The Girl Who Survived(6)
She had to call and get help.
9-1-1.
But she couldn’t go into Mama’s bedroom again, she couldn’t see her parents that way . . . no, she backed up, scrambling to her feet. There was a phone in the kitchen and Sam Junior’s new cell phone upstairs. She’d call the police. Get an ambulance. But as she raced through the living room, she saw Jonas had collapsed again. She was probably too late!
She started for him.
The front door swung open.
Marlie?
No!
Not her sister.
A man.
A big man filled the doorway.
The killer!
She knew it.
Oh. God.
She let out a short scream and spun, her bare heel sliding in a pool of sticky blood.
“Holy shit! What the fu—?” the man said.
He’d seen her!
She took off at a dead run.
As fast as her feet would carry her, she flew through the dining room, knocking over a chair before she sped across the short span of the butler’s pantry to the kitchen.
“Hey!” The voice was deep and male. Commanding. “Hey! You! Stop!”
She yanked the door open, sprinted across the porch and jumped from the steps to the snow-covered backyard.
“Stop! Little girl!”
No way!
His loud voice only propelled her farther and faster through the drifts. From the corner of her eye she saw his massive shape on the porch.
“Stop! Hey, little girl—”
Without thinking, she ducked under the lowest limbs of the fir trees and cut to the back path, the one that led to the lake. The snow here was packed, as if someone else had trod on it, and it felt like ice between her toes. Still she raced unheeding as branches slapped at her face and berry vines clawed at her pajamas. She heard her sleeve rip, felt the prick of a thorn, but she didn’t stop, didn’t dare chance a look behind her. Her lungs were starting to burn, her breath coming out in a foggy mist, but she didn’t slow. Her heart was pounding and she kept her head down, skimming through a copse of trees, feeling snow fall onto her shoulder as she brushed against the branches.
What had happened?
Who had killed Mama and Daddy?
Why? She felt the tears start to freeze on her cheeks as she ran through the thickets she saw in her mind’s eye, her family, bloodied and slashed, horrid images flashing through her mind, appearing behind the trees that were a blur. Her parents unmoving as they lay in their own blood. Sam Junior and Donner with their hair matted in blood, eyes glazed as they lay next to each other. Jonas raising up, telling her to run. Get help. And Marlie, ghost white, peeking from behind a long-needled pine, urging her to keep going. Run, Kara! she yelled over the pounding in Kara’s ears.
All in her imagination, she knew.
All ghosts.
Her vision blurred with tears, but she forced her legs to keep moving, her near-frozen feet to fly through the snow.
She heard him coming after her, the heavy footsteps pounding on the path, the crack of a brittle branch as he passed.
Faster. Run faster!
Kara was breathing hard, but she saw the glitter of the lake. Through the forest, the icy surface gleamed in the moonlight, beckoning. On the far shore, lights of a few houses glowed like beacons.
If she could make it.
She could!
She would!
Faster. Run faster!
She slammed her toe into an exposed root and flew forward, crying out. Pain pulsed through her foot and she stumbled a few steps, temporarily hobbled, and she wanted to give up, to fling herself into the snow and cry.
No! Keep running. Get help. Jonas is still alive!
She plowed forward.
The killer was closing in.
She heard his ragged breathing, felt his footsteps shake the ground. But he, too, was struggling and when he called out, he was gasping. “For the love of God, girl, stop! I’m not . . . I’m not going . . . I won’t hurt you.”
She didn’t believe him for an instant.
Move! Her mind was screaming at her and she was nearly panting.
She reached the bank, her feet sliding out from under her as she slipped downward toward the lake.
“Stop!” the man shouted. “Jesus Christ, stop!”
She hurled her body forward, tumbling onto the glassy surface, skidding away from the shoreline.
“Hey!” he was yelling again, his voice raw.
She ignored him and sliding and spinning, she finally made it to her feet, but she couldn’t get traction and had trouble running. She should have run around the shore. But it was too late.
The killer was on the ice.
No!
She threw herself forward, her feet sliding wildly as she willed herself across the icy expanse toward the winking lights, where she would find someone to help her, someone in one of those cabins. She had to.
“Don’t! Oh, shit!”
He followed, slipping out onto the ice.
More panicked than ever, she scrambled forward wildly only to fall flat and bang her chin.
“Stop!”
He was making his way across the frozen surface.
Getting nearer!
She had to outrun him! Had to get away!
Another glance over her shoulder and she saw him in the corner of her eye.
He was too close! Only a few steps away.
Kara redoubled her efforts as he took a swipe at her.
Crrrrraaaacccck!