Total pages in book: 17
Estimated words: 16084 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 80(@200wpm)___ 64(@250wpm)___ 54(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 16084 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 80(@200wpm)___ 64(@250wpm)___ 54(@300wpm)
He left more than a lasting impression on me. An hour and a half away from the scene, and I still can’t get him out of my head. Has to be from the creepy way he stared at me. Studied me. Like I was the next victim on his chopping block.
I shudder at the thought of it.
Shudder, drink and dance. Expelling energy is the best way to clear my head. Moving and getting lost in the groove as the deafening music courses through my veins. Living like these shiny, happy people who don’t have a care in the world.
“There’s gotta be a hole in my glass,” Kim Granger says, waving her empty drink in the air to show me. “Keeps emptying itself.”
“There’s a hole, alright,” her twin sister, Mary teases. “The loud one on your face.”
“We’re gonna grab a round. Want to join us?” Kim shouts over the music at me. Barely audible.
To avoid anymore yelling, I shake my head. The night’s still young and my throat’s already raw. Besides, taking a break won’t do me any good. It’ll give me more time in my head, and God knows I’m trying to get as far away from that as possible.
“Your loss,” she hooks arms with her sister and the pair stumble through the dancers to the bar.
Alone. In my element. Strobe lights and neon lasers illuminating the crowd. But as it drifts from one end of the dance floor to the other, someone catches my eye. Tall, big and brutish, a masked figure stands still among the partiers. I jump at the sight. I don’t even need to look long to know it’s him. The man who beat my dad to a pulp.
I step back, bumping into someone behind me. The sound of his drink smashing on the floor cuts through the music. Electric fear jolts through every muscle in my body and I turn away from the monster in the crowd.
That momentary distraction is all it takes for him to vanish. Like a phantom, haunting and stalking me. And though I try to find him again, there’s no use. He’s gone, almost as if he was never here at all.
The first sign of doubt sets in. After what I went through tonight, I can’t rule out my mind playing tricks on me. Seeing faces in the shadows to compensate for the state I left my dad in.
Of course, I know he’s home. Safe with mom. But how do you cope with what you’ve seen, when what you’ve seen is a matter of life and death?
I spin around to face the man I bumped into. He’s wearing a half-cut mask. It’s the snarling maw of some savage beast, and something about it works tremendously with his dazzling green eyes.
“I’m so sorry,” shouting over the music is a task in futility. But the stranger must’ve heard with how his eyes brighten.
“It’s really no problem,” he shouts back. “But I am gonna have to ask you to join me in a dance to make up for it.”
Tall and with a fine-as-hell body in a tight black shirt? I could do a lot worse than making up for my mistake with a dance. And if I’m not going crazy, and dad’s assailant really is here, I’m sure this guy will be more than enough to handle him.
“Sure, but you’re gonna have to keep up, bucko.” I grab the stranger’s hand and pull him closer to me. “I’m on a different level today.”
“That’s the only way, Doll-face,” he says, no doubt directed at my mask.
To add extra creep to the Halloween spirit, I designed my outfit around those old, eerie children’s dolls. The porcelain face type, cracking and breaking the section above my left eye, while the rest is a perfect replica. To compliment the mask, I’m wearing a thin, worn-out body suit with butterflies and flowers scattered across it.
We start dancing just in time for the DJ to flip songs and start something faster. The stranger and I move together, our bodies in mismatched unison. I sway my hips, dip low and brush up against him. His hands snake around my body, hook around my thighs and latch as he breaks side to side.
As far as dancing goes, it’s passable. But the intimacy and heat, that’s a whole different story. Not exactly what I expected, but it’s the perfect distraction from what happened at home. One song turns to two, and the twins return but keep their distance while I groove with the stranger.
A few more songs go by, before the music cuts and the DJ announces he’s taking a break. He puts on a playlist to keep the party going, but it’s slower and quieter than before.
Prefect, I can grab a drink and get to know the stranger a little better before we come back to the dance floor for his next set.