Glory (Book 1) by Michael McManamon Read Free Book Online

the little girl in her arms and pressed her tightly against herself.
    "I'm so sorry," she muttered.
    She walked downstairs and headed straight to the back door.
    As she came upon it, Jane stopped herself from going outside right away. She wasn't sure if any of thos e peopl e were still around; if they were waiting to attack her.
    Then again, she didn't know if there were any more of them still alive. She hadn't heard any of them this morning. There was no more screaming, fighting, killing. For all Jane knew, she was the only one left.
    That thought startled her. But it was another one that she forced herself not to think of. At least, not yet. She could worry about thi s afte r she buried her daughter.
    She opened the back door and stepped out onto the deck.
    The sunlight shone brightly into her eyes. She had to squeeze them shut before she could adjust to it. When she did, she could see that it was a beautiful morning. It wasn't one that she was going to enjoy, though. Not with her dead daughter in her arms and her husband missing, probably killed.
    She walked into the backyard and headed over to the work shed to get a shovel.
      Jane had decided to bury her daughter underneath their maple tree. She used to sit out there and read to her little girl. Her husband would come and sing or play peek-a-boo. It felt like the right place for her to be put.
    She paused at the work shed door.
    No, there won't be anyone in there , she told herself . Who was going to hang-out in a work shed?
    Jane opened the door. It creaked as she did and caused her to stop. There wasn't much noise around and it sounded strange in the silence.
    "I'm being ridiculous," she said. Even her voice sounded weird to her at the moment.
    She pulled the door open the rest of the way, not wanting to worry any more about these things. It creaked again, but no one came out to attack her.
    She made her way into the work shed and grabbed the shovel. Then she headed over to the maple tree.
    When she got there, she placed Becky on the grass. She didn't want to let go of her daughter, but she had no choice. She needed to dig. And, for that, she needed two hands.
    She grabbed hold of the shovel and started.
    Jane didn't look at her daughter as she dug the burial plot. She couldn't. It took everything she had to simply dig the hole. She couldn't think about her husband, either . She just couldn't . She focused on digging the shovel into the ground. She watched as she piled the dirt onto the grass. That was all that she could manage. She stopped only when she thought that she had dug a big enough hole.
    Jane turned and looked at the little girl lying there. Her daughter hadn't moved.
    Of course, she hadn't moved.
    Some part of Jane had wished that she would have, that this had all been some sort of dream . A nightmare . She wished the the little girl would be smiling up at her, making her cute little baby sounds. Becky would reach up and try to grab her mother's finger. She'd giggle when she caught it. But that wasn't going to happen. Her daughter hadn't moved. She was there. Dead.
    Jane placed the shovel onto the ground and knelt beside her daughter. She pushed the little girl's hair back from her face. She could see the blood that had dried on her cheeks, the bruises underneath her eyes. And, though she wasn't sure, she thought that the little girl's nose had been broken.
    Jane ran her finger along Becky's face.
    "I'm so sorry," she said again. "I should have protected you. I should have tried."
    Jane's voice drifted off. Sh e hadn' t stopped her husband from killing their child. Sh e hadn' t protected her. That was the truth.
    But what could she have done ? Her daughter had changed too. Becky had attacked her. If she had been bigger, Jane knew that her daughter would have tried to kill her as well . But…
    Jane felt tears come to her eyes. They ran down her cheeks and fell onto the little girl's face. The dried blood darkened underneath them.
    "I'm sorry."
    Jane lifted