Fall From Grace (Slater #1) Read Online Free Page A

scream and I’ll kill yer” he growled a vicious sound that made Laura shake to her core.
    Laura nodded, tears wet on her cheeks as suddenly he spun her to face him.  The big man spun Laura around again and held her against his chest as he continued deeper into the woods.  The sunlight that had dappled through the foliage of the canopy soon began to disappear and the woods were dark for the thickness of the trees overhead.  Laura had never been this deep into the woods, even with her father when he came to cut down tree’s they never went where the woods were dark.  Her father and mother told her never to go there. 
    She squeezed her eyes tight, fear overwhelmed her and she couldn’t breathe as sobs came harder. The man stopped and roughly threw Laura onto the ground. 
    “Shut up” he growled at her.
    Laura tried to do as he told her, she tried to hold the tears in, but she couldn’t stop them.  With a meaty hand the big man slapped Laura’s mouth hard, knocking her body onto the leaf matter of the woods.  Laura screamed an ear piercing scream, but as soon as she let the shriek go, she knew she had made a mistake.  The big man lurched forward and took her hair in his hand. He pulled her up by the hair, his face close to hers, his stinking breath hitting her nostrils making her sick.  Between Laura’s leg she felt urine begin to trickle and hit the man’s boot.  He looked down and sneered, dropping her back to the ground again.
    “You pissed me fuckin’ boot” he roared “you dirty fuckin’ cunt whore”
    He lifted his leg to kick Laura, she curled herself into a ball, waiting for the pain to strike her body, but she heard a thud.  Opening her eyes, she saw the man’s head next to her face, his eyes wide open, his lips twisting in a cruel grimace.  Laura’s eyes widened in fear as she realised the big man’s head wasn’t attached to his body, but before she had time to allow the image to register she felt herself being lifted from the ground.  Laura screamed, kicking out at the person lifting her.
    “Laura, sweetness, stop kicking” the familiar voice said.
    Laura gave another kick, landing her foot into a softened spot on the body.  The person holding her doubled over and Laura landed on the ground, next to the disembodied head with a thud.  Laura felt another scream building in her.  Her legs shot her off the ground as she leapt over the big man’s body and ran in the direction in which he had taken her.
    “Laura” she heard the voice she somehow knew call out to her.  But Laura couldn’t stop; she couldn’t stop until she was in her home and safe.
    By the time she saw her home in the distance, her mother was standing at the boundary of the clearing, she was wringing her hands in her apron, her face twisted in fear and concern.
    “Laura” her mother screamed.
    Laura scrambled forward climbing her mother’s body, nestling her face into her neck, breathing in her mother’s scent, clinging to her, wanting to melt into the body she knew as safe.  She could hear panting behind her and a tender touch on her back.  Laura flinched, not taking her head out of the crook of her mother’s neck.
    “My love, my sweetness” she heard, Laura recognised her father’s voice.
    Laura lifted her head and looked up into her father’s eyes, his face red and covered in beads of sweat that mixed with tears.  She leaned out of her mother’s arms and wrapped herself around her father’s neck.  His strong arms embraced her, holding Laura tight against his body, making her feel safe.
    “I thought I’d lost you, my sweet girl” he cooed into her ear, as he smoothed her hair.
    That night her dreams were filled with images of the big man leering at her and his head without a body staring at her, trying to take her. Laura felt her mother sitting on the bed next to her, smoothing her hair, cooing her back to sleep. As she grew the more that Laura thought of the man, the more he seemed familiar, as