Expecting to Die (Alvarez & Pescoli)
“I just had to talk to Mom’s partner about Big Foot.”
“She’s speaking to the BFBs this week.” Luke rushed in, bringing Jeremy up to date and couldn’t help but mention the possibility of a reality show and dropping Barclay Sphinx’s name.
Jeremy gaped. “Are you kidding me?” he said, awe in his voice. “Barclay Sphinx is a genius.”
“The reality show producer?” Regan asked in disbelief.
“Oh, he’s a lot more than that, Mom. He worked on some other TV stuff. Zombies Among Us and Ghosts of the West. Docu-drama/reality or non-reality shows, whatever you want to call them, but they’re all high intensity.” He was impressed. “You have to meet him,” he told his sister, and he was so intent he momentarily forgot about the pizza and Oreos. “I mean, the man’s a genius,” he said again. “I can’t believe he’s here.”
“Oh, he’s apparently here,” Regan said.
“I’m gonna go to the meeting,” Bianca declared. “Mom can’t stop me!”
Jeremy looked at Regan. “You’re trying to stop her?”
Luke put in smoothly, “Your mom’s got a lot of things to think about, and I remember what she was like at this stage when she was pregnant with Bianca. It wasn’t pretty.”
“Thanks for that, Lucky,” she said through her teeth.
But there was no fighting all of them. Jeremy and Bianca were starstruck and Luke, well, she’d known him long enough to see that he was smelling easy money. There was no talking to him when he caught that scent. “Fine,” she said, and then walked out of the room.
CHAPTER 13
Hurry, hurry, hurry!
Bianca was running, faster and faster, though her legs felt like lead. Her heart was racing, fear driving her forward, the feeling of impending doom surrounding her. The forest was dark. She couldn’t see where she was going, but she kept running, slogging through thickets and weeds, brushing the spider webs from her face, knowing she was about to die.
She felt the breath of the beast upon her. It snarled and snapped, growling and thundering through the woods. Was it a bear? A cougar? A massive wolf, or a rabid Sasquatch?
Or a monster? The stuff of horror movies.
She didn’t wait to find out, just kept racing through the night-shrouded timberland, over rocks and stumps, avoiding the edge of the cliff that fell sharply to the creek below.
Run! Don’t stop!
Heart in her throat, she tried to make her legs respond.
The thing behind her was getting closer, its giant strides sweeping over the rough terrain, its booming voice echoing through the canyon.
Where were the others?
Where was Mom?
She felt a huge claw brush her shoulder and she screamed, but no sound came out of her mouth.
Again, the thing took a swipe at her and she shied away, her ankle twisting painfully, her arms flailing wildly as she pitched headfirst over the lip of the ridge and fell into the yawning dark abyss.
Help! she tried to scream. Please, someone help me . . .
She landed. Not on the hard pan of the canyon floor, but in a lake, the water breaking her fall as she slipped beneath the surface, where a light glowed brightly. For the briefest of seconds, she thought she would be safe, until she saw it: the grotesquely distorted and rotting body of a girl that twirled in the current, her dress and hair swirling around the moldering flesh.
Destiny Rose Montclaire, the pretty little mouse who had been in her class at school.
Bianca screamed, air bubbles rising as the light dimmed, the water darkening, her voice gurgling, her words indistinct. Help me, please! Help! Struggling for air, she kicked upward, toward the surface, trying to get away, desperate to escape, but her legs again were useless. As she gave a final kick, she felt a hand on her ankle, bony fingers clenching hard, dragging her down.
No, no, oh, God, noooo!
Another hand grabbed her thigh, and the thing that had captured her climbed up her body, rising with her toward the far distant surface. Another hand on her arm. Another on her shoulder, pulling her downward, scaling her torso.