Blood Will Tell

Начало книги

Her brother, Stellan, was always telling her curiosity killed the cat. She was too young to take this as the warning it was. She was curious. Curious about the noises she thought she heard from below the house. Curious enough to venture downwards.

Like a cat that knew she wasn’t allowed on the kitchen counter tops, Eden made her way down the wide stone staircase that spiralled into the basement. Her heart thudded in her chest. Daddy said she wasn’t allowed down here, but that noise… She flinched again as another scream rent the air. As her patent shoe finally descended into the corridor, her head peeking around the corner tentatively, she thought her heart was going to explode out of her chest. She froze, her eyes drawn to the iron door near the end of the long hallway. She waited as the sounds of struggle beyond the door grew more frantic.

The iron door burst open. A woman — a beautiful woman with long red curls — fell out of the doorway and onto the cold, hard floor; her arms stretched out in front of her as she tried to claw her way along the ground, fingernails breaking off in her wild struggle. Eden took a step forward, terror choking her. The woman’s mouth and left side of her pretty face were swollen. Even so young, Eden knew the signs of violence. Eden’s horrified eyes scanned the naked woman. Raised bite marks, bleeding and raw, covered her breasts and stomach, and (Eden shuddered in confusion) the inside of her thigh. Lacerations across her back and legs wept openly, excruciating and bloody. The woman sobbed, too weak to pull herself very far, crawling in increments towards Eden. Eden took another step forward and the woman looked up.

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