I scratched and clawed at her, leaving everywhere from her hands to her face maimed with nail marks, but it didn’t do any good. Her grip tightened, squeezing the furious pulse pumping in my neck as she lifted me off the ground. I fought to keep conscious, but my vision inevitably clouded over with a tunneling gray haze as my feet kept kicking at the empty air beneath me.
She leaned in closer, her jagged breathing batting me in the face as a low growl rumbled deep in her chest. She was going to bite me. I’d turn into a monster.
Chapter 22
Raise The Dead
My fingers grappled at the objects on my nightstand, but a crash followed, and I assumed the brunette had swiped the countertop clean. The little bit of hope I had left drained from me as I clawed uselessly at her. She wrenched me off the wall, only to hammer me against it again with a breathtaking blow. Brittany whispered something, but the comment was lost on me. All I could hear was the rattling of the frames overhead. The entire section above me was decked out with framed award plaques. Faith surged in me once more, and I prayed Mom hadn’t cheaped out. She’d paid no expense with the rest of the room, so it only seemed logical that this would be no exception.
I reached up, tugging at the bottom of a random plaque until the hook holding it broke from the wall. The frame fell into my grasp, and I brandished it firmly. Brittany anticipated me hitting her with it, but she only laughed at the effort. As if a Presidential High Honors Award would really do any damage…
Instead of hurling it at her, I yanked it down to eyelevel and shoved the plaque into her face. The girl howled, and I could hear her flesh sear as I mashed the Tiffany’s sterling silver frame against her cheek. She shrieked, immediately dropping me. Brittany screamed out every curse word in the book as her footsteps ambled mindlessly across the floor. The girl sounded like an injured bull in a china shop.
I choked on the abundance of oxygen that flooded my lungs, welcoming each burning breath as my vision slowly cleared. A thunderous ruckus erupted across the room, and I looked up confusedly. Brittany’s body was in a hurled heap at the bottom of my now-broken bookcase. What the hell did she do? Charge into it? All my precious hard covers and paperbacks lay sprawled out across the floor with the exception of only the top shelf. I staggered up to my feet, whimpering at the sting raking up my leg from the heel wound. Holy crap on a cracker! No wonder the brunette had freaked out. There was a long, two-inch thick charcoaled burn running down the length of her face, seared even on her eye. Books fell away from on top of her as Brittany achingly tried pulling herself off the floor. She got up on shaking knees and staggered back, rattling the bookcase once more.
“You’re dead,” she snarled.
I might have paid more mind to her gigantic canines if not for the gruesome state of her face. Her damaged eye already had a clouded white film over the cornea, and beat red veins raked the remaining surface. As she sneered, the burnt flesh on her cheek stretched, causing it to tear.
“Kat?” The voice called out from downstairs, and I stiffened.
Mom.
Brittany’s cruel smile widened. “Second servings, I see.” She pulled herself out of the bookcase, and the effort rattled the top of the stand, toppling over a mammoth volume. Just as she moved forward, the book fell, smacking her right in the head. A dazed expression met her one working eye before she collapsed onto the hardwood floor.
“Kat?” Mom called out again, this time anxiously. Her footsteps trampled up the stairs, sending my thoughts into a frenzy.
I limped across the room as fast as I could, throwing the lock into place on my door. I knelt down beside Brittany, seeing her breathing, but still thankfully unconscious.
“Thank you, Jane Austen,” I sighed, picking up the trusty all-in-one volume. Who’d have thunk it? A book could literally save a life.
“Kat, is everything okay?” My door rattled as Mom twisted the locked knob.
Crap, crap, triple crap.
“Ah, yeah, I’m fine,” I called out, trying to calm my shaken nerves.
“What happened?”
“Hmmm?” I looked around at the mess, feeling a new surge of panic arise.
“What was all the noise?”
Shit!
“My, uh, bookcase…it fell,” I replied clumsily.
“Oh my god-”
“Yeah, but I’m okay.”
“Well, could you open the door?”
“It’s a bit messy in here at the moment.”
“Kat.” Her tone made it clear this wasn’t a request, solidifying it with a knock on the door.
“Just give me a sec.” Sweeping the books out of the way, I bent down and grabbed hold of Brittany by her underarms. The hardwood flooring gave me little resistance as I dragged her body across the room, hiding her figure behind the other side of my bed. Blood from my leg spotted the floor as well, so I frantically snatched up some laundry from my hamper and tossed the random articles over the various stains. I hobbled back over to the door and pulled it open, forcing Mom’s knuckles to bat the air as she prepared to bang on it.