Your Turn to Suffer by Tim Waggoner (the ebook reader .txt) 📕

car that could be used as weapons, either. No crowbar, not even a goddamned hammer or screwdriver. And she certainly wasn’t capable of fighting them hand to hand. She was fit, but she had no combat training of any kind, and even if she had, there were simply too many of the damn things for one person to deal with, no matter how skilled at fighting he or she was. She couldn’t defend herself, and in only a matter of moments….

She realized then that she’d been wrong. She did possess one weapon, and if she wanted to survive this attack, she needed to use it – now.

She put her foot on the brake and stabbed her finger toward the ignition switch. The Civic’s engine turned over, and she put the car in drive. She removed her foot from the brake, put it down on the accelerator, and the vehicle leaped forward. She couldn’t see the access road clearly because of the shadow creatures crouched on her hood and roof, their clawed hands pounding on the windshield. She gripped the steering wheel tightly and did her best to maneuver through the cemetery without hitting any headstones or trees. Her path was erratic and weaving, and she couldn’t go fast enough to dislodge the shadow creatures that clung to her car. She’d left the others behind, but a quick glance at the rearview showed they were running after her, and as slow as she was moving, she knew they’d catch up to her soon. Some escape this was turning out to be.

Fuck it.

She angled her Civic off the path and pointed it toward the brick wall that enclosed the cemetery. She had a relatively unobstructed route to the wall, and she jammed the accelerator to the floor. The car began to gain speed as it moved forward, and she yanked the steering wheel to the right and left as she went, doing her best to avoid the few headstones in her way. She clipped one with the edge of her front bumper, but the impact wasn’t enough to slow her down significantly. She mentally apologized to whoever lay buried beneath the headstone she’d damaged, and then forgot about it as she continued to accelerate toward the wall.

The shadow things hanging on to her car showed no indication that they were alarmed by what she was doing, and they continued pounding at the Civic’s windshield and side windows. Cracks were beginning to appear in the glass, and Lori knew she had only seconds left before the creatures broke through.

The pale orange-brick face of the wall grew larger in her vision, seeming to almost shimmer, as if she was viewing it through tears. She realized then what a ridiculous plan this was, if it could even be called a plan. She’d started driving toward the wall out of instinct, hoping to scare off the shadow creatures, or if they wouldn’t scare, to injure them when the car crashed into the wall. But either the things weren’t intelligent enough to know what she was doing, or they didn’t care. Maybe the impact wouldn’t harm them, or maybe they didn’t fear injury. Maybe they possessed no drive for self-preservation, only a need to attack and kill. Even if the shadow creatures were as vulnerable as humans – which she doubted – she couldn’t possibly build up enough speed to do them any real harm when she crashed. The most likely outcome of her grand attempt to flee was that she’d hit the wall, the vehicle’s airbags would go off, and she’d be momentarily stunned, giving the shadow creatures the few last moments they would need to smash through the car windows and get their clawed hands on her.

But her sense of self-preservation was highly developed, and as the wall loomed close, she was unable to stop herself from stomping on the brake. She gripped the steering wheel even tighter, closed her eyes, and waited for the collision to happen.

Chapter Seven

And waited.

And waited.

The Civic came to a stop, but it felt as if the car had continued moving longer than should’ve been possible given her proximity to the wall. Keeping her foot on the brake, she opened her eyes. She registered darkness first, and she felt a rush of panic, believing that so many of the shadow creatures now clung to her car that they completely covered the windows. But then the Civic’s automatic headlights came on and they cut through the darkness, illuminating a glossy-smooth length of road. She saw no other light outside – no streetlights, no building lights, not even any stars.

She had a sudden sick feeling she knew where she was.

Pain hit her then, fiery lines of agony that covered her flesh, which made her skin burn. She glanced down at herself, and by the dashboard lights she saw she was naked, her body covered with cuts, welts, and bruises – just as she’d been the last time she was here. Blood flowed freely from the worst of the wounds, but none of them appeared life threatening, and she decided to ignore them for the time being. Her wrists and ankles hurt, and the skin was red and swollen. From the manacles, she thought.

Somehow, she had found her own entry to the Nightway, and this time she’d brought her car with her. However, it appeared none of the shadow creatures had managed to accompany her. None were visible in the headlight beams, and none clung to the car, pounding their clawed hands on the windows. The silence was as eerie as it was welcome, though. All she could hear now was the sound of the Civic’s idling engine combined with the frantic beating of her heart and the rapid in-out, in-out of her breathing. Then again, maybe the shadow things had transitioned to this starless void with her, only they’d moved away from the car, taking refuge in the dark where they would be perfectly camouflaged, shadows lost in shadow. Maybe they were