Sheep's Clothing by Gary Lewis (free ebook reader for pc txt) 📕

looked beside her at the old store owner. "There's nobody we can go to, Sam." Her sad eyes dropped to the seat.

Sam raised his hand in protest. "But I'm not gonna just sit ba-"

"She's right," David said. He turned toward Janice. "We have to leave town. How long is your mom on vacation?"

Janice's phone chimed. As she lifted the screen, David noticed Vance's name light up the notification bar. "Coming to get you," it read. Her eyes lit white with fear. It dinged again with another message. "Nowhere to hide."

"I knew it," David said. "Part of me didn't want to believe it was Vance." He slapped his hand into the table as Sam sat silently. "But I thought part of me wanted to believe it was."

Janice raised round eyes of worry to David. "You were right. Let's go."

Sam stood to let her out as David rose to his feet and grasped Janice's hand.

"Wait," Sam said, stopping David as Janice lightly tugged at his palm in the direction of the entrance doors. "The darkness only lives in the absence of the light."

"What do you mean?" David asked as Janice continued subtly pulling at his arm.

"That circle of secrets y'all keep. That's where it hides and feeds."

"Come on!" Janice tugged David's arm. "We have to hurry."

"Alright, already," David said to her. "Thanks, Sam," he said to the old man before following Janice's lead to the double-doors.

As Janice rushed ahead into the dark parking lot, a raggedy old form bounced into her and she let out a scream, jumping back with flailing arms. The old, blind beggar pointed his hand in her direction. "You don't have much time left. Better hurry." His eerie voice rambled with sickening glee as David nestled her in his arm, guiding her to the passenger side of his car.

"Someone needs to do something about that guy," David said as he threw the car into reverse and pulled around the building.

"Where will we go?" Janice asked as he pulled onto the highway.

"We'll take the mountain road past the cliffs, out of town and figure it out later," he said as he grasped the steering wheel and continued along the brightly lit street. "I've got enough for a room for a few days."

As the streetlights began to pass behind them, the black forests opened ahead to the dim red glow of the setting sun that still surrounded Bluff Mountain. The night was enveloping them in a bleak isolation as David continued to drive toward the mountain wilderness ahead.

"I want you to know that I really do love you, David." Janice's voice rippled with despair.

"It's not over, yet, Jan," David said as he pondered old man Sam's last words to him. "I have a plan."

The road narrowed as they were swallowed by wilderness from both sides. He continued driving along the dark pavement onto Moss Lake Bridge, toward the shimmering reflection of the bright full moon that hung huge overhead. Janice turned on the radio. "Missing woman found in her home as police search for a red sports car that fled the grisly seen of-" She turned the dial to the first song that played. "Must be something good on here." A slow, sad beat filled the car, calming the tone into a pressing, emotional wave that settled between them. From the corner of his eye, he saw Janice turn her face to him. "What's your plan, David?"

"We're going to tell everything to the cops. Turn ourselves in."

His words opened Janice's mouth as she reached to kill the song. "No!" Her face locked onto the side of his as he continued driving across the bridge. "You don't have to choose this, David."

"Jan, it's the right thing to do." He took a deep breath before continuing. "Besides, Sam was right. It was only able to hide among us and hunt us all down because of the secrets and deceit we all kept." He looked at her as he cruised over the bridge. The shimmering moonlight sparkled across Moss Lake's black surface just beyond her light brown hair that flowed softly in the open window. "It fed on our distrust and resentment toward one another." The sparkling lake continued to pass in the background as he stared into Janice's wide, shining, green eyes and took her hand while he continued. "The shadows that it lives in are our own."

While his words still resounded, the car backfired with a loud bang. "What the hell now?" he shouted. Janice shook her head and slapped the dashboard. David pressed the pedal almost to the floor as the car barely puttered down the road.

"Let's just pull in there," Janice pointed at the entrance to Moss Lake's main parking lot.

As he pulled the rattling car down the curving drive and coasted toward the parking area, David looked around at the leaning tree limbs that loomed far above the pavement from the thickly wooded forest. "I think I hate this place even worse than you now." The car puttered loudly before going silent and they coasted down the drive until reaching the first climb where the tires came to a gradual stop in the road beside a secluded picnic area. "Can't go uphill," David said. He opened his door to step onto the dark, secluded street.

Janice's face slowly rose above the other side of the car as her watery eyes glistened in the moonlight to meet his. "So, this is it," she said softly. "I guess it's a fitting place." Her unsteady voice rippled with sadness above the distant sound of waves clapping together from the lake. It filled the silence that not even the crickets dared interrupt.

David closed his door and slowly walked around to meet her halfway at the front of the car. "Jan, I'm sure we'll be just fine." Her large eyes stared back up into his, but only disappointment shown from her shadowy face in the humid midnight air.

"Are you absolutely sure, David?" He felt her squeeze tighten around his fingers from the couple feet of space