Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 75044 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75044 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
The sudden sound of feet crunching sticks and dried leaves tore his eyes away from the rear view mirror. Before Colin could as much as scream, two open palms banged on the side window, leaving red streaks on the glass. The man’s face was a horrific mask, with one eye so swollen Colin couldn’t even tell if it was still there. Blood shone all over him and darkened his blue shirt, but as he moved to stand right in front of the vehicle and banged his fists on the hood, Colin remained frozen, staring ahead while his brain told him this was just one of those dumb pranks that catapulted cruel jokesters to internet stardom.
“Open the car!” the man cried, his eyes darting wildly to where he’d just came from. His chest worked rapidly, fueling his large body with the power to bang his hands against the steel once again. “Are you deaf? He’s coming! We don’t have time!”
The next thump finally tore Colin out of his stupor, and he opened his door, unlocking his car and stalking outside on wobbly legs. He could sense it now—the familiar odor of fresh blood, of damp leaves, of ferns. But even as he took a step toward the injured man, he felt that he’d made the gravest mistake of his life, and instead of retreating—was diving further into the swamp. Then again, he was a future doctor. He couldn’t just leave.
“I—what?”
“I don’t have time to explain! Get in the car!” The man tried to push past Colin, but he was limping, and groaned in pain.
“What? But—” Colin’s mind got hung up on the thought that the guy’s blood would soak into the seats. He did have some plastic sheets in the trunk, but getting them out seemed like a trivial thing to consider in this situation, so he stood there, unable to make up his mind as the intruder packed his body into the driver’s seat Colin had just vacated.
Should Colin… fight him for the car?
The multitude of decisions formed a thorny collar, which tightened around his throat with each heartbeat, and left him so confused he didn’t understand why his unexpected passenger frantically glanced between the trees.
A panting figure darted out of the darkness. He went straight for the man in the car, shoving Colin into the bushes. Branchlets scratched his exposed skin, but his flesh was numbed by the adrenaline pumping through his veins. The assailant wore black, but while tall, broad, and muscular like a grizzly, it wasn’t claws that shone in the glow of the headlights, but a huge axe.
Colin should have never turned onto this road. He’d entered a horror movie set, and there would be no way out.
The predator went after his victim as if he wanted to tear all muscles from his bones. With the door still open, the bloodied man stomped on the gas pedal, reversing so hastily the car flashed in front of Colin’s eyes before it hit a tree with a dull crunch of metal.
The man darted to the passenger door, trying to crawl over the gearshift, but the axe-wielding demon grabbed his leg and yanked him out of the car in one swift move, as if he were pulling on a cat’s tail. The victim rolled over and dashed toward the front of the vehicle in a desperate bid to run off, but there was no escape from the angry forest ghost, and what happened next would be forever burned at the back of Colin’s eyelids.
At a speed that shouldn’t have been attainable by a human being, the predator caught up with his prey and, in the cold light streaming from the headlights of Colin’s car, swung the axe behind his back before bringing it down on the helpless man. The last cry, cut short when the blade split the victim’s skull as if it were a pomegranate, didn’t even sound human. Just like that, in a moment of primal fear, a person had become an animal.
Time and time again, the murder replayed in Colin’s mind—the axe going down and biting into the head so deeply the skull cracked with a nasty crack and teeth spilled onto the road.
Colin sensed a sticky dampness on his face, and when he realized what it was, food rose in his gullet. But the need to run forced down the nausea when the dirt-stained face of the stranger turned his way, terrifying like a ritual mask that hailed imminent death.
The bearded beast heaved over his prey while Colin sat on the edge of the road, paralyzed by the hope of all of this just going away if he remained still enough. Was this how a deer felt after seeing her sister mauled to death by a wolf? Frozen and hoping that one kill was enough? He wasn’t sure if it was the sound of his breathing that gave him away, or the crack of a branch under his ass, or just the fact that the axeman had seen him stumble off the road, but when the blade eased out of the skull, further bloodlust was aimed straight at him.