Doll Face Read Online Free PDF

and did something stupid like running again.
    But Christ, whatever was out there—and he figured the broken man was but a finger of it—it was almost like he could feel it reaching out for him, wanting to wrap bony digits around his throat.
    “I don’t like this shit,” he said. “We’re like sitting targets or something.”
    Soo-Lee sighed. “Calm down. We called 911. The police and ambulance should be here soon. We should be hearing their sirens anytime now.”
    Creep just rolled his eyes.
    He didn’t like this shit.
    Soo-Lee was easy on the eyes, exotic and Asian and all that, but she was like some extension of Lex and he didn’t like that at all. They could pretend there wasn’t something very messed-up about this situation, but they were wrong. They could try and rationalize it all they wanted, but Creep’s fucking Spidey-Sense was tingling. In fact, it felt positively electrical. His stomach was hollow and his scalp felt like it wanted to crawl right off the back of his head. He had the most disturbing feeling that they had now entered the Twilight Zone.
    And if he needed more evidence, then that man…that mannequin…that thing they had run down pretty much clinched it.
    Danielle had pressed herself up against the plate glass windows of a coffee shop now like a spider flattening itself on a brick to suck up some heat.
    Her entire body was shaking.
    She isn’t goddamn helping, he thought. She isn’t helping at all.
    And again, he knew it was because she was acting on the outside the way he was feeling on the inside.
    “Danielle,” Soo-Lee said in a very relaxed, calming voice. “It’s going to be okay. The police will be coming soon. Then we can get out of here. Just try to take it easy.”
    But she wasn’t taking it easy.
    She was shaking so bad she was rattling the window.
    “It’s gonna come for us. It’s gonna find us. It’s gonna kill us,” she said, her voice high and squeaking like she was eight years old again. And maybe she was at that.
    Lex walked down to the corner and Creep followed him. Soo-Lee made to join them, but Danielle gripped her arm like a little girl who was afraid of the dark.
    Creep looked down the street. “I think someone should go take a look for Ramona and Chazz. What if they’re hurt or something?”
    Lex nodded. “I’ll flip you for it. I don’t want us both going. I want one of us to stay with the girls.”
    Creep liked that. It was the kind of thing a hero said in an old movie. One of those silly Hollywood clichés. But he was okay with it. He swallowed down his fear. “You stay, Lex. I’ll go. You’re a cooler head than I am. I’ll just make them more nervous.”
    Lex didn’t argue the fact; it was obvious.
    “I’ll take a quick run down there and run right back.”
    “Okay. Be careful.”
    Creep took off. He was surprised he had the guts to do this at all. Was it Ramona? Yeah, he figured it was. He had an adolescent fantasy brewing in the back of his mind where he rescued her and she was grateful.
    Very, very grateful.
    He went down to the block where they’d turned the corner. God, the shadows were everywhere, so black, so reaching. They were strung like knitted yarn. He got to the last storefront, some sort of bank with gold leaf lettering in the windows. Nice and archaic. He peered around the corner.
    His heart was pounding and his knees felt weak.
    He could see the van down there. Moonlight glimmered off the windshield. One of the doors was open. There was nothing between but glistening wet pavement.
    No sign of Chazz or Ramona.
    Nothing at all moved down there.
    He pulled out his Nokia and called Chazz’s cell. He got his voice mail. He texted him, but got nothing in reply. Either he didn’t have his phone with him or it was dead or he was—
    Don’t get going with that shit.
    They could have been behind the van, he supposed. That was possible.
    No. He wasn’t going to go down there. Too risky. He’d checked on them and that’s all