All Hallow's Eve: The One Day It's BAD to Be Good by Carolyn McCray Read Free Book Online Page A

have already come to the same conclusion as he took a step forward. “Stop right there! Hands up!”
    Instead, the figure moved off to the right, making his way toward Ruth.
    “Halt!”
    She couldn’t see the figure’s face, since the body was hiding his features. All she knew was that he was not halting. Then he sped up, lurching toward her.
    “Police! Last warning!”
    Her finger tensed on the trigger as he advanced. She had seen what this guy did to a priest. Ruth could only imagine what he would do to them. Luckily, she had a Glock 9mm. Each step he moved forward, the closer she was to using it.
    Please stop, she pleaded in her mind. Please don’t make me shoot.
    But he just kept coming.
    Suddenly, the figure swung toward her. This was it.
    Her hand tensed, ready to fire, but Paxton called out, “Don’t!”
    Still, she almost did, and then Ruth saw the raw fear in the man’s face as he let out a high-pitched scream and fell to the floor. The object he was carrying crashed down, fracturing into a dozen pieces. A hand rolled to her feet.
    That wasn’t a body on his shoulder—it was a statue. And from the stigmata on the palm, a statue of Christ.
    The man caught sight of the badge on Ruth’s belt, and rapidly began signing.
    “He’s deaf,” Paxton said, as he gently pushed on her hands. She didn’t even realize that she was still aiming at the poor man, who was doing nothing more illegal than carrying a statue of Jesus.
    “Oh, God! I almost… I almost…” Ruth couldn’t even bring herself to say the words.
    “But you didn’t, Ruth.” Paxton squeezed her wrist as her arm trembled. “You didn’t.”
    How close she had come, though. Too close.
    It was so easy to link unrelated facts together. A serial killer on the loose. A deserted bookstore. A man who couldn’t respond. To think that she could have added all of those things together—and shot an unarmed man because of them.
    Paxton kept his hand on hers as he called the station. Usually she would have shrugged off the intimacy, but she feared how badly her arm would shake if he weren’t holding it still. Vaguely, she heard Paxton request a sign language interpreter as she stared down at the statue’s bloody hand.
    How close she had come to having blood on hers as well.

 
     
    CHAPTER 3
     
    Cecilia sighed in relief as she left trig class. The day was finally over. And not a single sighting of Jeremy. She barely heard her friends chattering beside her. As they made their way to the parking lot, several radios blared that stupid KMNY concert contest.
    “Oh, we have got to score some tickets!” Helen exclaimed.
    Cecilia rolled her eyes. “Have you even noticed the ick factor?”
    “But think about it, Cec,” Francesca encouraged. “Going to a secret mansion on Halloween for a concert!”
    “I have thought about it,” Cecilia stated, scanning the students flooding out of the school and into the parking lot. “And I think you should actually be a little worried about how creepy it all sounds.”
    Helen snorted, though. “That’s the whole freaking point! It’s Halloween!”
    “Fine, but you do the math. A bunch of teenagers, getting scared and probably high, at some secret location. Just guess how many arrests are going to be made.”
    Cecilia shook her head. She had heard the stories from her uncle. This Diana Dahmer concert would probably fill the juvenile court docket for months to come.
    Helen hurried in front of Cecilia, then turned around, walking backward as she spoke, using her hands to emphasize her point. “We’re teens, Cecilia! We’re supposed to feel invulnerable. We’re supposed to act crazy and do stupid stuff that could end up with us on the front page! It’s what youth is all about!”
    It was Cecilia’s turn to snort. “No. Youth is trying to make it to adulthood alive.”
    Helen moaned and threw her head back in dramatic fashion, but Francesca patted Cecilia on the shoulder. “Isn’t there somewhere