Monster Read Free

water. Even though her own grandfather's house sat on the shore of the lake, Angela had never gone swimming in it. The water remained remarkably cold even during the hot Michigan summer days.
    She reached the wooded area south of the lake a few minutes later and parked near the water behind a grove of trees. Getting out of her car, Angela was struck by the fact that she might be in as much danger from the police as Mary . They both had short brown hair and were about the same he ight; the police could shoot her thinking she was M ary. Angela quickly pus hed the thought away. The plain- clothes man who had spoken to her wouldn't shoot without giving either of them a chance to surrender.
    Angela strode briskly into the trees. The place was a favourite of he rs . Only a s hort distance from her grand-fat her's house, she often went there to hi ke . In fact, she had been there only a week earlier with Mary. Mary had been unusually silent, as if she had a lot on her mind. If only Angela had pro b ed her silence, perhaps tonigh t could have been avoided.
    Angela had to fight down a sudden wave of nausea.
    Todd's intesti nes slipping down the walls.
    Bits of Kathy's brain smeared on the railing and floor.
    It was too much.
    “ Mary, ” Angela whispered. “ Why? ” Then she raised her hand to her mouth and called. “Mary! Mary! It's me! It's Angela!”
    Her voice faintly echo ed back to her through the pine-trees and out over the water. It was a warm night – the air strangely still. She moved deeper into the trees, away from the water, alternately jogging and walking. This is crazy, she thought. Jim might not even have come this way. Ma r y might have already blown his head off. Angela Warner could be next on the list. Yet Angela didn't really beli eve that. Mary wanted Jim Kline – she wanted him bad.
    Jim and Todd and Kathy. What did those three have common?
    Jim and Todd were football players , Kathy a cheerleader – used to be. That wasn't much of a pattern. Angela felt s ick when she thought of Todd and Kathy's parents he aring about their kids. It was ironic; Angela was originally from Chicago. One of the reasons she had decided to co me to live with her grandfather in Point for her final of high school was to be in a peaceful environment . Her parents' wars as their marriage was collapsing had etc hed a deep disdain for strife into her heart . And now she was in this nice small town for only three months and saw two people killed right in front of her.
    “Mary!” she called again.
    A hand reached out from behind a tree and closed off her mouth.
    Angela silently shrieked.
    “Don't tell her where we are!” a voice hissed in her ear.
    It was Jim . Angela relaxed as he slowly eased his h and off her face. He raised a finger to his l ips. She got the picture.
    “ Is she near? ” she whispered.
    “ I think so, ” he whispered back. He was breathing h ard, she could smell the sweat pouring off him. He glan ced nervously around. “ Christ, ” he muttered.
    “ The police should be here in a few minutes,” An gela said softl y.
    He nodded vigorously. “Good.”
    “ What the hell is going on?”
    “ I wish I kn ew. Who did she get downstairs?”
    “Todd and Kathy,” she said.
    “They're dead?”
    Angela shivered. “They're real dead.”
    “God.”
    “She must have a reason for this.”
    Jim snorted quietly. “ She's lost it. It's as simple as that.”
    “ Did you see it coming? ”
    “No,” he said.
    Angela thought she heard something, bu t could see nothing in the dark. “ You know, maybe we shouldn't wait for the pol ice. My car isn't far from here.”
    “ Why didn't you say so? Let's get out of here.”
    They crept back the way she had come. She hoped she was going the right way. The woods looked much different at nigh t. They came to a clearing she couldn't remember crossing and hesitated at the edge of it.
    “ Maybe we should stick to the trees ,” Angela said.
    “Where's your car?” Jim