Free Devil Inside by Brandy Isaacs Page A

take his hand.  She paused when she saw how much her hand was shaking compared to how steady his was.  He grasped her hand in his and helped her from the truck.  Her legs still seemed numb and clumsy and she scuffed her feet multiple times as he led her to the back door of the house.  She looked into the dark woods that surrounded them but couldn’t see anything in the shadows.  Everything was quiet and she couldn’t hear any animal sounds.  It was as if they had gone quiet out of respect for the seriousness of the situation.
                  Levi unlocked the door and held it open for her and she stepped inside, pausing just past the doorway.  The house was pitch black and the lack of light from outside left her completely blind in the unfamiliar room she had stepped into.  She stood motionless and tense.  Nerves still on edge she fought against the fear that something was going to burst from the darkness to attack her.  Levi flicked on a light as he shut and locked the door and Harley blinked against the sudden brightness.  Her senses were still overly sharp and it took a few seconds for her eyes to adjust.
                  The house was one good sized open room that had a living room area and kitchen combined and could probably be better called a cottage.  Two doors off to the side must have led to a bedroom and bathroom.  This cottage looked much more lived in than the house Levi rented.  There still wasn’t anything personal about it, but it had more furniture and looked like someone had actually spent significant amount of time here.  Turning, Harley regarded Levi, who was standing quietly behind her.  Neither of them spoke for a moment.  Levi watched her carefully.  She looked down at herself.  Her right side—the right leg of her jeans, her right arm and the right side of her sweater were splashed with blood.  In the bright light of the cabin she wasn’t able to deny what it was that was slowly drying into a stiff stickiness.  She looked from herself back to Levi.  She could slowly feel the shell that the shock had built begin to crack.
                  Something must have shown on her face finally because Levi stepped closer to her and wrapped his arms around her.  All the air whooshed out of her lungs and she gasped for breath.  She stood there with her arms at her side, underneath Levi’s strong steady arms and tried to make sense of what was happening.
                  “What happened?” she asked.  “Who—who were those men?  Why were you there?”  With each question she came closer and closer to hyperventilating.  The words left her mouth in an uncontrolled whoosh of air.  It felt like her lungs had sprung a leak.  She had to stop before she lost her last bit of control.  She fought to breath calmly.
                  “We can talk about it when you calm down a little.  It’s a complicated story.”  He spoke, the calmness of his voice grated at Harley’s already raw nerves.  It did seem fair or right for him to be so calm when she felt like she was about to burst apart.
                  “When I calm down?” repeated bewildered.  “I can’t calm down!  Jaime—she was the only family—," she broke off unable to go there yet.  “We have to call the police!  That man—I—he—,” she began to lose her breath again.
                  “Breathe, breathe, breathe,” Levi repeated soothingly and slowly.  Some part of her knew he was right.  She had to calm down or she wouldn’t be able to think rationally.  Harley pulled away from Levi and began to pace in circles around the main room of the cottage.  As she walked she forced herself to take deep slow breaths.  Levi watched her silently leaning against the stove, waiting on her to regain her composure.
                  When she finally stopped pacing several minutes later, Harley sat at the small dining table that