Flesh Worn Stone Read Online Free PDF Page B

staring at the mutilated girl, and Steven threw up again.

    “Save it for The Game, big man,” the Samoan, leaning in and whispering to Darius, said. “Save it for the Game. Use it…it might save you.”

    A siren split the laughter and the mood in the cavern turned festive, people cheering and shouting. Steven, wiping bile from his mouth, watched as even the children began laughing and marching towards the opposite end of the cavern, away the entrance. Everyone in the cavern, man, woman, child, young and old, marched out, some even singing, though Steven couldn’t make out what the words of the song were. It only took a couple of minutes for the cavern to empty completely out, leaving the group of five by themselves.

    Amanda dashed to her friend’s side and Cassandra managed to raise her remaining arm and hold the other girl’s hand. She gurgled, trying to speak, yet was unable. Rebecca pulled away from Steven and went to the girls. “You can’t do any more for her.”

    Rebecca gently guided Amanda to John, then turned back to Cassandra. “I’m sorry.”

    Steven didn’t see it, but he heard the twisting of her neck and the snapping of her bones, and when his wife stepped away from her, he knew the girl was finally dead. The three men stared at her in shock but Amanda rushed to her, hugging her deeply.

    “Thank you.”

    “She’s not suffering any more.”

    “I know.”

    John Hussein, who, during the exchange with the Samoan had been silent, said, “I…I don’t know what to say. Did they bring us here as food? This is the plot of a bad B-movie, isn’t it, where some rednecks in the Appalachians or desert kidnap hapless tourists for their evening meal?”

    Darius shook his head. “They only killed her because she tried to escape. They could have killed me right here without blinking, but they didn’t. There’s a set of rules here, a set of laws that they live by.”

    “What’s the Game?” Steven asked and wondered again what Cassandra had meant when she said it wasn’t supposed to be like this. He’d never know now; he was still in shock at the violent act of mercy from his wife.

    “I don’t know and don’t particularly want to know,” Hussein told them, “but I think we have no choice but to follow them once again.”

    Steven looked at the other cave entrance, wider and taller than the one they’d entered, and wondered what horrors lay in the next chamber.

Chapter Two
               

    He’d met Rebecca a short two months after the death of his wife, when he and his two sons were still not just in mourning at the lost of their wife and mother, but in utter and complete shock. It had been a simple incident, but one he looked back on fondly as if fate had sent him an angel to guide him through the dark times. He’d been mindlessly jogging, just burning away excess energy and trying to keep thoughts of his deceased wife out of his mind. It was just one foot in front of another, trying to stamp out the vision of Michelle laying there on the coroner’s table.

    The medical examiner had tried to clean her up and had wiped much of the dried blood away, but it had been hard to hide the bones sticking through the skin at unnatural angles.

    He’d been staring at the ground, unconcerned for traffic and other runners when he’d run right into her. They bumped, head first, and then both fell backwards to the cement sidewalk. She hadn’t apparently been watching out either.

    Steven looked into her face, and she smiled. It was a good smile.

    He felt himself smiling in return, something he hadn’t done since that night.

    “I’m sorry,” she said.

    “It’s okay,” he replied, the uncomfortable smile still present. “I wasn’t watching.”

    A few moments of awkward silence followed until she finally stuck out her hand. “I’m Rebecca.”

    He took the hand and noticed the little string of numbers tattooed between her thumb and forefinger, 12345. “I’m Steven. It’s