It was exactly what Ada had warned her had happened to the other prisoners who attempted this same escape. They failed to do it for fear of the unknown. They had thought about themselves, their current situation, and how it was always best to stick with what you knew and to not take risks.
Molly wasn’t so inclined. She took risks. That was her way. The risks she took were always well calculated, but they were a risk nonetheless. She knew she could not stay here, that she could not allow herself, nor Sam or Casey, to get sucked into this place for years.
The organ kicked in, and the procession moved outdoors, to the hole in the ground someone had dug for her. She ought to bide her time, Molly decided. For the right moment to strike.
But when? Would she even do it if she didn’t do it soon? The gateway might close, and then she would never get back.
The moment didn’t feel right. She supposed it never would. She let out a breath and began to reach out a hand.
She had a strong repulsion to the idea of touching this beast, a disgusting taste at the back of her throat. The swaying cloth was like a living thing, a squid’s writhing tentacles. She coiled her legs, preparing to make the jump.
She shut her eyes and said a prayer under her breath.
She grabbed the cloth.
The guard’s head snapped around to look at her.
Molly’s whole body tensed, stiff, shot through with agonizing pain, like ten thousand volts coursing through her.
She was right to fear the guards. The cloth they wore was not cloth at all, but some kind of evil part of the creature itself. Molly would never have been able to react after that, her body contorted so painfully. She had prepared her body and was already teetering forward.
She fell toward the glass dome. She shut her eyes, preparing to make contact with it.
She felt no impact on her forehead. She fell through the glass globe, passing through it. She felt nothing. It might have been water.
She opened her eyes. The gateway pulsed, like the muscles of a great snake. Molly looked back to see her legs fall through the glass wall.
She hung there, suspended, holding onto the guard, who ducked his head inside, staring at her. Though it wore no expression that she could see, she assumed it must have been very angry. Molly was stiff with fear. Her body could not move.
Now that she was through the barrier, she no longer needed to hold onto the guard. But it was not easy to let go, as the electrical energy coursed through her body, causing her muscles to clench.
Finally, after a clean jerk, Molly lost her grip and began to fall. Her grin of triumph faded as she realized what she had done.
She was falling, falling, falling, down, down, down, through the tunnel, and would descend the thousands of feet to the ground below.
The guard pulled itself through the orb of protection and floated down the tract toward Molly’s falling figure. Now there wasn’t just one guard, but dozens of them. Soon, there would be hundreds of them.
They shrank as Molly fell through the tunnel, gravity doing its job. Her hair flapped around her face as she fell backward. It felt good to feel the cool wind on her body. She felt more alive now than she had for the past few days.
That was because she was passing into the living world. She did not know what was going to happen to her when she landed, but right then, in that moment, she was free.
Chapter Fifteen
Thump!
Molly landed flat on her back. She hit the ground, and it was like hitting a water’s surface. She lay there, for a moment unflinching. She couldn’t move. She was going to die… again. She ought to be more careful with herself.
And then she lifted her hands.
She looked at them, flexed them, turned them over. They were fine. Falling that kind of distance ought to have smashed her into a bloody mess. But she felt fine. More than fine actually, she felt exhilarated.
She sat up and then got to her feet. She stepped this way and that, relishing the feel of her body. She hadn’t been injured at all. The rules for ghosts up in the Halfway House were as applicable down here. She turned to look about her.
She was in a clearing dotted with short bushes and grimacing trees. In the sky, the gateway’s opening hung in mid-air, like a giant straw gaping down at her.
Out the end of it, like oil dripping through a faulty faucet, the guards emerged, falling and fluttering down, at the same speed they always moved, toward the ground, spreading out, forming a perimeter.
Molly had no time to waste. She took off at a run, hopping to grab the top of the fence and hurl herself over it… Except her hands missed. She passed through the fence, caught a flash of wood chippings, and landed on her hands and knees on the other side.
“Right,” she said. “Ghost. Got it.”
She got to her feet and ran through the backyard of a large house. She cast furtive glances over her shoulders at the sky and accidentally stepped into a swimming pool…
And floated on its surface, her weight doing nothing to the shimmering surface. It felt like a bouncy castle beneath her feet.
“Okay…” she said. “We’re learning.”
Two kids tossed a ball to each other in the pool and hadn’t noticed her appearance at all.
Molly ducked her head down and passed through another fence, emerging on the street. She turned in the direction of the church and ran as fast as her legs could carry her.
Molly didn’t know if these creatures could sense her out here. They might be able to find her no matter where she hid. She was a criminal escaping the authorities. My, how the tables have turned.
Woof woof!
A dog leaped at a chain link fence, growling in the back of its throat. Molly turned to it, backing away. No matter where she moved, the dog’s eyes followed her.
“Okay,” Molly said. “Dogs can see you, but not people. Got it. This is a mighty steep learning curve.”
