Paranormals (Book 2): We Are Not Alone Read Online Free PDF Page A

turned in that direction, the snake-man had almost gotten her. And every time she tried to work her way back toward the campus, where she knew she would find people, he kept cutting her off, using the storm drains over and over again to outpace her as he could not do on foot. So she kept going, kept calling for help, and kept praying ...
    Kimberly had been walking to her first afternoon class after lunch. Normally her roommate would’ve been with her, but not today. On any prior day this semester her boyfriend might’ve tagged along, but they’d had a huge fight over the weekend and he was still giving her the silent treatment. And as luck would have it, even her cell phone was back in her apartment on the charger. So she had been truly alone as she walked from her apartment toward the college, but when the homeless man first approached her, she didn’t think much of it.
    As she waited for a lone car to pass before crossing the next residential street, the vagrant had drifted toward her and mumbled something she did not understand. The first thought that went through her mind was her mother’s advice, which would’ve been to run screaming for the hills from any male who approached her without three forms of photo identification. Rolling her eyes at her phantom mother, she instead replied with a courteous, “I’m sorry?”
    “... etty,” was all she heard this time. The man’s voice had been very whispery, like he suffered from extreme laryngitis.
    Assuming that he was probably asking her for money, she had replied, “I’m sorry, I don’t carry any cash on me.” She indicated her two textbooks and notebook, displaying her lack of a purse.
    The homeless man drew nearer, and for the first time, she had caught a whiff of his terrible smell. It wasn’t just body odor, either; he smelled very musty, very dank. It wasn’t at all pleasant, and she had taken a step back.
    “... retty,” he tried again.
    Easing further away, she had replied, “I’m sorry, sir, I can’t understand you.”
    The man had cleared his throat and repeated, “You’re pretty.”
    That was too much. Maybe she should’ve thanked him for the compliment, but instead she had said, “I have to go now. I have to get to class.” She looked away and started crossing the street.
    “Don’t turn your back on me !”
    Shocked by his audacity, Kimberly had whirled around to give him a piece of her mind—
    In a matter of seconds, the man changed. He threw his head back, revealing that his matted hair was just a wig. No, that wasn’t right, because the hair had fallen away in separate clumps — he had not lost a wig, but had shed his actual hair. And as his face elongated, his features flattening, he shrugged his shrinking shoulders and slithered right out of his dirty clothes. And just like that, a man-sized reptile stood before her, his arms and legs shriveling as his torso extended.
    Dear God, drifted through her mind. A real paranormal.
    The snake-man opened his mouth to speak, but where his voice had been hoarse before, now it was so hissy all she understood was, “... inside you ...”
    She dropped her books and ran. And now, God only knew how much later, she was still running. In broad daylight down freakishly empty residential streets, she was running for her life from the first paranormal she had ever met.
    Kimberly had run track her whole life, but even she could not keep up this pace forever. If she didn’t pull a muscle and fall flat on her face, she might simply slow down to the point where the snake-man would finally get her. She could only be grateful that it hadn’t already occurred to him to revert to his original, human form and try catching her on foot instead of slithering through the waterways below. Maybe he’d been using his paranormal form for so long, he no longer thought in norm terms? She didn’t care, she just wanted someone to please, please help her!
    At the intersection ahead of her, a plain, grey sedan with