Little Deadly Things Read Online Free PDF

imagined all of the things that they would do together, once again, and she smiled.
    Eva’s smile died the moment she crossed the worn threshold into the Rozen apartment. She heard hoarse cries of pain from Gergana’s room, exhausted pleas in place of Gergana’s insubstantial chatter.
    Eva edged to the door, paused, listened and heard the crack of a palm striking flesh. There was a muffled thud followed by an explosive whoosh of air forced from unprotected lungs. Why today, of all days? When she had the brooch that would bring them back together and restore the magic they once shared?
    She turned the doorknob, paused, and slipped into the bedroom. Her senses recoiled at the tableau before her. She registered the sour stink of sweat and hatred. An obese man was the source. He was naked, with blemish-mottled pallid skin. He lay between Gergana’s legs with his hands loosely at her throat. Skin puffed out from his neck to give the impression of a bleached bullfrog. His face was frozen in a rictus, a grotesque parody of ecstasy.
    Eva tore her eyes from the fat man and took in every detail in the room. The markers of Gergana’s youth—stuffed animals and movie posters—were torn or trampled. She saw a broad-shouldered man in one corner of the room. His mouth was a compressed red slash. His bare chest was decorated with a heavy gold chain and thatched with a dense mat of black hair. Shards of pale blue ice, shaped like human eyes, looked from his face and focused on Eva. They froze her in place.
    Bare Chest looked down at an old-fashioned wristwatch, and then back to Eva. When he spoke, she felt the paralyzing cold again. “You come to join, little girl?” Bare Chest asked. “I get good money for you. Better than your cow of a sister. Come here.”
    Eva could not move. Bare Chest closed the distance between them with feral grace. One moment he was seated, the next he towered over her, a steel-gripped hand wrapped around her left wrist. She was too stunned even to flinch.
    Gergana moaned. “Nooo...not her. You promised. Not her,” she croaked.
    Bare Chest laughed. “This ugly runt is like a doll. She will fetch good money.” He looked down at Eva, “You want to feel nice like your sister, eh? I give you something to make you fly like the angels.”
    Eva looked at Gergana. There were puncture marks on the arms that had held Eva. The face that had looked at Eva with adoration was livid with bruises. The eyes that had cherished Eva were swollen. Eva tugged but Bare Chest kept his easy grip on her wrist.
    “Hey, Doran,” Bare Chest called to the fat man. “You want this ugly runt? I let you have her cheap.”
    Eva looked up as the man called Doran continued to piston his hips and tightened his grip on Gergana’s neck. Her eyes bulged.
    “Don’t mark her face,” Bare Chest snapped, “Now she’s lost value and you have to pay more.” Doran relaxed his grip.
    Eva was suspended in terror. Her eyes darted about, desperate to find something she could understand. Torn posters and stuffed toys. Gergana. The fat man. None of it made sense.
    Bare Chest reached in his trousers and freed himself. He forced her unresisting left hand down and wrapped the girl’s small fingers around his sex.
    Eva said nothing. She merely complied. The room around her started to collapse into a pinpoint and her reason was pulled toward a black hole of fear.
    Again, Gergana tried to lift her head. Again, she gasped, “No. Not her. You promised.”
    Without taking his predatory gaze from Eva, Bare Chest hissed at Gergana. “Shut up.”
    Still, Eva said nothing. She was nearing the event horizon of terror. In a few seconds, she would be lost.
    She shut out Gergana’s cries of pain and walled off her own terror.
That’s better. Nice and quiet,
she thought. Then she heard another sound, one from within, first a murmur, then a tumult. A babble, then a coherent Voice shouted to her,
“Fight!”
    But how?
she whimpered in silence. The Voice