Ragged Man Read Online Free PDF Page A

but her child’s muscles weren’t developed enough to lift her body.
    “ Let go, I’ll catch you.” Vicky could feel the evil closing in.
    “ I’m afraid.”
    “ You have to do it, honey.”
    Janis let go and fell into Vicky’s arms
    “ This is the last chance we’ll have, baby,” Vicky said. “I’m going to try and throw you. You have to grab on and climb or we’ll die.”
    “ I’ll try.”
    Vicky bent her knees and back and lowered Janis as low as she dared, an inner instinct told her not to let her daughter touch the ground, just in case the creature was following her scent. She straightened her legs with an adrenaline rush, throwing her hands above her head, and Janis flew up. Vicky’s aim was true. Janis sailed by the branch and came to a stop and started her descent. When it was at waist height, she reached out, grabbed hold and pulled it to her. She threw her leg over the branch and scrambled up on it.
    “ Climb,” her mother said from below. She added, “I love you, baby.” Then she left the trail and went into the thick woods and was gone.
     
     
    * * *
    Janis started to climb and almost fell out of the tree when she heard the noise coming from the direction they’d been headed. She strained her eyes and looked down the deer path. The noise was getting louder, heavy breathing, like the sound made by the air machine on her fish tank, only louder and it was getting closer. She heard the scream again and knew that it was coming from the thing that made the fish tank noise. Then she saw it, a black blur coming fast, toward the tree, toward her. It ran past. She saw its slick black hair as it glided over the path beneath her. She held her breath and watched it go away. Then it stopped and turned. It was coming back.
    It wasn’t running this time. It came slowly and stopped below the tree with its nose to the path. It was smelling the ground, smelling the ground and looking for her. It sniffed the area where her mother left the trail. It wasn’t looking for her, it was looking for her mom. She wanted to yell, to tell it to go away, but she was afraid, so she stayed still.
    There was a breeze coming from the direction of the monster animal. It smelled like fish, not the fish from her tank, but the ones the fishermen brought in on the Seawolf. She could smell it, she hoped it couldn’t smell her. She stayed quiet, afraid to move, afraid to breathe.
    She heard something else coming down the deer path. She hoped it was her father coming after them, he would take care of the monster below. Her father could handle anything. She started to yell, to tell her dad where she was, but she caught the words in her throat as the beggar man came into view.
    He was skinny and reminded her of the stickmen that her kindergarten teacher drew on the blackboard, but he wasn’t wearing the stickman smile or carrying the flowers that those stickmen always carried. Instead he had a giant silver knife, a knife big enough to be a sword. The sun reflecting from the bloody blade, and the man’s crusty skin, combined to scream one word to the girl above, and the word was, bad.
    She only saw the sores on his dried up face and his bloodshot eyes for a flash of a second, before he followed the scary animal that made the fish tank noise into the forest. She was afraid she would never see her mom again. Then she worried about her father and she started to climb higher.
    It seemed like she had been up in the tree forever, but the sun said that noon was hours away. She wished her father would come and chase away the bad things.
    Then she heard the fish tank noise again.
    “ Oh, no,” she cried, “they’re coming.” She wiggled between the branches, climbing as high as she dared, tearing her sweat suit and scraping her skin, but she was afraid she wasn’t high enough. She strained, trying to squeeze between another branch, ripping a cut on her right arm. She wanted to scream, but didn’t dare.
    She wondered again why her