Reaper Mine: A Reaper Novel Read Free

path mapped out? Holy ground mapped out right?” Gods on a spit. Elle climbed into her closet letting the familiar clothes fold around her she let her head fall against the back of the small space. What was happening? This was like some movie, not her life. Not her safe little life. Where she hid out in her little mountain home. Safe from the world, and all the evils that could find her.
    “Yes, Helena,” she answered trying to sound confident. When in fact she was so terrified she thought she might actually throw up.
    “Bet you wish you’d remained with the family,” Helena said, her sarcasm not lost on Elle. Helena’s sarcastic little barb didn’t require an answer, besides, no matter how much Elle wished she had remained with her brothers and sisters at the moment, she would never give up the freedom she now had.
    “I’ll see you in a couple of days,” Elle answered instead.
    “Seventy-two hours, Elle,” Helena reminded her.
    “I know, Helena.”
    “Elle.”
    Elle stopped, hoping her sister would offer some shred of hope, or grain of inspiration, she really should have known better.
    “You have the emergency number right?”
    Dread pulled in the pit of Elle’s stomach making her want to throw up. “Yes,” she croaked.
    “If you have to use it, do it. Do you understand me?”
    “Yes.” Elle’s voice cracked, she didn’t wait to see what else Helena had to say on the issue and clicked the end button. She was ready to go in fifteen minutes; the water and power to her small cabin were turned off, the propane tank valve turned off. She closed her front door and jogged to her old truck tossing her duffel bag into the bed..
    Helena wouldn’t have been impressed; she would have wanted Elle on the road immediately. Elle pushed those thoughts out of her head and started the truck. Thinking like this wouldn’t do anything but pull her mood down. She wasn’t sure how much time she would have to spend with her siblings and spending time with them always depressed her. She popped in a Katy Perry CD and turned up the volume and started to sing along.
    After an hour and a half she was half way down her mountain and still deep in the woods. She was singing at the top of her lungs when the lights appeared in her rear view mirror.
    Elle checked the clock and her GPS; she was basically in the middle of nowhere. She sighed, and glared as the lights gained on her. “Well shit, that’s a bad sign”

Chapter 2
     
    Elle stumbled and fell to the dirt, stones digging into her knees and the palms of her hands. Crying out in fear she pushed herself to her feet and stumbled forward. She made the mistake of looking behind her. A shadow moved between the trees stalking forward barely discernable in the inky darkness of the night. It was playing with her, fear enveloped her making her stomach turn and bile rose to choke her.
    When Elle finally saw the glow, of hallowed ground she had been looking for, tears she hadn’t realized she had been holding back burst from her eyes. Elle pushed herself harder. “Almost there.” She told herself.
    Unearthly screams howled behind her making her stagger in fear. Elle lost her footing.
    “No, no, no,” she cried as her arms wind-milled around her. She fell hard on her left arm as she went down, the pain zinging up her arm.
    It caught up to her as she tried to regain her footing. She screamed with pain as it sunk its claws into her ankle, it took everything she had to not give into the excoriating pain and let the thing just have her. Clambering in the dirt, her adrenaline kicking into overdrive, her free leg kicked out and connected with bone. Rolling onto her stomach she clawed at the ground dragging herself forward through the dilapidated arched gates.
    The peace of hallowed ground hummed along her skin. The monster behind her screamed as his claws ripped through the sock and shoe of her left foot.
    Elle screamed again and kicked with everything she had left, finally jerking free.