Page 15 of Bleed the Shadows

Male voices.

I froze and listened, trying to gauge how close they were.

The answer: too close for comfort and getting louder by the second.

I turned around and started walking carefully in the other direction, trying not to make too much noise. Hoping the men would make a turn into one of the other tunnels.

But the voices got louder still, and a few seconds later, I heard the unmistakable sound of running.

I broke into a sprint. My footfalls were heavy and loud on the dirt floor of the tunnel, but I no longer had the luxury of worrying about the noise.

“There she is!” a man shouted behind me. “Get her!”

I glanced back and saw a trio of Scream masks moving through the shadows behind me like ghosts.

I ran as fast as my legs would allow, adrenaline flooding my body as the men grew closer, their footsteps louder, until I could hear their labored breathing.

I spotted an intersection in the tunnel up ahead and pushed my legs to go faster. Maybe there would be someone else in the next tunnel. Maybe even the Butchers.

I didn’t have time to contemplate how bad things were that I was actually hoping to be caught by Poe, Remy, and Bram. I felt a catch on my jacket as one of the men behind me grabbed for it.

I went down so hard my teeth rattled. My chin hit the dirt floor and I tasted the iron tang of blood on my tongue as I rolled onto my back, prepared to fight.

I kicked and screamed at the beefy man on top of me, but he pinned my arms with his thighs, his breath fetid as he grunted near my face, his sweaty chest slick and flaccid with age.

The mask was nightmarish up close, the mouth a twisted grimace, his eyes glimmering dark from the eyeholes.

“Stop fighting, you little bitch.” I froze when his hand made contact with my face.

I’d never been hit before — not once in my whole life — and the blow had landed like a meat tenderizer to my cheek.

It took me a few seconds to start fighting again, but when I did it was with renewed ferocity.

Who did this motherfucker think he was?

“Get off me!” I bucked to try and shake him off my body, kicking my legs and twisting my torso in the iron vise of his thighs. “I’ll fucking kill you.”

He switched tactics, leaning back and letting me wear myself out while he kept my upper body immobilized until I finally fell back onto the dirt floor, gasping and exhausted.

He was breathing heavy too. I took some satisfaction in that. The Scream team had caught me, but at least I’d made them work for it.

For at least a minute, there was nothing but the sound of our heavy breathing. Then one of the other men spoke from behind the guy pinning me to the ground.

“What are you waiting for? Get her clothes off. String her up.”

12

ETHAN

I couldn’t believemy luck.

I’d been turned around in the tunnels, the endless intersections and switchbacks, together with the eerie darkness, making me feel like I was in a rat’s maze.

I’d resigned myself to wandering the tunnels until daylight, taking another run at Maeve Haver aboveground, but then we’d heard footsteps coming toward us. Heard them stop, then start up again heading in the other direction.

We’d only given chase for something to do. Actually claiming one of the girls, taking her back to the house in the mountains, was too risky for someone with my profile, but after eight hours underground, I’d been bored.

A chase was something to do at least.