Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 89093 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89093 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Help isn’t arriving for me anytime soon.
My throat works through a hard swallow when the stranger spins around to face me. His hair swishing against the curve in his lower back isn’t the cause of my distraction. His rueful glare at my cheeks is.
When it dawns on me what he’s staring at, I swipe at my face like a mad woman. I didn’t realize tears were weeping from my eyes until his cocked brow and furled lip pointed it out. Only a handful of tears dampen my face, but he glares at them like they haven’t stopped streaming from my eyes the past three days.
Once I’m confident I have matters under control, I say, “I can’t stay here.” Certain my life is about to replicate a horror flick, I caution, “People will be looking for me.”
He slams his fist down on the dining table, diverting my attention to him before he abruptly shakes his head. His nonverbal confirmation that I am to stay with him has me lost for words. It’s clear he’s frustrated that I’m in his domain, but he’s refusing to let me leave.
It truly doesn’t make any sense.
With my confusion rendering me silent, and the tension palpable, the unnamed man sucks in three big breaths before he stalks to an antique closet in the far corner of the space to get dressed.
Although stupid of me to do with a bunged foot and possible stage-three concussion, within a nanosecond of realizing this could be my only chance to seek help, I use his distance from the only door connecting me to the outside world to my advantage.
As I hobble across the warped wood floor with too much eagerness for my brain to register the pain rocketing up my leg, I dart my eyes between the brute of a man getting dressed and the large carved door. He acts oblivious to the thumps of my feet, even with them being loud enough to overtake the pounding of my pulse in my ears. The only reason he busts my escape is because he spins around to face me once he finishes getting dressed.
Unfortunately for him, it’s too late. My hand is curled around the rusty doorknob. Freedom is within my grasp.
“Ugh!” he grunts before he races my way like a madman.
Eager to flee before he can catch me, I throw open the door and bolt through the tight opening without watching where I’m going.
Big mistake.
Not only is the icy ground impossible to grip since it hasn’t been salted like almost all flat surfaces in these parts the past couple of months, but there also isn’t another cabin in sight. We’re in the middle of the woods. Nothing but snow-topped trees can be seen for miles.
Incapable of giving up even when the odds are stacked against me, I start to bolt for an opening on my right. I don’t even make it through the door. The bearded stranger doesn’t end my campaign to flee. Something dumped by the door does.
Its furry disposition stops me from skidding across the icy verandah, but any attempts to seek help without risking a mental evaluation is lost when I land face-first into a sticky and ghastly smelling matter.
I learn the reason for the peculiar yet highly recognizable goop covering my face and torso when I draw away from the object I tripped over. Deer heads can’t get mounted to walls without first removing said head.
Not only did I fall onto the remains of a deer, but I also landed face-first into its headless carcass.
Chapter Five
While screaming bloody murder into the blistering cool air, I scramble back from the deer that shouldn’t look familiar since they’re a dime a dozen around these parts but somehow does.
The violent screeches ripping from my throat ramp up when my endeavor to get away from one murderous scene sees me stumbling into another. The stranger with the waist-length hair and gruff exterior already seems the size of a giant when I’m on my feet, so you can picture how ginormous he is while towering over me.
“No!” I pelt into him with my fists when he plucks me off the ground by a quick yank on my arm before he tosses me onto his shoulder like I’m a sack of potatoes. “You need to let me go. People will be looking for me. Very. Important. People.” My last three words are separated by the sudden realization that there could be no one looking for me. I checked into my flight, so as far as my family and friends are concerned, I’m in a remote village in Prague eating braised beef dumplings. “You’ll be in big trouble if you don’t let me go this instant!”
My fight to get away from the stranger could have me mistaking one of his grunts as laughter, but I swear he chuckles while marching me back into the cabin like my legs and arms aren’t violently clashing with sensitive regions of his body. I drag my nails down his back, rip at the hair swishing in front of my face and direct the kicks of my feet to the area of his groin only just covered by a pair of dowdy sweatpants.