Skulls Read Online Free PDF

he was gone.
    Quiet shuffles marked his passage across the room before he went silent. Self-preservation replaced her lost courage. Katie struggled frantic against the restraints, the delicate flesh of her wrists and ankles scraped raw by the unyielding steel of the shackles.
    Her mind in chaos, her thoughts swirled with hopelessness. She cringed at a sudden noise in the dark. Unexpectedly, a blinding light illuminated the room. Against its harsh glare, she could see nothing but shadows beyond it.
    Then he was there once more. The black mask still in place, his eyes were little more than dark dots in a figure eight of white.
    Her blurry gaze drifted down to see he wore a leather apron, stained with dark blotches. Images of the local butcher sprang to mind unbidden. Below him, a black plastic sheet covered the floor and ran beneath her. Her heart galloped in her chest as he raised the axe in his hand. Terror spurred her imagination to terrible depths.
    At last she found her voice—a horrified shriek burst from her throat like a shattered glass symphony. The masked man leaned in and covered her mouth with no sense of urgency. Her scream was muffled against his rough palm. He held the axe before her and waved it back and forth, a sharpened serpent poised to strike.
    The hypnotic shimmer of the blade under the lights silenced her. Her eyes tracked the sharpened edge. The masked man lowered his hand, raising a finger to his hidden lips. He then lifted her chin, her eyes meeting his. Even in the harsh glare of the lights, Katie could see the terrible darkness that whirled inside their depths.
    Then without another word, he drew back and sank the axe into her chest.

Chapter Six
    Jacob screamed and stumbled back. His legs went out from beneath him. The skull fell from his hands and tumbled to the soft earth. Its empty eyes stared at the wall. Wisps of willowy smoke drifted from its sockets.
    Jacob’s throat grated as he tried to draw a breath. His chest constricted against his lungs and seemed to squeeze the air from him. Images of the axe were burned upon his retinas. Its silvery arc shone clear as it cleaved through the air. Shimmers of light reflected across Katie’s horrified face. The meaty thunk of the blade crashing through her ribcage reverberated in his head. The crunch of snapping bone infested him with shivers.
    Though the air was once again warm against his skin, Jacob felt a chill. It wormed inside him, a funeral cold. Sharp pains radiated out from his heart as though it had burst. He looked at his hands and marveled at how pale they looked. They were milk white against the background of brown earth.
    He felt his stomach roil. Bitter acid and bile churned inside, threatening to spew forth. He clambered to his feet. His legs strained to support him. He felt weak, like the tenuous sense of waking from a dream, caught between worlds.
    He forced his legs to walk to the ladder and wrapped his arms around its solid beams for support. His breath caught in his lungs, sounding raspy in his throat. Desperate, he looked at the diffused light above and made his way toward it. Rung by rung, he climbed. His legs shook with every step, each a conquest of its own.
    Sweat ran down his forehead and seared his eyes. He crested the last rung and pulled himself free of the bunker. He lay in the dirt a moment. The tension in his chest eased by tiny degrees until at last, he could draw a decent breath. Cold sweat prickled his skin in the warm air and the hard ground was uncomfortable against his ribs. Finally, he pulled himself to his feet.
    He felt a strange sense of protectiveness he couldn’t quite understand as he saw his hand close the hatch before dragging the covering shrubs overtop. It was as though he was watching it through someone else’s eyes. The bunker hidden once more, Jacob slipped through the foliage and stumbled down the hill toward home.
    He walked as though returning from the dead, stiff-legged and slow. Katie’s face