The Second Coming Read Online Free PDF Page B

button, and held the phone to her ear. There was no dial tone.
    “Holy shit.” The muscles in her face began to quiver. She pressed the end button and then the talk button again hoping that she had made a mistake. She held the phone to her ear and there was nothing but dead silence. What the fuck was she going to do?
    There were three exits out of the building. She was contemplating which one to make a run for when the power to the building was cut off and the room went black.
    She stood frozen. There were no windows in the building and the room was as dark as a dungeon. She was trapped. She began to feel her way around for her purse. She finally found it and fumbled through it for her cell phone when she remembered that she left it charging in her truck. Son of a bitch.
    She found her lighter, scratched a flame from it, and lit a candle on the bar. It cast an eerie, gold reflection whose shadow flickered on the wood paneled walls. She gazed around the room, listening, as her heart pounded.
    Shelly began to fish through her purse for her pepper spray and car keys. She couldn’t stay put and let the mysterious stranger torment her any longer. She was going to have to make a break for it, out the side door to the parking lot, and hopefully to her truck.
    The shattering of glass from upstairs startled her. She listened for the footsteps of an intruder, but there was only silence. She had to get out of there before it was too late.
    With her keys in her left hand and the pepper spray in the other, she threw her purse over her shoulder and hustled towards the side exit.
    When she got to the door, she paused and listened for any sign of him. The leaves rustled in the wind. She opened the door cautiously and poked her head out. She glanced around the dimly lit parking lot and didn’t see anything except for her pickup truck. She was almost there. All she had to do was make it across the parking lot and get it started.
    She took a deep breath, stepped out of the door and scurried towards the safety of her truck. She glanced back as she fumbled for her keys, dropping them on the concrete. She leaned over and picked them up.
    When she found the truck key, she tried to force it into the slot but it got stuck. Come on, hurry up. She got the key in and as she was turning it, she felt a burning pain on her heels. Before she realized what was happening, she crumbled to the ground, dropping everything. The next thing she knew, she was laying on the cold, hard concrete, looking up at a spiraling night’s sky. What the hell was going on? Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the dark hooded stranger slide out from under her truck. She couldn’t believe it. How could she have been so stupid?
    Before she could scream, she noticed something in his hand. “Please, don’t hurt me,” Shelly stammered, “Take anything you want. Take my truck. Take my…” before she could finish, the man in black knelt down next to her, and jammed a towel soaked in chloroform over her mouth and nose. She swung her head from side to side, but he held the damp rag firmly to her face as she flailed her arms at him. She gasped as he crushed her and inhaled the sweet chloroform as she began to black out.
    At the last moment, she saw her entire life flash in front of her. Not in sequence, like a movie. Instead, every significant memory she had from childhood until that night came rushing back to her at once, stacked one on top of the other like a kaleidoscope.
    With his prey wounded but still alive, the killer slung Shelly over his shoulder and hurried her to the back of his van parked across the street. Everything was going just as he planned. As he got behind the wheel of the van, he couldn’t wait to get his victim to her final destination where his grand plan would begin to unfold. He was going to make Father John and his dad pay for what they did to him.

chapter 8

    A FTER ATTENDING THE evening prayers, Father John retired to his cell. It had been a long