Molly ran until she got to the church. She’s recognized it as Saint Martin’s the moment it had appeared in the orb. She could hardly believe she was here.
She loved the feel of the solid ground beneath her feet. No impenetrable white walls here. Everything was dirty and rundown. Molly couldn’t have been happier. The wind brushed against her, cool and refreshing.
She ran into the cemetery, running through the tombstones when she couldn’t dodge around them.
Her funeral was still taking place. I’m not too late! The mourners were beginning to break off, heading back to their cars.
“Sam!” Molly said. “Sam!”
Molly weaved between the mourners and stopped in front of Sam.
“Sam!” Molly said. “I can’t believe I’m here! I can’t believe you’re here! What am I talking about? Of course, you’re here! You’ll never believe where I’ve been!”
But none of the guests looked at her. Not even Sam.
“Sam?” Molly said.
She waved her arms in front of him, to no avail.
“Sam, it’s Molly,” she said.
But it was no good. No one could hear her.
How was she supposed to pass on a message if they could neither hear nor see her?
Molly turned to look at the sky. The black demons weren’t upon her yet, but they would be coming her way soon. She didn’t have long.
“Sam!” Molly said. “Sam! You need to hear me! Wayne Lopez is coming after you! Coming after you and Casey for information on the shot glass. You need to run!”
But neither Sam nor Casey heard her. Their faces were blank, expressions hollow.
“Sam…” Molly said.
Molly sensed them rather than saw them.
There was a chill that slipped through her rib cage and into her heart. It could only be the guards. They were getting close. Molly still couldn’t see them, but that didn’t matter. She had run out of time. She needed go.
“I’ll come back,” Molly said. “I promise. I’ll come back for you!”
She turned and ran through the mourners,
paying no attention as she blasted full pelt through their soft bodies.
She ran, not only for herself but for Sam and Casey. She ran for their lives, for their immortal souls. For their very existence.
The guards were hot on her tail.
And Molly ran.
Enjoy Anger? You’ll love the rest of the series
Anger is book two in the After/Life series. Believe me when I say it only gets better from here!
Each subsequent book will be released at two-week intervals. That means you don’t need to wait long to fulfill your insatiable hunger!
As a special gift to you, I’m including an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at Bargaining, the next book in the series, in the following pages.
Enjoy!
Scarlett
Chapter One
Molly ran.
She had no safe haven, no place these creatures could not reach. She had no idea what else she ought to do. She would never get tired. She needed to outrun them for one week, or until she knew they would stop following her.
She ran across the pavement and into the street, turning to check her immediate vicinity. A car headed toward her, engine thrashed. Too late to do anything else, Molly threw up her arms.
The car slammed into her… Time seemed to move in slow motion as the car passed through her body and eyes. First, there was the glass. It entered her eye. Glass looked like water when it passed through your eye like that.
Then she passed into the mouth of a large fat man behind the wheel. He was roaring with laughter. Molly’s face was on par with his mouth. She didn’t have time to hold her breath. She caught the scent of cheese and onion flavored crisps before she struck his face. His flesh peeled back. Molly emerged out the back of his head. Then she passed through the raggedy blanket that concealed the back seat’s torn cushion, and out the other side.
It all happened in the flash of an instant.
Molly stood on the street, catching her breath. She wasn’t tired from her exertion, only shocked by her recent close encounter. The car’s wheels screeched as it took a corner and disappeared down an alley.
There, behind the vehicle, was a guard.
Its head snapped in Molly’s direction. It held up its arms and floated toward her. It wasn’t fast, but it would be unrelenting.
If she wanted to escape these things, Molly would need a lot more than a few houses and backyards to lose herself in. She needed the distraction of the city.
She took off at a run, heading for the subway station. It was less than a block away from here, located on an outstretched arm of the subway spider web system.
Molly ran down the steps into the darkness of the city’s basement, dodging out from under the feet of the people coming in the opposite direction. It wasn’t with fear that she might run into them, only that she didn’t want a repeat of her earlier experience.
She approached the turnstile and leaned forward to push against it. She felt no weight and passed right through it. She ran down a flight of stairs, got to the bottom and reached out to grab a handrail and throw herself toward the train. Her hand passed right through it too.
It would take her some time to get used to being a ghost here. She had developed thirty-two years of habits and muscle memory.
From her sprawled position on the floor, she grunted to herself and chanced to glance up the stairs.
A dark shadowy figure like something from a nightmare floated down the stairs in her direction. Molly got her feet back under her and set off at a run again.
She ran toward the escalator and turned to look back. The guard floated over the heads of the passengers, head moving left to right, searching for her.
Molly ran down the escalator, a slalom course around the commuters. Some were listening to music, others groping each other, making out. She got to the bottom and ran toward the platform heading downtown. She ran along it, checking left and right in case more of the guards were down there.
