The Portal ~ Large Print by Christopher Allan Poe Read Free Book Online

over Jarod, and fired repeatedly into his head.
    Chunks of skin, bone, and gore tore away, until the final round left his face unrecognizable. Leaning against the truck’s grill, she tried not to look at the bloody mess. Cody cried hysterically across the room. She dropped the gun, ran back to the car, and pulled away the tarp.
    “It’s all over.” She hugged him and kissed his tears. “He can’t hurt us anymore.”
    Her muscles ached as she picked Cody up. Careful to hold his face away from the bodies, she staggered to the sliding front door and screeched it open.
    Outside, streaks of sunlight pierced the storm clouds. What did this all mean? Nothing. Jarod was dead, but his crazy family was still out there. If life had taught her anything, it was that people who got their hopes up were asking to get kicked. She needed to stay focused.
    “Close it.” Cody pointed at the front door. “Don’t leave me with him.”
    “It’s okay now,” she said. Her chest grew tighter. Her asthma was kicking in hard now, but there was still time to make it to the hospital. Sparks popped in her vision. “We’re going to the doctor. Everything is going to be okay.”
    “No it’s not.”
    Dizzy and exhausted, she slammed the door shut, found a pole, and rammed it through the handles to lock it.
    “See,” she said. “He can’t get us anymore.”
    The door rattled. She jumped back. It couldn’t be. She’d almost blown his head off. Four claws slammed through the door and sheared it. She turned to run, but her legs collapsed. She managed to set Cody down before she face-planted into a huge puddle. Wiping her eyes, she coughed a mouthful of gritty water. Cody stood alongside her, pulling her shirt as she crawled.
    “Leave,” she tried to shout at him, but the words choked in her throat. Jarod punched his way through the door.
    “Run.” She gasped. “Please, baby. Just run.”
    “Mommy.”
    “I’m right—” She paused for breath. “—behind you.”
    Jarod walked toward them. Chunks of his scalp were still missing, but worms of flesh on his skull appeared to fuse and heal before her eyes. She urged Cody to run, but he just stood crying.
    Sunlight reflected over the top of the warehouse, blinding her. Her breaths grew shallow. Then Jarod stood above her.
    “I want you to see this before you choke to death.” He snatched the back of Cody’s pajamas with that claw. Her vision constricted as she reached for her baby.
    “Don’t hurt him,” she shouted.
    “Mommy.” Cody reached back with both arms.
    Tears filled her eyes as she listened to him scream. Jarod dragged him away by his shirt. Desperately, she tried to chase them, but her body wouldn’t move. And then she could see only a blurred sky. Darkness.





CHAPTER 10
    J arod woke with a throbbing headache. Looking down in the dark, he found his body covered in…what was that? Mud? A rotting smell stuck to the back of his throat. Somewhere across the room, a fly buzzed against a windowpane. He felt around, found a light on the bed stand, and clicked it on. A smeared handprint across the lamp’s shade doused the room with reddish glow.
    “Shit.” He jumped onto the cold concrete floor and nearly slipped. Pools of blood stained the white sheets. He looked down. This couldn’t be happening. His forearm had been severed. Rough scar tissue capped the injury. Someone must have kidnapped him. The bastards had cut off his arm. For what? Proof of life. They took his arm! He needed a phone. Rankin would handle this. Whoever did it was fucking dead.
    “It’s been awhile.” A raspy voice made him jump. “Twenty-seven years. Come to think, it’ll be twenty-eight next week.”
    Next to a guitar and amp on the far side of the room, a black man creaked back and forth in a rocking chair. His uneven gray Afro spilled into an equally scraggly beard. His eyes were simultaneously kind and disturbing, as if he were some old blues singer sitting in front of a bloodbath,