Second Skin (Skinned) Read Online Free PDF

coat and hurriedly tossed it over her crouched form.
“Oh, that’s a big help.” I said, grasping the material and attempting to cover her, dodging the razor-sharp talons at the peak of each wing.
“I could shift back,” Brit mumbled.
Matt and I exchanged a look. Naked was better than scales and wings.
“Hold on,” Alec said, pulling the truck over to the side of the road and slowing. “They’re not after us.”
The flashing vehicle ducked down a side street, its lights fading into the distance.
Alec pulled back into the lane and continued at a moderate speed. All of us sat, unmoving, expecting those high beams to blast at us head on.
The streetlights at the next intersection turned red, and Alec stopped.
A booming bass pounded, gaining on us. Curious, Brit poked her head out from under the coat as a little hatchback cruised passed us, slowing before the intersection. The car was crammed full with kids in Halloween costumes. I’d forgotten it was so close to Halloween—monsters were too real to me. The school’s Harvest Moon dance was this weekend. There were parties all week long.
Two poorly made- up zombies hung out the passenger window. Their plaid shirts were ripped, their faces splotchy with fake rotting flesh. One spotted Brit and grabbed the other’s face, turning it so they both could see. They took in her scales and the wings arching against the roof of the truck.
“Whoo, dude, now that’s a costume.” They gave her four thumbs up. Their screams of laughter rang out in the night, accenting the blaring tunage. An old rock tune about beasts hiding under your bed and being dragged to Neverland.
I suppressed a shiver of unease.
The driver must have thought better of lingering when he spied the police car pulling onto Main Street. The hatchback shot through the intersection, and the cop barreled along after them. We sat in silence while the music and lights faded. The truck tires spun as Alec put the vehicle in gear and gave it gas. We drove about half a mile before he turned off Main Street onto a service road and then into a back alley, killing the headlights to avoid attention. We crept along, bouncing through the compacted snow ruts and grooves in the road.
Moonlight bathed the narrow alley, casting shadows along the back fences and brick buildings. If we encountered another vehicle, we’d be in trouble. There was no place to park. The alley served as a delivery drop-off and staff entrance to the many homes converted into commercial businesses. Most of the rear entrances sported spotlights over functional bay doors. Not so with Conundrum. The entire expanse of the café’s back wall was awash in color. A mural—expressionistic, with splats, squiggly lines, and odd shapes that made no sense except they used one heck of a lot of paint.
But Conundrum’s a haven for the arts, a two-story Victorian, with a café on the main level and an art gallery on the second floor. Not that I’d been to the second floor. I wasn’t much for the artsy-fartsy.
About twenty feet from the entrance, my neck hairs stood on end. I closed my eyes, waiting, willing the sensation of impending doom to pass. It didn’t. It grew stronger. I tapped Alec on the shoulder.
“Roll down your window.”
A blast of cool air entered the cab. I sniffed and stiffened. My fingers dug into Alec’s coat.
“Stop. Something’s wrong.”
He slammed on the brake. I bolted up and reached over the back of front seat, beyond Alec, flicked on the truck’s headlights.
A body lay slumped on the ground, half propped against the brick wall of Conundrum’s entrance. Crouching over it, pinned by the harsh beams of the truck’s headlights were two pint-sized, hooded figures.
They whirled to face the light, holding their arms up to protect their eyes. Gnarled hands with only four fingers, each with grotesque black nails that curved into their palms. A sour gas smell emanated from their direction. These guys were rotten, through and through. The tops