Free Gridlocked Guesthouse (Locked House Hauntings Book 1) by Mixi J Applebottom Page B

shot, and her hands were trembling. Ben was in bad shape.
    His shirt was filthy and dirty, and she started to slowly remove it and found it was stuck to his skin--no, stuck to his scabs. His chest bled as she carefully removed the shirt. He looked like he had been beaten by branches. Or whipped. Long thin scratches of a variety of depths and lengths ran across his chest and back and arms. They were covered in dirt and blood. Carefully, she started washing them with Beth.
    "Jenny is locked in her car. I don't know if they can get her out," Beth whispered.
    "Okay." Rachel sounded calm, but uncertain.
    Beth tried again. "She's tied up."
    Rachel looked up sharply and inhaled. Ben let out a terrified moan. Rachel's calm demeanor started to crack when Beezer shouted, "Did you ask for fucking ibuprofen? Fucking ibuprofen! Do you think that's gonna help him?"
    Beezer was scared shitless. He couldn't run, he couldn't help. How had Ben gotten back here!
    What happened to him!

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
     
    Mike, Zane, and Ricky stepped out the front door and stared at the cars. Jenny was in the middle car with both the goats, her mouth still tied up. Her hands were tied too, they saw once they got closer. She was still sobbing.
    Ricky's car was on one side of her little bug, and Rachel's was on the other. There was not enough room to open the doors. (You do remember she pushed it into the spot?)
    Mike's van was pressed so tight to that little bug's bumper, opening the trunk would also be impossible.
    So what were they going to do?
    "Do you think we could pull Ricky's or Rachel's forwards enough to open the door?" Zane said finally. All three men were seriously quiet, staring at the conundrum, and trying several times to open a door. They were locked. Jenny seemed to be trying to unlock her door, but her wrists were tied together and laced to the steering wheel.
    She couldn't quite pop the lock pin up with her elbow.
    "I think we will have to break a window," Ricky said finally.
    "What happened to Ben?" Zane said slowly.
    "I don't know," Ricky replied, his eyes locked on the wide-eyed frightened girl with the goats.
    "Who did this to Jenny?" Mike said, looking around. There wasn't anyone out there; it was just the three men and the tied-up girl and a pair of goats.
    It's pretty comical, if you ask me. I thought they'd see her and go wildly throwing rocks at her windows and bash them down and drag her out. I really thought they would! But no, they just stood nervously together, totally freaked out.
    Finally, Mike was the one who said, "We're going to have to break a window. Which one?"
    Well, that was an interesting question. A side window would be hard as hell to break because there was no room to swing anything. Hell, none of the three men could even easily fit between the two cars on either side.
    That left the windshield or the back window.
    Unfortunately, the rear window was really damn tiny on her bug. It certainly wasn't "Someone can easily crawl through this, untie you, and then pull you out" big. Which left the only option: Crushing the glass window directly in front of Jenny's face.
    I'm so glad I wasn't Jenny.
    And it was Jenny's car; she might have preferred they did something else--but what? They couldn't call for help (that reminds me, did Ben even bring back Mikaela's phone? I guess I'll tell you about it when we go back inside) and they couldn't walk for help either.
    So...
    Shatter her face glass was the remaining option.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
     
    "Don't go outside," Ben said. "Stay inside. Don't go out there." He was whimpering, frightened and whimpering.
    Rachel said softly to him as she kept washing his wounds, "What happened to you?"
    Even Beezer was silent, listening for Ben's response. But he didn't say anything and started sobbing. "Don't go out there." He sobbed and Rachel promised it would be okay. I don't