this week Ron had texted me a good morning message, but so far today there was nothing from him. I finally sent him a text to check if he was up, thinking maybe he had overslept, though that was unlikely since he seemed to be as excited about the trip as I was. When I still hadn’t heard anything by 8:25, I followed Kristin out of the dorm and headed across campus to the parking lot.

We were halfway across the quad when we spotted a group of students gathered at the edge of the parking lot, all focused on what looked like an ambulance. As we got closer, I could see two attendants loading a gurney in the back. Kristin grabbed my arm and pointed out Toby and Lisa standing by the doors.

“Come on. Let’s see what’s going on.”

Toby looked up at us as we reached them, his eyes reflecting the knot of fear I suddenly felt when I didn’t see Ron among the crowd.

“I’m sorry, Myra.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, looking past him at the surrounding faces. “What’s going on? Who’s in the ambulance?”

“It’s Ron. I found him this morning. I thought…” He swiped his hand through his hair while Lisa clung to his arm. “I thought he was dead.”

“Dead?” I made a move toward the ambulance, but Toby held me back as one of the attendants climbed inside while the other slammed the doors shut and rounded the vehicle to the driver’s side. There was a bleep from the horn, then the ambulance turned around and made its way out of the parking lot.

“What happened?” Kristin asked.

“I don’t know,” Toby replied. “I woke up this morning to Ron’s alarm going off. He usually shuts it off right away, but when he didn’t wake up, I shook him, figuring he must’ve just been sleeping deep. But when he still didn’t wake up, I looked at him more closely. He looked really pale and was barely breathing, and…” He hesitated, glancing at me. “There was blood on his neck.”

“Blood?” Kristin asked.

“Yeah.”

“Just like with you?” Kristin asked Lisa.

She nodded, squeezing Toby’s hand.

“I wasn’t taking any chances,” Toby said. “I called 911 right away.”

The panic was like a fist around my throat. No, no, this was not like Poe. Ron was going to be all right. He was still alive. “I need to go to the hospital,” I declared, looking around the parking lot at the friends who were gathered for our trip to the lake. “Can someone give me a ride?”

“I will,” Toby volunteered. “I don’t really feel like going to the lake now anyway.

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