Shattered Read Free

as fast as she could. When it was over, Daddy said he was going out and left, and the rest of them gave a big sigh of relief.
    She helped her mother clear the table while Tony did his home-work with them in the kitchen, and then her mother fixed her a bath. She was just getting out of the tub and her mother was just wrapping her in a towel when they heard Lucy barking outside.
    "Your daddy must be home," Mommy said with a sigh.
    Marisa's stomach got a knot in it.
    A moment later came the sound of the kitchen door opening and slamming shut.
    "Angie! Angie, you get your ass in here!"
    Her mother was still crouched down beside her, still rubbing her with the towel. Her hands stopped moving and she went really still as she looked toward the kitchen. Then she stood up fast, but not before Marisa saw fear flash into her eyes.
    "Get your nightgown on and get into bed. Tell Tony I said go to bed, too." Her mother's voice was quiet.
    "Mommy." Marisa wanted to hold on to her mother, but she was already gone, her skirt swishing as she moved fast down the hall. By the time Marisa had her nightgown pulled on over her head she could hear her dad shouting, yelling loud, nasty things. Her heart started beating really fast. Goose bumps rose up on her skin with a prickle. Trying not to listen, she picked up her medal and hung it around her neck, then went to get Gina. Hugging the doll close, she started for Tony's room to tell him to go to bed. His door was closed. She thought he probably had it locked, which meant she was going to have to knock, which meant Daddy might hear and come into the hall and see her.
    She felt all shivery inside at the thought.
    A giant crash from the kitchen made her jump. Then her mother screamed, the sound so loud and shrill it hurt her ears, and her dad shouted. Marisa's heart lurched as a terrible fear gripped her. There was a sharp bang, then another, like firecrackers going off in the house. An icy premonition raced down her spine.
    "Mommy!"
    She ran for her mother. A second later, Marisa found herself standing in the kitchen doorway, her eyes huge and her mouth hanging open as she looked at the most terrible sight she had ever seen. Her heart pounded so hard she could barely hear over it, and she had to fight to breathe. With one disbelieving glance she saw her dad lying facedown on the floor in what looked like a big puddle of bright red paint and her mother turning to face her with the front of her yellow sweater turning bright red, too, as though something was blossoming on it, some awful flower that was getting bigger by the second as it gobbled her up from the inside out.
    Mommy. But Marisa was so terrified now that although her mouth opened and her throat worked, no sound came out.
    "Run, Marisa," her mother shrieked, her face white and terrible. "Run, run, run !"
    There was another person in the room, Marisa saw, as beyond her mother something moved. Instantly she knew in her heart that it was one of the shadow people from the woods. Seized by mortal fear, she whirled around and ran like a jackrabbit with her mother's screams echoing in her ears, darting through the living room, bursting out through the front door as the cool night air whooshed past her into the house, leaping across the wet grass that felt cold and slippery beneath her bare feet, flying into the darkness as the shadow person gave chase.
    There was nowhere else to go: Sobbing with fear, she ran into the woods.

1
    "You missed court! The judge chewed Kane out for being unprepared. She ain't happy, and let me tell you, neither am I." Scott Buchanan let fly before the door to his office, which Lisa Grant was, at his direction, closing behind her, was even all the way shut. Knowing she was at fault, Lisa still winced inwardly at the idea that their colleagues--no, her colleagues, because he was the boss--could hear every word.
    "I had car trouble." She should have been apologizing abjectly, she knew. She would have been, if her boss had