Prey Read Online Free PDF Page A

wretch another
foamy load on the carpet.
    A low, gurgling
growl filled the room.
    She stretched
her neck to see peek the top of the bed. With an outstretched
finger she wiped the contents of her stomach from her lips.
    The middle-aged
man's limbs twitched. His fingers loosened their grip and lost all
strength. His lungs emptied and the growl whimpered out. He
continued to gawk with cold, stiff eyes. lifeless eyes.
    Susan's neck
jutted forward and steam erupted from between her lips, as her
throat convulsed and found nothing else to expel.
    She reached
toward the edge of the bed and hesitated. Her attentions moved to
the surface of the dresser. She pulled herself up off the floor and
balanced her weight on planted palms. Her nose twitched against the
vulgar odours. Tears trickled over her cheeks.
    With her breath
wheezing in her lungs, Susan walked her hands across the top of the
chest of drawers. Her feet followed, a little less steady. She
turned to face the window and propelled herself towards it. Her
fingers found the cold, wooden surface and she pressed her face to
the chill of the glass.
    Outside,
everything but the top of a tree, bathed in the light from the
bedroom, slept in darkness.
    She fiddled with the latch and, after long seconds, unfastened
it and swung the pane out into the night. Fresh air. She gasped the scent of
damp grass into her respiratory system until she wobbled, light
headed, and almost collapsed.
    She narrowed
her eyes and peered into the darkness. Her tongue licked around the
inside of her mouth and she spat salty bile to the ground below.
The heave of her chest slowed and the desperation of her gasps
reduced. The young woman broadened her shoulders and inhaled a
lungful of the cold night. Her fingers trembled as she darted her
eyes from side to side, searching for a plan of action.
    The knife. Renewed panic racked her
body.
    She attempted
to dry her eyes with the backs of her hands. Her limbs tensed with
fearful adrenaline. She twisted her hips and turned back to the
body on the bed. Her pupils criss-crossed the chaos with lightning
speed. They paused to repeat the process a little slower.
Nothing.
    Pinching her nose between a thumb and forefinger, she edged
forward until the tips of her toes bumped against the base of the
bed. She searched again. Nothing. Fuck.
    Her brow
wrinkled and she chewed the inside of her cheek. She tightened her
eyelids against the watery, blurring orbs inside. Her attentions
turned back to the window and she filled her lungs with a few
frantic gasps.
    The petite
woman shivered and a resigned sigh escaped her throat. She turned
on her heels and bounded around the bottom of the bed. Reaching the
other side, she tore the pillow from its place and jumped back as
the familiar handle glared back at her. Bloodless. She wrinkled her
features in confusion.
    She wavered
trembling fingers in front of her and lowered them as if offering
food to the snarling teeth of a dangerous animal. They brushed
against the wood and stalled. She slid down over the ridges and
wrapped a trembling grip around the weapon, pulling it free from
its hiding place.
    The light of
the room formed shards on the edge of the blade. Bloodless. Unused.
Innocent.
    How... what did he use? Her thoughts
fled in terror.
    Susan leapt
around with such ferocity that her ankles ached under the thud of
her heels. She threw the weight of her body against the door and
slammed it shut. A few items on the dresser rattled from the
wood-on-wood impact. Her eyes jolted in erratic patterns, the
vision hampered by over-active tear ducts. Searching. Hoping. They
bulged against the sockets and threatened to burst free.
    Struggling to
breathe, through a mixture of panic and the scratching scent of a
violent murder, she sprang to the other end of the chest of
drawers, sweeping the top bare with a sweeping forearm.
    She pushed her knees against the furniture and pushed. It
moved, but not a lot. Her features ached as she flexed them