The Grip Read Free Page A

squeezing the plates of his skull together.
    Lysander’s breath caught in his throat.
    “He knows, Lysander.” Hume’s voice was more forceful. Desperate. “Knows you’re here. He knew the minute you arrived. Felt you crossing the town line, just like I did…”
    Lysander’s mouth was frozen open in a mix of confusion and disbelief.
    And then, Lysander knew where he had seen this man before. It was Hume’s hollow face that had been glaring back at him from the old weathered placard that greeted visitors on their way into town. And etched below him in crooked red letters had been the words:
    STAY AWAY
    But at the time Lysander was sure his mind had been playing tricks on him, because when he passed that same weathered sign on the town line days later, everything had changed. Even Hume’s face was gone. In its place was a beaming, happy-looking family.
    WELCOME TO MILLINGHAM!
    A tiny impression appeared in Hume’s forehead, and from it a thick drop of blood rolled down his face. The man’s sockets were receding into the back of his head. A noise came from the kitchen and Hume’s cavernous eyes darted over Lysander’s shoulder. The fear bubbling in his voice was palpable. “He hasn’t found me,” Hume whispered. “Not yet. But you. You, he’ll know right away.”
    Lysander tried to say something, anything, but all that came was a moan.
    Run Lysander! Turn your ass around and RUN!
    “He could be any one of them,” Hume croaked. “They all look so innocent, don’t they? With their little white houses and their hybrid SUVs. Hard to imagine there’s a monster coiled somewhere in all that.” Hume’s eyes—black bottomless chasms now—rose to meet Lysander’s, and when he did the expression on his face fell flat. “You don’t know what I’m talking about, do you? You haven’t remembered yet.”
    Lysander felt the muscles in his chest knot with fear.
    “He’s come to finish it, Lysander.” The structure of his face was coming undone. Blood flowed freely from his forehead. Into his mouth. Drenching the dark fabric of his suit and the upholstery of the couch. Lysander could see bits of splintered bone and flaps of dangling flesh. It looked like someone had redecorated his face with a tire iron. “That’s why he’s here. To finish it…”
    Lysander staggered back and nearly tripped over a moving box filled with old books. Glenn reached out a hand and caught him. He was holding a cup of tea. A photo album was wedged under his armpit. “Mr. Hume?”
    Hume’s face rose. Tight and skull-like, but nothing like the monstrosity from a moment before.
    Glenn was handing Hume his Earl Grey when he turned to Lysander. “You better hurry or you’re going to be late for school. It’s already a quarter past.”
    The alarm in his father’s voice rattled him. Lysander snatched his school bag off the floor, shoved his lunch back inside and left the room as fast as he could.
    “I wasn’t really expecting you till tonight,” he heard his father tell Hume as he sped away, “so I hope we can make this fast.”
    Lysander was trying to steady his hand over the front door handle when Hume replied.
    “Keeping you safe and sound, that’s our motto at Zellermann’s.”
    It was on the long walk to school that Lysander tried to make sense of what he had just seen. The whole thing seemed to happen so fast. Hell, he wasn’t sure he’d even closed the door behind him.
    Whenever Lysander closed his eyes, that was when he’d see the stranger’s face dissolving all over again.
    He’s come to finish it , was what that creepy bastard had said.
    Who was the he Hume had been talking about? Lysander wondered uneasily. More than that, Lysander wanted to know what he had meant by finish it?
    One thing was certain, there had been a serious look of desperation on Hume’s face before it began to look like raw hamburger meat. No, more than desperation. Hume was scared shitless.
    That made two of them.

Chapter 2
    A heavy rain