Remember the Stars Read Free Page A

and her fingertips again and again until a morbid realization set in. It was dried blood. Someone…or something had died a very traumatic death here.
    Get out, get out, get out ! The words filled her head.
    She turned and ran as fast as her legs would carry her, oblivious to the glass she stepped on along the way. Finally, she came to a street corner and stopped to gather her thoughts and catch her breath.
    Maybe if she got to higher ground she would be safe. It would take a long time— all night perhaps—but if she could get back to her childhood home, maybe she could find sanctuary there, even if she was still alone. She knew how to get inside even if the house was locked. With any luck, her father’s loaded gun would still be in the closet.
    Her plan was to take a short cut through the playground and make her way several blocks to an old trestle bridge. She hurried through the open gate. In the dim light, swings with twisted chains were visible as well as a small slide.
    From behind her came the sound of crunching metal. Leaping forward, she stopped and turned back. She placed a hand over her speeding heart. It was just the gate closing, nothing else. But in the next thought she realized there was no wind to propel the gate shut.
    Never mind. Just keep going .
    She sprinted toward the softball field where there was an exit.  Her lungs burned and her legs ached like never before. Still, she continued. Just as the exit was in her sight, she collided with a hard body and bounced backward in a stumble. As she fell, she braced her body with her right arm, her hand slamming into the dirt and taking the brunt of her weight. The shock of the fall sent her senses spinning.
    “Remy!” Her voice echoed far into the distance.
    But it wasn’t Remy.
    As she got to her feet, her eyes adjusted to the figure before her. It was clearly a man—a small man—probably not over five feet six, petite and almost elf-like. Still, as small as he was, he was still taller than she. Long waves of raven hair spilled out from under a backward baseball cap and fell over his shoulders. Beneath his eyes, were long streaks of melted black gunk—something you might see on a baseball player after hours in the sun— and his lips appeared black as well. He had the same eerie paleness as Remy.
    In the moment, Leah merely stared, transfixed by a mesmerizing beauty the creature possessed.
    When his lips creased into a smile, rows of jagged black teeth showed and Leah snapped out of her reverie, prepared to run. She was so close to the exit of the playground. But her feet stuck to the ground.
    “Please,” she pleaded, but her voice was a mere whisper.
    He held out a cupped hand to her.
    She merely stared at the outstretched hand with its long, black lacquered fingernails.
    In return, he clenched his fingers in a fist, and opened his hand to her once again.
    “What do you want?” she managed to say through her dry lips.
    He said nothing.
    Was he expecting payment ?
        Her teeth chattered.  “I’m…I’m sorry, I have nothing…I just want to go home.”
        He took one step forward, reached out with a greasy hand and traced a fingernail along the skin exposed above the bodice of her dress.
    “No!” she shrieked and recoiled immediately.  Her upper body recoiled from his touch, yet her feet remained planted in the dirt of the softball field.
    He shrunk back, almost respectively, and pointed to the gold bangle on her wrist.
    A memory flashed. The bangle had been a birthday gift from her parents. She had received it earlier that night at the party.
    Before she went to Hell .
    A flood of emotion erupted inside her and she stifled a sob as tears poured from her eyes. She removed the bangle and handed it to the creature.
    From behind her, a gate creaked, and she turned her upper body toward the sound. As she did, her feet left the earth.  The gate was open: she could leave. When she turned back to the creature, he was gone, obviously satisfied