According to the sign, the next train was two minutes away. A lifetime.
Molly got to the end of the platform and hid behind a wall. She crouched and poked her head around the column. If one of those things was going to come toward her, it was far better she be aware of it.
It made eyes. It had descended the stairs and was now casting which way to go.
Molly flattened her back against the wall and gave herself a prayer. She hugged her knees. She was terrified. If those things got hold of her…
Well, she actually didn’t know what would happen. The very least she could expect was an extension to her sentence. Or they might put her somewhere else… The hell prison Ada had told her about…
She couldn’t afford to stop, to get caught. Not now. She needed to escape, gather herself, and figure out what she was going to do. She turned back to look down the platform again.
One minute until the train arrived.
The demon floated toward her, and then turned and headed another way. Clearly, they had no sense of her other than their eyes and ears. Or whatever they had in the way of those senses. That was a relief, at least. They didn’t already know where she was, otherwise she would never lose them.
Molly looked in the opposite direction, toward the platform. She caught sight of the unnatural flapping fabric of the guard’s cowl.
Molly got up and moved away, around the column to the side facing the front platform. She would wait here until the train came.
The seconds ticked by.
Molly wanted to peer around the column where she knew the creature would be looking for her. She dare not in case she gave her location away. Her heart was in her throat.
Then came the screeching rattle of the train on its unrelenting tracks. It hurtled through the tunnel toward her. Molly didn’t wait for it to come to a complete stop. She leaped through the wall and onto the train, even as it was still moving. The sooner she could get off that platform, the better.
Molly peeked through the window, searching for the guard. She couldn’t make it out. It had been there a moment ago.
A man came onto the train clutching a hat and umbrella to his chest. He stepped right through her. Molly felt sick again, losing her focus. She wouldn’t get off the train, not yet. She waited until there was a beeping noise, alerting the passengers they were about to set off.
The doors hissed closed. The train jolted and began to move.
It wasn’t until the carriage had left the platform that Molly allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief. She was free of the guards. She allowed herself a small, relieved smile, laughing and shaking her head.
That was close.
She wagered she could almost smell the beast…
Something moved out the corner of her eye.
She turned so as not to get anyone—or any thing’s—attention. She caught the unrelenting flapping movement of a guard’s cowl.
A guard was looking directly at her.
It was on the train with her.
Chapter Two
Molly turned and ran through the carriage. She passed the tired passengers at the back, who dozed, head lolling on their shoulders. She skipped over the extended legs of those who read their dog-eared novels and newspapers.
A secret shadow world at their fingertips, unreachable as the stars. Blithely unaware of its existence.
Molly stopped only when she got to the end of the carriage. There was nowhere else for her to run.
The creature was still coming, drawing near. It made contact with a man’s newspaper, tugging it from his grip.
The man leaned forward, peering at his newspaper, looking for what might have caught it. There was nothing there, so far as he could see.
These creatures could move through the glass-like material in the Halfway House with ease, but they could not move through objects on Earth. It was a small, but salient piece of information. Still, it didn’t help much with Molly’s current predicament.
Or did it?
There was one more room on the train carriag
e she could get to. The control room.
She turned and stepped through the dividing wall and into the tiny space. Here was the solo driver. She was a pretty woman, far too pretty to be a train driver. She was looking out the window, pulling and pushing on the controls and knobs without much enthusiasm. She was looking at the monitors and blinking lights.
Something grabbed the door handle and shook it.
The driver’s eyes flicked to the monitor, attached to a camera located inside the carriage. It was not a good view, and would not have revealed a child if he was tugging on the handle. Molly could see exactly what was tugging on the handle.
The guard.
Evidently, it could manipulate objects in this world as well as touch them. Molly only wished she had the same ability.
The driver shook her head and picked up a handset.
“Please do not touch the door handle,” she said. “It comes with a fine of up to two thousand dollars.”
There was a pause, the driver holding the handset to her lips. No one got up nor moved toward the door.
The driver waited, and then turned up her bottom lip and replaced the handset.
The handle rattled again.
The driver sighed, stood up, and moved toward the door.
“No!” Molly said. “Don’t open the door! Don’t open it!”
The driver couldn’t hear her and opened the door. Finding no one there, the driver stepped out into the carriage to investigate. She created enough space for the guard to squeeze past her and enter the control booth.
Molly was consumed with terror. The creature was going to get her. It was going to get her! And she would return to the Halfway House, or somewhere worse, and be a prisoner forever.
The guard filled the entire room, glaring down at her through its shadowed hood.
Molly was doomed.
Hoooonk!
A loud rattle as Molly’s entire carriage leaned over to one side. Another train rushed past in the opposite direction.
Molly seized her courage and came to a decision. A flash of lunacy perhaps, but she didn’t have time to reconsider.
After/Life: Anger: A Paranormal Ghost Romance Page 8