Hand Me Down Evil (Hand Me Down Trilogy) Read Free

see the back end of the blue Taurus creeping up the path. Then I caught a glimpse of a white metallic object trailing close behind. In a split second, both cars vanished from view.
    It became apparent that Tally had also seen the cars disappear from sight. Her demeanor changed, and her face betrayed a look of alarm. We gaped at each other in dismay for a brief moment before pressing our faces to the window pane to search for any sign of the vehicles.
    Bam!! I heard a loud explosion that came from the direction of Mitchell’s Market. And I saw thick plumes of black smoke fill the air.

Chapter 4
    I don’t remember exactly what happened next. A surge of panic washed over me as I telephoned my next door neighbor Eleanor. I asked her to babysit Tally so that I could make a mad rush to Mitchell’s Market.
    Eleanor, a short, vibrant woman in her mid-sixties with grayish brown hair and hazel eyes, arrived a few minutes later. As Tally stood in the kitchen explaining what she had seen to Eleanor, I bolted out the back door, down the stairs, and up the dirt road. Mitchell’s Market was about a mile away, and I estimated that it would only take me a few minutes or so to reach the store if I ran the entire way.
    Darkness was descending upon the small town. There were no lamp posts along the roads of any kind on this side of Grayling. The light of the moon overhead slightly illuminated the path as I sprinted toward Mitchell’s.
    All sorts of thoughts rattled in my mind. What if the explosion had nothing to do with Amber and Phyllis? Mitchell’s Market could have suffered some type of calamity, or some freak accident could have happened.
    Stay calm, I thought. Perhaps there was a plausible explanation. Breathe in, breathe out. Don’t jump to conclusions. Above all, stay calm. Maintain your composure, I ordered.
    Perhaps I was overreacting since Amber and Tally were both uttering nonsense about the woman. Maybe there was no such person.
    But the fleeting image of the white car was at the edge of my subconscious. There was no mistake as to what I had seen.
    When I have no one to talk to, I naturally start to over analyze things. There was no one to tell me that my fears were unfounded. What made matters worse was that I had left Tally home alone with Eleanor, who had no idea what was happening. What if there really was such a woman who was stalking my sisters? What if she returned to the house?
    After a couple of minutes, my legs began to ache, and I started to stagger up the road. The panic that burst through every vein in my body did not help matters any. I hoped that I could reach Mitchell’s Market, learn that everything was fine, and that Phyllis would drive Amber and me home.
    Then I realized that I should have believed Amber when she started complaining about the woman last year. Just because I could never catch a glimpse of the woman did not mean that Amber was making up stories. Everything seemed so confusing. My brain resisted the suggestion that Amber might have been right all along.
    As I got closer to Mitchell’s, curls of black smoke filled the air. My breath came in short gasps, and I slowed down a bit.
    In the distance, sirens wailed.
    Two police cars raced past me and stopped in front of Mitchell’s. An ambulance was already parked outside the store with its back doors wide open. My blue Taurus was engulfed in smoldering flames a few yards away.
    Two paramedics were helping Phyllis climb onto a stretcher as she talked to them, pointing to her leg. There was a big gash above Phyllis’ right eye brow, and her face was covered with soot.
    A crowd of about twenty people had gathered, mostly customers who heard the explosion. I scanned the road for any sign of the white car, but there was so much commotion and people milling around that I did not see anything out of the ordinary.
    The smoke was making my eyes water, and I started coughing.
    I moved past the ambulance toward the Taurus. The police were searching the