Mayan Afterglow Read Online Free PDF

reception desk she took a key off
the hook marked “master key” and moved toward the stairs leading to a long
hallway overlooking the great room. One by one she searched the guestrooms. All
were neat but dusty after so many months. The last door was the only one that
did not exit out onto the open hallway. Tucked away in its own private hall, it
stood alone.
    She unlocked the door and stashed the key in her pocket to
better grip the flashlight just as she had done in the other rooms. The putrid
smell of rotting flesh gagged her as soon as she stepped inside. Moving the
light from corner to corner she was surprised to find no body in the room. The
door to the left led to the bath. Also empty.
    Aileen’s gun clattered to the floor at almost the exact
moment she felt the crushing pain in her wrist and hand. In an instant she
crashed to the floor. She reached out for something to steady her, but the
small bureau crashed down beside her. Her head hit the floor with a nauseating
thunk.
    It took a few seconds for her vision to clear. She could
hardly breathe. Something was on her chest. She fought the nausea and pain and
opened her eyes.
    The flashlight had rolled a few feet away but it was still
on and cast a shadowy arc of light in the room.
    A foot, bare and putrid, pressed against her chest. She
gasped and lashed out at the leg above.
    Hideous laughter echoed in her hears and dust swirled in the
dim light.
    “You cannot win, Aileen of the Light.” The voice was
high-pitched but male and raw.
    “Who…” she managed to blurt out through her collapsing
chest.
    Suddenly the weight shifted and the man knelt down. His
knees pressed her arms to the floor and his rotting body ground her ribs
against her aching lungs. Bone-thin arms pressed down on her shoulders and the
smell of him choked her. No longer human, the creature was more demon than man.
His narrow, sunken face oozed pus and bile. Fierce eyes bulged from rotting
sockets devoid of irises.
    The sight of him changed her question to a scream.
    “I serve him. I shall reign at his right hand when I deliver
the prize.”
    He leaned forward, bringing his fetid face close to hers.
    She turned her head and shut her eyes.
    Nearly nose to cheek with her, he said, “Pretty and good. I
have not had a taste in too long. He will not mind if I have one taste of the
prize.”
    She kicked and twisted her lower body, but she could barely
breathe and her head pounded. The smell of him was causing her empty stomach to
heave.
    Ian, help me, she prayed silently.
    The door shattered sending shards of broken wood in every
direction.
    The creature rose up on spindly legs.
    Ian stopped for a moment when he saw the enemy. Aileen could
see the pity in his eyes just before he swung the shotgun butt smashing its
head. Bits and pieces of skull and putrid flesh splattered the bed and wall.
Its body collapsed and she rolled away so as not to be crushed again.
    “What the hell was that?” Ian demanded.
    “I think it used to be a man.”
    At the sound of her voice he moved forward and reached down
to help her up. “Are you all right?”
    She reached back and felt the lump growing at the back of
her head. “He knew my name.”
    “That’s not good,” Ian said.
    “No. That is not good.”
    “Let’s get out of this room,” he said.
    He had a fire burning in the hearth and several cans of beef
stew opened and tucked into the hot embers.
    They ate directly from the cans placed on top of an
overturned frying pan on the floor between them.
    She stopped eating. “That thing didn’t know about you.”
    “Yeah. I thought about that, too,” Ian said, taking another
bite of beef and gravy.
    “Mictlan can’t get through, but he is still tracking me. And
yet, he can’t see you.”
    “Interesting,” he said.
    “I have to leave,” she said getting up.
    He didn’t move. “Where will you go?”
    “To Mexico.” Her voice rose with the absurdity of the
question.
    He took hold of her hand as she