Don't Read After Dark: Keep the lights on while reading these! (A McCray Horror Collection) Read Online Free Page B

the woman. “Okay, so let me get this straight,” he demanded. “You think ‘something awful’ happened, yet you didn’t bother to check it out, and now—” Jake checked his watch. It was after eleven pm. “What time did you say this ‘something awful’ happened to her?”
    “Eight forty-five,” the woman reported.
    “Oh right, so now, three hours and fourteen minutes later, you expect me to get off of my butt,” Jake took in a breath, “right when, I might mention, it is supposed to start raining, and you want me to go out into the storm and check on your friend’s safety? Now that’s what I call concern.”
    The woman bowed her head as Jake picked up his phone again. “I’m sorry. You’re right. If she doesn’t show up for work on Monday, I’ll contact Missing Persons.”
    Finally, she was out of his hair. Now back to the game. “Maybe Icicle Rampage will take him out.”
    His eyes flickered to the woman’s back. She didn’t seem like an alarmist or a crazy person, saying that her friend was missing just for the attention. How he almost wished she was. No, that had been real concern on Nancy’s face.
    “Fine!” Jake called out, just as she was about to walk out of the bullpen. “You can quit nagging me, already.”
    Nancy stopped and slowly turned around.
    “You’re going to help me?’
    Jake just nodded to his desk. “Give me her contact information and this ’something awful’ location, and I’ll look into it.” He paused for just a moment to clarify his position. “ After I beat this level.”
    She rushed back to his desk and scribbled down several numbers and addresses. Nancy offered it to him, but he was too busy playing to take it. Finally, she pressed the sticky part of the note onto his blotter, took off a red scarf around her neck, and laid it on top of the note.
    “Thank you—and this is her scarf, in case it might help.”
    “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Jake said. Once you gave these people an inch, they took a mile.
    Finally, the chick got the hint and left, just as Jake lost again to the damned monster.
    “Or maybe the beast has titanium armor with magical resistance to cold.”
    That was it. Jake was tapped out. He didn’t have any other weapon to go up against the beast.
    As he let that failure sink in, Jake looked to the note. The address wasn’t that far away, and looking out the window, it hadn’t started to rain yet.
    * * *
    Darion lounged back on his cot, his back against the wall, doing his best James Dean impression. He couldn’t show fear. Let him repeat, he couldn’t show any fear. Not with that lot just outside his cell. Right now, it was seven to one. He couldn’t let even a single bead of sweat form on his brow.
    Not with Back challenging the threshold. It looked like he might actually try it this time. The rest of the men were right behind him. Goading him on. Which, why not? Let Back take the brunt of the punishment and maybe, just maybe, they might be able to grab the woman.
    The woman’s gaze shifted back and forth from Darion to the rest of the men.
    “Everyone? Everyone’s a serial killer?” she asked.
    “ All of us,” Darion clarified.
    “Then why is everyone so afraid of you?” the woman asked.
    Darion shrugged, bored with the conversation. She wasn’t going to last the hour, so why bother with small talk?
    “That’s what I’m trying to tell you,” Papa said from the back of the group. “He’s killed the most.”
    Esau straightened, his nostrils flaring. Abruptly, he stopped reciting scripture. “I would take issue with such a declaration.”
    Andrew chuckled. “Nobody, but nobody, touches Esau’s record. Most kills. Best dismemberment. They still can’t identify half the remains he left behind.”
    Esau bowed his head. “I am only my Lord’s humble servant.”
    * * *
    That was not helping Evie feel any safer. As a matter of fact, it gave her the heebie-jeebies.
    “Not outside,” Papa corrected. “In here. In here , Darion’s