Page 9 of Paranoid

She fought harder. Frantically she scraped at her face, trying to remove the mask, but it was fixed solidly. Glued to her skin.

Oh, God.

Panicked, completely blinded, she flailed at her attacker, trying to scratch, to gain some kind of purchase, but it was for naught. Still drunk, her movements imprecise, her head pounding in pain, she swung wildly and missed, turning around just as she felt her body being hoisted with an effort.

No!

A raspy voice demanded, “How does it feel to really be blind?”

What?

And then she was flying through the air, and dropping, a hand brushing the chain on the chandelier, the crystals tinkling. She knew in that split second that the marble floor of the fo

yer was rushing up at her.

She screamed at the top of her lungs but was silenced by the smack of the stone floor.

Bam!

She hit hard, her body slamming against the floor.

Every bone jarred, her skull cracking on impact. Her breath swooping out in a hissing rush, her teeth broken and rattling. She let out a low moan that sounded wet and tasted of the blood filling her mouth.

Oh, God.

She tried to move.

Couldn’t.

Thankfully she remained conscious only long enough to be certain almost every bone in her body had shattered.

CHAPTER 2

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Gunshots echo through the Sea View cannery.

Rachel flattens against the wall. It sounds so real. Not like the click of the soft-pellet guns. But the report of a real pistol. Here, in this cavernous, decaying building that smells of rotten fish and sweat.

Bang! Bang!

Someone screams.

She looks down, sees the gun in her hand.

Oh, Jesus!

Heart hammering, she tosses the damned weapon aside. It skids across the floor only to slide into the open chute and tumble to the raging river below.

“Rachel?” Luke’s voice comes to her and she sees him, pale faced and staggering, hand clutched to his chest, blood staining his splayed fingers. “Why?” He is perplexed as he falls. “Why did you—?”

Oh. God. No!

This time the scream is her own as he stumbles backward, his face disintegrating into a fleshy pulp being devoured by worms.

No! No! No!

Rachel’s eyes flew open and she found herself staring at the ceiling of her own bedroom, the only light coming from the blue glow of her digital clock.