Aerenden: The Child Returns (Ærenden) Read Online Free Page B

and yanked her out the front
door.
    Cold
air bit her face. Black clouds gathered overhead, shadowing the day in
darkness. A gust of wind whipped leaves across the yard, building small funnel
clouds, but she ignored them. She focused on the back of Nick’s head, then on
her car when she realized they would need it to escape. They had nearly reached
the driveway before she remembered she did not have her keys. She skidded to a
stop. Turning back toward the house, she caught her breath when she saw their
pursuers exiting the front door.
    There
were three of them, each taller than the last. Dark brown cloaks covered them
from head to foot and they all carried heavy wood clubs stained with blood.
They moved with an unnatural speed and disjointed grace, as if they floated
instead of touching the ground. A putrid, rotting scent emanated from them in
waves. It rolled Meaghan’s stomach, pitching her breakfast mid-way up her
throat before she controlled the reaction. Nick grabbed her arm and pulled her toward
her parents’ SUV.
    “The
keys,” she gasped, daring a glance behind her. The creatures grew closer. “We
don’t—”
    “I
have them. James gave them to me. Get in the car.”
    She
heard a beep as Nick deactivated the alarm. She ran to the passenger side.
Yanking open the door, she slid into the seat while he turned the key.
    Releasing
the parking brake, Nick threw the transmission into reverse, and then stomped
on the gas pedal. The SUV squealed down the driveway seconds before their
pursuers reached them. At the road, Nick yanked the wheel, spinning the car
onto the blacktop so it pointed toward the highway, then shifted into drive,
and gunned the engine once more.
    A
thud echoed through the vehicle as one of the creatures jumped onto the roof,
gripping the edges of the car with long, skeletal fingers that gave the
illusion of skin suctioned to bone. Meaghan screamed and tore her eyes from the
creature.
    “Hold
on to something,” Nick told her. “I’m going to try to shake him.”
    She
grabbed the door handle with both hands and Nick accelerated again, swerving
left and then right before taking a sharp corner at full speed. The creature
still held. It inched across the car, moving down the windshield so Meaghan saw
his face. The monster staring back at her appeared worse than any of the
horrors she had seen in her nightmares. His eyes shone crimson red, pools of
blood sunken into ashen skin. His mouth appeared to be no more than a black
hole filled with fibrous webbing. A mass of disfigured scar tissue filled the
space where his nose should have been. He lifted his fists, then brought them
back down, pounding on the window in an attempt to break it.
    “Put
your seatbelt on,” Nick commanded. Heeding his warning, she clicked her belt
into place and he slammed on the brakes. The monster flew from the SUV, landing
on a car parked in the street. A burglar alarm blared an incessant, alternating
pitch that drew neighbors into their yards.
    Nick’s
maneuver halted one pursuer, but the other two had not given up. From the side
mirror, Meaghan could see them gaining speed. Nick jammed his foot onto the gas
pedal again and headed north, as fast as the roads would allow.
    Meaghan
kept her eyes glued to the mirror, watching the creatures fade into specks of
brown until Nick turned onto the highway. He seemed relieved, but she could not
shake her fear.
    “They’re
gone for now,” Nick assured her after she had checked the mirror for the fifth
time in the same number of seconds. “They’re powerful, but they’re not very
bright.”
    “They’re
not very…” she echoed, her voice trailing off when she
realized the underlying meaning of his words. She shook her head. “You can’t
possibly know anything about those things. They aren’t real. They can’t be.
None of this is real.”
    Nick
set his jaw, and for a brief second his eyes met hers before he turned them
back to the road. “It’s real, Meg. I wish it