“Just leave me alone!” She had to get the drop on him. Somehow. Without her weapon. Using only her wits and bare hands.
“Three!”
From the corner of her eye, she saw movement. Spinning quickly toward the noise, she felt a pine needle scrape across her eye, temporarily blinding her. Where the hell was he?
“Two.” The voice was almost familiar. The sheriff’s . . . ?
“Grayson?” she called before remembering that he was hurt, lying in the hospital . . .
She blinked, her vision blurry, her ears straining. Over the hollow rush of the wind, there was another sound, the familiar tinkle of laughter.
Out here? In the middle of no-damned-where?
And children’s voices. Giggles. Shouts.
No! There couldn’t be kids out here in the middle of nowhere with a maniac on the loose!
As her vision cleared, she saw him, a tall figure backlit by a street lamp in the middle of the forest. His face was obscured from the enormous tree under which he stood, but she could tell he was athletic. And dressed in white—almost like a space suit.
Worse yet, just creeping into her line of vision, not ten yards from the freak, was a small child, a girl with dark curls and a pink jacket. Holding a stuffed rabbit upside down with one hand, she allowed the bunny’s fuzzy ears to drag on the ground and leave a trail in the snow.
/> “No!” Pescoli screamed. The girl couldn’t be more than three!
Where was the kid’s mother?
Pescoli’s voice seemed to alert him and he turned, revealing the rifle strapped to his back. As she watched in horror, he deftly clicked the weapon from its case and lifted it to his shoulder, sighting on the child.
“Noooo!” Pescoli screamed.
From the surrounding trees, a dog began to growl and bark.
The child’s stuffed rabbit suddenly came alive, squealing and baring its teeth, a red stain appearing in the trench in the snow, blood flowing like a river from its ears. Twisting, it bit the girl on her wrist.
Heart thundering in her ears, Pescoli yelled at the kid. “Run!”
He swung the barrel around, sighting directly at Pescoli. Who was he and why was he doing this?
“One!” He pulled the trigger.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Her eyes flew open.
She sat bolt upright in the darkness. Took in long, deep breaths.
“What the hell?” she whispered, shaking, her teeth chattering, starting to realize that it had all been a dream. Another horrid nightmare.
The door to her room opened.
A man’s silhouette filled her doorway.
Tall. Backlit. Like the monster in her dream.
Scooting back on the bedclothes, she automatically swung her arm toward the nightstand for her service weapon just as she woke up fully.
“Mom?”
“For the love of God, Jeremy, you scared the living crap out of me!”