I launched myself toward it and yanked it open. Behind me, the pounding kept going like a countdown. And just when my hands grabbed the window frame, and I pushed my body through it, wood shattered behind me with a sharp crack.
I dragged myself onto the dormer and eased down toward the main roof. I was almost on the main roof when my attacker grabbed my nightgown.
I turned and caught a glimpse of him. He was wearing a black ski mask.
“Help me!” I screamed and pulled at my nightgown. It ripped, and my foot slipped. The roof’s shingles burned against my bare legs like sandpaper as I slid down. I clawed at the roof, trying to stop the fall, but gravity owned me now, and I rolled off the roof.
The ground raced toward me, and the impact was unforgiving. It punched the air out of my lungs. My leg bent the wrong way and snapped. Pain detonated through me. The ground felt wet and cold.
This was pure horror.
“Help!” I screamed again. “Help me!”
My attacker jumped onto the roof. At the edge, he turned smoothly, dangled for a moment, then dropped to the lawn like it was nothing at all.
I tried to scramble up despite my leg’s pain paralyzing me. But I didn’t make it far. He was on top of me in seconds. His head snapped around, scanning the yard like he was looking for something he had dropped. A knife?
Then his hand closed around my throat and squeezed.
The pressure was crushing. No air came in or out. My eyes bulged, and bright spots burst across my vision.
My fingers desperately clawed at his arms, but his grip didn’t loosen.
I tried to scream again, but only gagging groans made it past my lips.
Faces flashed before my eyes.
Lacey.
The kids.
Amanda.
Even Brian. Stupid, horrible Brian, collecting women like tourist-shop magnets.
I felt my body weaken. My arms slackening. The fight draining out of me.
Was this it?
Would it end like this?
The same hands that destroyed my daughter would now end me too, leaving the kids without their mother and grandmother.
I couldn't let that happen!
A different kind of strength rose within me. Ugly and desperate and furious.
“Ehhhbbb!”
My nails dug deeper, scraping harder, refusing to stop.
But his grip stayed tight.
My eyes burned with tears as a new idea emerged. Quickly, my hands shot up, scrambling for the man’s ski mask. I needed to see his face so I could come back and haunt him. Follow him from the afterlife. Make him pay for what he’d done to my family.
I gripped the mask tight and yanked it sideways.
And there he was.
