The Death Catchers by Jennifer Anne Kogler Read Free Book Online

it was too much for a seventy-four-year-old to handle. I also started to think the accident was my fault.
    â€œI’ll go call an ambulance,” Jodi said loudly.
    â€œI’ll stay with her. Hurry.”
    The sound of footsteps drew my eyes away from Bizzy and toward the corner where the black car had first emerged.
    A little girl with long straight white hair and a black dress was determinedly skipping down the sidewalk toward my grandma and me. Her expression was as plain as her pale face. I could hear her humming; her small voice was faint in the morning air. Her dress was lined with black ruffles and black lace and there was something unnatural about her joyless face. She looked like a demented doll.
    All at once, Bizzy’s left eye popped open. She turned her head and eyed the girl.
    â€œThe miiiir …,” she wheezed, unable to form the word she wanted.
    â€œBizzy! You’re awake! Don’t try to talk,” I said. “Help is on the way.”
    â€œN-ack … No! Mirror!” Her eyeballs focused with frantic desperation. She weakly motioned toward one of Dixie’s side-view mirrors, partially cracked, lying on the sidewalk a few feet away from her.
    â€œNeeeeoooow! Now!” Bizzy implored, with all of the strength she could muster. I looked at her confused, my pulse still racing, wondering what Bizzy wanted with a mirror, now of all times.
    I crawled toward the mirror, grabbed it, and carefully placed it on Bizzy’s chest.
    Her eyes were focused on something just over my shoulder. I looked up, and the little girl in the black dress was less than a foot away from us, humming softly to herself.
    â€œ You have a date. A date with fate. We shall not be late, ” she sang in an eerie singsong. Her voice was tiny and thin, like a parakeet’s, as she repeated it again, in a hypnotic chant. “ The time is here, there’s nothing to fear. You have a date. A date with fate. We shall not be late. ”
    I stared at the strange little girl in her black dress, completely confused, and then looked back at Bizzy. In her eyes, I saw abject fear.
    â€œWhat is it, Bizzy? Who is she?”
    â€œ You have a date. A date with fate. We shall not be late, ” the girl continued.
    Bizzy groaned as she struggled to lift the mirror with her weak arms. “Show the mirra to the girl,” she said, gulping for air and then making a gurgling noise.
    I looked back at the sullen girl. She’d stopped singing. She peered at me with her big sand dollar–sized eyes, then at Bizzy. She turned her head and saw Jodi through the plate-glass window, behind the counter, on the phone. I looked at her face and noticed her eyes had become swirling black holes. Suddenly, tears were spilling from them. She opened her mouth and let out a small whimper. The whimper turned into sob.
    Then the sob turned into something else entirely.
    It sounded like nothing I’d ever heard before, so piercing and loud, I was sure Miss Mora’s window would shatter. The shriek was high and deep—it took my breath away.
    I crumbled to the ground and covered my ears.
    â€œStop!” I screamed, looking at the pale-faced, shrieking girl. My brain felt as if someone was pounding it with a rubber mallet. My lungs seemed to be shrinking inside my chest—like two balloons someone had released without remembering to tie them off.
    I saw spots and then colors. I rolled toward Bizzy, her face ashen.
    If the wailing didn’t stop soon, I was certain I wouldn’t be able to withstand it. Bizzy grimaced as she pushed the mirror toward me.
    I tried to think clearly. Bizzy’d known the girl was trouble even before the wailing—that must’ve been the reason she was so alarmed. But how did she know?
    Show the girl the mirror , she’d said.
    I struggled to grasp Dixie’s detached mirror in my hands. I lurched to my feet, so dizzy I couldn’t see straight. The girl flashed