JACK KILBORN ~ TRAPPED by J.A. Konrath, Jack Kilborn Read Free Book Online

never missed it once, and she was about a hundred years old. I thought there was supposed to be a bright light, and clouds, and an angel choir. That’s how it is supposed to be, right?”
    “ Maybe there was,” Tyrone said.
    “ So why’d she frickin’ say that?”
    “ Tom, you said she was on drugs, acting funny. Maybe she saw all the lights ‘n clouds n’ shit, but her words were all messed up. You don’ know for sure.”
    Meadow guffawed. “Man, this conversation is wack.”
    Tyrone stared at Meadow. “Don’t you believe in God?”
    “ If there’s a God, what he ever done for me? I grew up poor, my moms spendin’ the welfare on drugs. I joined a gang just to keep my belly full. God? Bullshit.”
    “ God’s up there.” Tyrone looked skyward, up at the big orange moon. “He just prefers we work this shit out ourselves.”
    “ Ain’t no point in having a god, man, if he’s just a slum lord never does nothin’.”
    Tyrone turned to Meadow. “How do you know? You ever pray for anything before?”
    “ Naw.”
    “ Maybe you should try it once, see if it—”
    The scream cut Tyrone off. High-pitched, piercing, coming from right behind him. The scream of someone in absolute, complete agony, so shrill it seemed to burn into Tyrone’s head. Tyrone twisted around, feeling his whole body twitch like he did back in the day when something bad was going down. He automatically reached for his belt, his fingers seeking out a knife, a gun, a bike chain, anything at all to defend himself with. They came up empty. So he stood up and stumbled sideways, bumping into Tom, steadying himself even though his legs were jonesing to run him the hell out of there.
    His eyes scanned the tree line, seeing only random shadows flitting across the trunks. Beyond that, a darkness so vast it seemed like the forest was opening its giant mouth to eat them all.
    “ The fuck was that?”
    Meadow was standing next to Tyrone, also slapping his pants in search of a weapon he wasn’t going to find. Tom was on Tyrone’s other shoulder, holding out his weak-ass marshmallow stick like that would protect them.
    Tyrone held his breath. Crickets and silence. This island was too damn quiet. Never got this quiet in Motown. Never got this dark, neither. Tyrone could survive on the street for weeks when he had to, but out here in bumblefuck he knew he wouldn’t last a day. Can’t B&E for duckets or pop in a homie’s crib for food when you’re in the middle of the woods. And if something was chasing you, where were you supposed to hide?
    “ It’s one of the girls, messing with us,” Tom said.
    Tyrone felt a stab of concern for Cindy, then dismissed it. This scream came from the opposite direction. Tyrone didn’t know what exactly it was about the girl that he liked, but he just liked her, is all. He never did anything about it. Never even said anything. Both he and Cindy were in the Center to improve themselves. That was a big enough job without adding all that relationship baggage to the mix.
    Still, she was a sweet girl. Strong too, in her way. And getting better looking every day since kicking meth. Maybe one day they—
    Something flashed, in Tyrone’s peripheral vision. He spun toward it, squinting into the dark trees.
    “ You dudes see that?”
    “ See what?” Tom said. He looked left, then right, then, comically, up into the sky.
    “ Some kinda light. Same direction as the scream.”
    “ Someone’s gotta be messing with us.” Tom rubbed his palm back and forth over his scalp, so quick it looked like he was going to give himself a rug burn. “Lights and bullshit screams. Trying to scare us.”
    Meadow shook his head. “Didn’t sound like no bullshit scream. Sounded real. And close.”
    “ You maybe wanna go check?”
    “ You go check, white boy. With your little stick.”
    Tyrone shushed them. “Quiet. I hear somethin’.”
    He recognized the noise, because they all made the same noise earlier, on the hike to this