The man would never find her here.
Never.
A long time ago, when she first got away, he hadn’t even looked under the cabin. Maybe he would come back, though.
She didn’t dare to move.
The dirt and rocks dug into her skin, but she didn’t move. Sometimes, itchy bugs crawled on her. She made believe they were caterpillars and lady bugs, and let them crawl.
The cold was worse than anything. It made her shake. If she shook too much, maybe the man would hear her, and catch her again.
A long time went by.
Then she heard something move nearby. An animal.
She held her breath.
Then she heard a quiet, “Meeeow.”
The cat came up against her legs in the darkness, furry and warm and purring like a motor.
“Kitty,” she whispered.
She stroked its head and back.
The cat let her hold it. She held it lightly against her chest. Its purr was so loud she worried the man would hear it and find her.
Soon she was no longer shaking.
A sound from above startled the cat. It leaped away and disappeared.
Joni listened closely.
Footsteps on the cabin floor.
She heard the door swing open. She saw bare feet on the stairs at the front of the cabin.
“Girl?” she called.
The legs stopped at the bottom of the stairs.
“Girl?”
The legs turned. The girl crouched and looked through the darkness of the crawlspace. “You under there?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“You gonna stay there all night?”
“Is he gone?”
“Yeah, I think so. It’s been hours. Took me that long to get untied.”
Getting to her hands and knees, Joni began to crawl through the darkness toward her waiting friend.
EPILOGUE
“When will they take the chains off?”
“When they figure we won’t run away,” Donna said.
“I wouldn’t run away.”
Donna, squinting through dark, could see only a white blur where her daughter sat among the pillows. “I would. I’d run away in a second.”
“Why?”
“We’re prisoners.”
“Don’t you like it?” Sandy asked.
“No.”
“Don’t you like Rosy?”
“I do. Except she’s ugly like Axel.”
“They’re twins, she ought to be.”
“She’s a retard.”
“Yeah.”
“Who do you like better, Seth or Jason?”
“Neither.”
“I like Seth better,” Sandy said.
“Oh.”
“Aren’t you gonna ask me why?”
“No.”
“Come on, Mom. Just ’cause you’re mad they killed Jud. Besides, they didn’t even kill him, Maggie did. And he deserved it, too.”
“Sandy!”
“Look how many of them he murdered. Six! God, he deserved it. He deserved a lot worse.”
“Damn it, shut up!” And then she was ashamed for using such language on her daughter.
“At least he didn’t get Seth and Jason,” Sandy said.
“Too bad he didn’t.”
“You’re just saying that. You’re just saying that to spoil things. You like them. I know you do. I’m not deaf, you know.”
“Well, I don’t like being chained up in the dark. I don’t like that at all. And the food stinks.”
“Maggie might let you start cooking, if you ask her. Wick told me I can drive with him to Santa Rosa, one of these days, and pick up groceries. Once they trust us more, we can do all kinds of stuff.”
“I’d sure like to see the sun again.”
“Me too. Mom?”
“Yes?”
“Do you still think you’re pregnant?”
“I think so.”
“Who’s baby do you think it is? Jason’s, I bet.”
“I don’t know.”
“I’d like to have Seth’s baby.”
“Shhh. I think they’re coming.”
RAVE REVIEWS FOR RICHARD LAYMON!
“I’ve always been a Laymon fan. He manages to raise serious gooseflesh.”
—BENTLEY LITTLE
“Laymon is incapable of writing a disappointing book.”
“Laymon always takes it to the max. No one writes like him and you’re going to have a good time with anything he writes.”
—DEAN KOONTZ
“If you’ve missed Laymon, you’ve missed a treat.”
—STEPHEN KING
“A brilliant writer.”
