Page 53 of Death Rydes Shotgun

About a hundred yards ahead, hidden within the dense woods where the path turns, there’s an old, run-down hunter’s cabin. It’s an abandoned, rot-infested structure with boarded-up windows and a rusted tin roof.

She knows it’s there.

Noah and I would stand at the forest edge and watch as her and her friends would party there, getting shit-faced.

And in this blinding downpour, with the woods swallowing her whole, it is the only shelter for miles.

She’s running straight into a dead end, and she doesn’t even realize I’m guiding her there.

A jagged flash of violet lightning tears across the sky, illuminating the pitch-black forest in a sudden, stark burst of blinding light.

Boom!

A deafening crack of thunder detonates directly overhead, shaking the very ground beneath my boots.

My body tenses.

In that split-second strobe of light, I catch a glimpse of her.

Seventy yards ahead, Harmony is doubled over, her hands pressed flat against her knees as her back rests against the thick trunk of an ancient oak tree. Her chest heaves violently in rapid, shallow gasps as she desperately tries to catch her breath, her dark curls plastered to her face and neck.

I stop dead in my tracks.

Standing in the deep, velvet shadows between two pine trees, I just watch her. I don’t close the distance. I give her those precious few seconds to regroup, to suck the icy air into her burning lungs, to let the false hope bloom in her chest that she might actually put distance between us.

Three seconds pass.

Another violent bolt of lightning flashes, illuminating the exact same tree.

She’s gone.

Fuck.

I snap my jaw shut, a low growl slipping past my teeth. “Tricky little minx.”

I trudge forward, pushing through the thick layers of discarded leaves and heavy mud.

My boots sink deep into the sludge with every heavy step I take, the mud pulling at my ankles like quicksand.

But I know this hellish terrain is working against her twice as hard. Her smaller frame and lighter weight mean she’s slipping, sliding, and burning through her remaining energy just trying to stay upright.

Crack!

A blinding bolt of lightning strikes the forest canopy not ten yards to my left. The dazzling white light explodes through the branches, a shower of sparks and wood splinters raining down as a thick branch bursts into a sudden, sizzled flame before the pouring rain smothers it. A heavy, suffocating aroma of ozone and burning pine permeates the air.

It’s getting increasingly more dangerous out here. Being under trees in an electrical storm is never a good idea. If I can get Harmony to fear being electrocuted, it’ll force her into that cabin.

I laugh out loud, a dark, booming sound that gets swallowed by the wind.

“Is this how you want to die, pretty girl?!” I yell after her, stepping right over a fallen, moss-covered log. “In a lightning storm? Can’t say being charred alive would be my first preference!”

I stop completely, tilting my ear toward the dark thicket ahead, straining my hearing over the deafening roar of the storm.

Snap. Crunch.

The distinct, wet sound of dead leaves and snapping twigs echoes from the dense brush not ten feet directly in front of me.

A wicked smirk cuts across my face in the dark.