Page 72 of Hideaway Whirlwind
Storm goes berserk from the front room, her bark competing with the boom of thunder with the next flash of lightning. Birdie screams again when I pull her up and shove her behind me just as the bathroom window shatters inward, spraying glass shards, leaving a jagged hole in the center.
I’ve had my fair share of nightmares, but nothing quite compares to the sight of the demon with a severe haircut standing on the other side of the broken window, her mud-streaked, soaking wet dress plastered to her skeletal body. It’s a scene straight out of a horror movie, ribbons of blood cascading down the demon’s arm, a knife held in the fist she used to punch through the window.
“I found you, Tennessee,” the demon says through a mouth full of broken or missing teeth, her head bobbing on her reedy neck. “Now, bring her to me!”
“Fuck, that’s creepy,” Birdie says, peering around me while I fumble with the lock, quickly backing Birdie out of the room away from the nightmare creature come to life. Birdie’s mother.
The demon cocks her head at the sound of Birdie’s voice like a possessed doll, her chest heaving up and down, a crazed look in her glassy eyes.
How long must she or anyone else have watched Storm and me make our fruitless rounds tonight, smug that she remained undetected? I shudder at the thought that she could have caught me unaware and abruptly ended my beautiful new life. But at least I know one thing: she either doesn’t have a gunorshe was too scared to use it. Because it would have taken more than one bullet to put me down, and I would have used my last breath to take her to purgatory with me.
When the demon suddenly darts to the left, I sprint toward the kitchen with Birdie racing behind me, my boots pounding the hardwood floor. I make a grab for both of our guns, then pull Birdie down in a crouch at the mouth of the hallway. Now that Birdie’s mother is here, adrenaline and the taste of violence surge within me, our shot at retribution on the horizon. The creature who abused and terrorized my family is going to get exactly what she deserves.
Chapter 27
Teagan
Elliott catches me around the waist when I spring up and try to run past him, and I yell, “Get your hands off me!”
Elliott instantly lets go, but says, “She might not be alone. Remember the plan.”
It’s enough to get me from flying right out the back door. We’ve been over the plan so many times that it should be ingrained at this point, but I hadn’t anticipated the absolute raging gut punch it would be to finally see Mom all these years later.
Elliott and I duck walk into the kitchen, and then he rises enough to peek over the counter before squatting again with his phone pulled from his back pocket. With the push of two buttons, Elliott calls his brother. “She’s here. Backyard.”
“On our way,” Russell answers with a deadly rumble, the screen going dark when they end the call.
An eerietap tap tapfrom the kitchen window causes goosebumps to break out all over my body as we press our backs against the kitchen cabinets out of view. “I know she’s in there!” Mom screams after the next boom of thunder. Thesound of her fury is electrifying, like a live wire has been shoved into my spine, my heart slamming against my ribs. “She doesn’t belong to you!”
“Fuck you!” I yell, legs tensing with the need to run outside and confront her, and Elliott hugs me hard.
Another thing I hadn’t anticipated—Mom deciding to reveal herself instead of trying to sneak her way inside or attempting to ambush us to kidnap Sydney.Would it even be kidnapping with Sydney being her biological child?It’s a testament to just how mentally deranged or delusional she is that, after all this time spent watching us, she thinks she can use brute force or threats to get what she wants when she looks like she could keel over at any second.
Delusional and deranged…a deadly combination.
I grip my shotgun. This could all be over in seconds. Just stand and shoot. Blow her head clean off. But then the blood and brain matter would be a bitch to clean off the deck, and replacing the window would be inconvenient.
“Remember the plan,” Elliott reminds me again, kissing my cheek.
I hate the waiting, and apparently so does Mom, because she screeches an unearthly sound as she races across the deck, her steps uneven, and something sharp is thrown at the cabin, inches to the side of the window.
“What’s happening?” Sydney wails from the mouth of the hallway, huddled with Dustin. Storm abandons the back door to trot over to them, giving Dustin a lick before running back into position.
Angling my body to hide my gun, I tell Dustin in a harsh whisper, “Keep your sisters locked in my bathroom. Do not come out until we tell you to.” We’ve kept the spare mattressup, blocking the bedroom window, but should anyone try to gain access through it, the kids have their own plan to follow—grab the two baseball bats that we’ve stowed in the en suite bathroom cabinet, then wait for Cora, who has been given a code word and key to the cabin.
Without argument, Dustin grabs Sydney’s hand and starts dragging her back down the hallway, kicking and screaming.
“No, no! I’m scared! Mommy!” Sydney yells, wrestling with her brother.
I run in a crouched position and hook my free arm around both of them. Sydney squeezes my neck tight enough to choke me.
“I need you to be brave, baby, and take care of Kendall,” I say, giving her a task, something she can focus her energy on instead of what’s going on outside. “She’s going to be scared, too.” Sydney nods, and I say with a tiny hitch of relief, “I promise, after tonight, you’ll never have to be scared again.” Then I push them both roughly. “Now hide and lock the door!”
“They’re in position,” Elliott says when I make it back to him, and his phone lights up with a text. “This is it. You ready?”
I nod. No more waiting or worrying. “She dies tonight.”
Elliott drops his phone, then surprises me by grabbing the back of my head and pulling me in for a hard kiss, cutting our bottom lips when our teeth clack together. “I love you so fucking much.”
