بخش 03 - فصل 41

41

Tina hears an alarming bang from the house and runs for the kitchen door. It’s the pressure cooker, she thinks. Mom forgot the damn pressure cooker again. This has happened once before, while her mother was making preserves. It’s an old cooker, the kind that sits on the stove, and Pete spent most of one Saturday afternoon on a stepladder, scraping dried strawberry goo off the ceiling. Mom was vacuuming the living room when it happened, which was lucky. Tina hopes to God she wasn’t in the kitchen this time, either.

‘Mom?’ She runs inside. There’s nothing on the stove. ‘Mo—’

An arm grabs her around the middle, hard. Tina loses her breath in an explosive whoosh. Her feet rise from the floor, kicking. She can feel whiskers against her cheek. She can smell sweat, sour and hot.

‘Don’t scream and I won’t have to hurt you,’ the man says into her ear, making her skin prickle. ‘Do you understand?’

Tina manages to nod, but her heart is hammering and the world is going dark. ‘Let me – breathe,’ she gasps, and the hold loosens. Her feet go back to the floor. She turns and sees a man with a pale face and red lips. There’s a cut on his chin, it looks like a bad one. The skin around it is swollen and blue-black.

‘Don’t scream,’ he repeats, and raises an admonitory finger. ‘Do not do that.’ He smiles, and if it’s supposed to make her feel better, it doesn’t work. His teeth are yellow. They look more like fangs than teeth.

‘What did you do to my mother?’

‘She’s fine,’ the man with the red lips says. ‘Where’s your cell phone? A pretty little girl like you must have a cell phone. Lots of friends to chatter and text with. Is it in your pocket?’

‘N-N-No. Upstairs. In my room.’

‘Let’s go get it,’ Morris says. ‘You’re going to make a call.’