Close Range Christmas by Nicole Helm (best free ebook reader .txt) 📕

someone to be whistling somewhere in the house. And what about Nina and Cecilia upstairs? Would they sit tight? Protect the girls?

Please. Please, stay up there.

The whistling grew closer and closer, and the room stayed utterly dark. Sarah thought she heard the sound of a drawer being pulled open, but still no flashlight light came on.

The whistling stopped and Sarah held her breath, finger curling around the trigger of the gun even though she had it hidden under the blanket she was lying under.

Then she heard a crack, followed by the sickening thump of a body hitting the floor.

“Stupid old woman. I hope that killed her.”

Terror froze her completely still for far too long. She wanted to scream, but her breath was frozen along with the rest of her. Until her body betrayed her with a violent contraction. She groaned and thrashed against the pain, tears leaking out of her eyes. Grandma Pauline.

“Hope that killed her” didn’t mean she was dead yet, though.

She heard footsteps above.

“Just a warning,” the man’s voice yelled loudly enough to be heard upstairs. “If anyone comes down those steps, I’ll shoot them.”

A light switched on, blinding Sarah and causing her to closer her eyes and flinch away.

“What’s this? The baby is coming right now? Well, that does mess with my plans. I’ll have to think about that,” the man’s voice said.

Sarah slowly opened her eyes against the steady beam of light coming from a flashlight pointed way too close to her face. She couldn’t make out the man holding it. “Where are Brady and Liza?” she managed to rasp. He hadn’t killed Grandma Pauline, though he likely had a gun. Maybe he’d missed them too.

But Brady hadn’t come back.

“Those two. Who cares about them?”

“I do. I do.” Tears leaked out of her eyes, but she tried to blink them away. Tried to focus. She had to focus on surviving this.

“Well, it’s none of your business, but I haven’t killed anyone tonight. Yet. Well, maybe.”

“I heard gunshots. I heard...” Maybe. Oh God.

“Morons shot at me in the pitch black. I could have been any one of their loved ones. With all that haphazard shooting it was easy enough to turn course and come up behind them. A few quick blows to the head, and some rope, and they won’t be a problem for us for a while. Do you know how well I can see in the dark? It’s something of a talent I developed. You see, your mother tried to secret you away. Tried to give you light. But I was given nothing but darkness. Isolation in a little shed. I learned to do what needed to be done. To do what Ace could never do.”

So he knew. Knew they shared a mother. Knew...everything. “Grandma Pauline. You—”

“Just knocked her in the head too. I didn’t kill her. If she dies it’s her own fault. I need you to understand that, Sarah. I’m not the bad guy here.”

She wanted to laugh, but she was too afraid. Anth was not an average bad guy bent on pain and suffering. He was quite literally insane. Just like Ace had been.

Isolation in a little shed? Had Ace tortured him too? But he hadn’t had Grandma Pauline or an older brother to save him. To tell him the truth about the good the world had to offer.

“Now, is this any way to talk to your brother for the first time, Sarah? I’ve been waiting to meet you. I’ve been looking forward to it.”

Sarah didn’t know what to say. She had her hand around the gun under the blanket, but she’d have to raise it and point it at him. He’d be able to fight her off before she did any of those things, especially if a contraction got in her way.

“I... I just found out about you.”

“Ah. So your adopted family was full of liars.” He laid the flashlight on the table next to her. It illuminated him and her heart twisted at how much he looked like a Wyatt. Dark hair, tall and broad-shouldered. But instead of the hazel eyes, he had blue eyes. Like hers. But there was no spark of life or warmth in those eyes. Only the fervor of someone who’d had a break with reality.

How was she supposed to handle that? Go along with what they had to say? “I suppose they were.”

She was gratified when he nodded. He crouched down next to her, seemingly at ease with the situation. But there was a gun in his hand, and he pointed it at her head.

“I’m here to offer you an opportunity, Sarah. A chance. A test.” He frowned at her stomach. “This does put a wrench in the plans, though.”

“Maybe you could come back later.”

He laughed. Threw his head back and laughed and laughed. Sarah tightened her grip on the gun. He was too close now for her to maneuver the gun and get a shot off, but eventually someone would come to save her. She’d be able to shoot him if he turned around to fend off anyone who came in.

As long as a contraction didn’t roll through her.

“Did you... Did you know your parents?” Sarah asked tremulously.

“Yes. I lived with our mother for a time. But she didn’t understand me. She didn’t try to understand me. She tried to mold me into so much less.”

“C-could you tell me about our mother?” Sarah didn’t have to fake the shake in her voice. The emotion. It was both fear and longing. And a desire to reach past his words into something real inside of him.

“She was stupid,” he spat. “And selfish. She thought she was better than what Ace could give her. I showed her.”

Sarah winced as another contraction began to steal over her. “You... What does that mean?”

“She thought she was sending me away to ‘fix’ me. An institution, Sarah. What mother sends their child to an institution? But Ace knew I was better than that. Ace knew. Sadly, even he outlived his use.