The Nine Lives of Felicia Miller Read Online Free Page B

to realize that the horror had indeed ended, and she found herself alone. Like a broken doll she lay unmoving on the cold hard ground, covered only by a blanket of mist and the tattered remains of her kimono. Her flesh was splattered with cold sticky fluids, her panties bunched around her ankles. Icy points of gravel poked into her back like a thousand tiny devils.
    She stared up at the black sky through the drifting fog, her eyes cold and glassy, like the eyes of a corpse. The moon gazed down solemnly, as if pondering her fate.
    A black shape circled overhead. She could barely make it out against the night sky, but thought it might be a vulture, coming to pick her sorry bones.
    She didn’t care if it did. Death would be a mercy.
    The thing flapped its wings and shot off into the night.
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    The Nine Lives of Felicia Miller

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    Felicia lay like a stone, too paralyzed with emotion to move. The night air was close to freezing, but she felt nothing. Only numbness.
    Once upon a time, she thought dreamily. Once upon a time… She thought back to her life before this night. How normal it had been. She thought how all the petty annoyances of her parents and school that once seemed so terribly important had really just been silly distractions. She thought of all the time and energy she’d wasted being moody and shy. I should have appreciated what I had. What’s been taken from me… forever.
    She thought of her performance on the stage that night, and how great she’d felt in the spotlight, soaking up the applause, and how it was probably the last happy moment she would ever experience if she lived to be a hundred.
    Her thoughts grew darker as images of the ugliness that ruined it all came flashing into her mind. The horrible cold masks, smelling of rubber as they pressed against her face. Rancid garlic breath blowing into her mouth. The groans and snickering of the boys. Their selfish soulless eyes. Their fumbling fingers. Slimy kisses. Crushing hands on her arms and legs. Choking her throat. Hurting me… hurting me… hurting me!
    A tear streamed down her cheek. As if someone flipped a switch she started regaining her senses.
    The first sensation she had was of the wind, rustling through the woods like a wandering ghost. It howled a bit louder as it circled the hollow. Blowing its frosty breath across her naked flesh. Then she felt the prickle of old pine needles and sharp stones stabbing her back like elfin pitchforks, and the dull pain of bruises that marked her arms and her thighs like the fingerprints of some unkind giant.
    The crunch of a heavy footstep nearby caused a fresh jolt of fear to course through her body. A fear which quickly deepened as she heard another crunch, this one closer, and heavier… then another, closer still... and she realized something big was moving toward her.
    Oh God no. What does he want now? It had to be Wally. He’s the only one with footsteps that big and heavy.
    He’s coming to finish me off!
    She tried to get up but was too dizzy and numb and weak with terror. Her vision was dimmed by the fog but she could see a massive black shape moving towards her.
    A burst of panic exploded in her breast as the huge shadow blocked out the moonlight. Looming over her like death itself.
    No please… God help me!
    Her eyes finally focused on the shape as it descended rapidly toward her, busting a hole in the fog.
    Then it was right above her face.
    The head of a big brown bear!
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    The Nine Lives of Felicia Miller

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    “I think it’s time to wake up now, don’t you, dear?” The voice was gentle, and a bit creaky. A sweet old lady’s voice, with a soft European accent.
    Felicia opened her eyes. She had mercifully passed out at the sight of the bear and the hot gamy smell of its breath.
    Was it all just a very bad dream? She hoped that the flashes she remembered were all just pieces of some horrible nightmare. But the pain between her legs told her that the worst of it hadn’t just