Free Don't Read After Dark: Keep the lights on while reading these! (A McCray Horror Collection) by Carolyn McCray Page A

breath waiting to see whose door was the first open. It turned out to be Clyde’s. Sweaty and weak, the hick propped himself up on his cot, aiming at the doorway.
    “Anybody, and I mean anybody , who dares come in here, dies.”
    “Found something to replace your cock there, Clyde?” Door teased.
    The big man charged the door. “Shut the fuck up.”
    Door pulled back on the bowstring. “One shot, man.”
    “Don’t!” Back ordered.
    Door swung around, aiming straight at Back. “Or maybe I’ll just prove that I’m the Back Door Rapist, after all.”
    Back pointed to Evie. “And how does that get you any closer to drilling that?”
    Evie tasted metal. Iron, to be exact. She must have bit her lip and not even realized it.
    Then Papa’s door popped open. Clyde re-aimed at the older man.
    Papa put his hands up. “Son, I have no quarrel with you.”
    Instead, he sat down and glared at Darion. Those two had some serious bad blood between them. However, it was Door’s cell that opened next. The man rushed out of his cell and set up at the far end of the room. Evie looked up. Still no weapon. They were so screwed. No, actually, she was going to get screwed, in the worst possible way.
    “Listen to me, you morons. If we gang up, he’s got no fucking chance. He’s defenseless.”
    Esau’s door swung open. Very slowly, reciting scripture, the man made it out of his cell, his slingshot dangling from his belt.
    “I pray the Lord my soul to keep…”
    Back wasn’t giving up, though. “Esau, you know that I’m right.”
    Evie held her breath as Esau walked up to their cell and glared in. Darion stepped in between them.
    “Do your worst,” Darion challenged.
    Evie didn’t think that they were exactly in a place to taunt anyone, but she was glad he was standing between her and Esau as he drew his slingshot. The old wiry guy looked like he knew his way around the archaic weapon. He loaded a large pebble into the sling, but instead of shooting it at Darion, Esau swiveled at the last second and flung it at Clyde.
    The rock hit the hick square on the forehead. Clyde pulled the trigger, wasting his only bullet into the ceiling. Evie barely blinked and Esau was on Clyde, grabbing the rifle out of his hand, then turning it around, burying the bayonet into the hick’s belly.
    Clyde didn’t scream so much as gasp. Esau pulled the blade out and shoved Clyde down onto the floor.
    “No,” Clyde begged. “Please no. No .”
    Too bad, Clyde, Evie thought. Begging’s not so much fun when you are on the other side of it, is it?
    Then Esau dropped to his knees and used the knife to slice open Clyde’s belly. Evie turned away, her stomach in revolt. But she also couldn’t keep herself from glancing over her shoulder.
    Clyde reached out toward Papa. “Papa, Papa, please help me.”
    Esau expertly fished around Clyde’s belly, then pulled out the spleen. Using the bayonet blade, he cut off a thin slice of the organ, then took a bite.
    Evie’s stomach threated to revolt.
    “Most make the mistake of starting with the bowel. However, consuming the spleen will leave you alive the longest.”
    There was no doubt that Evie hated Clyde. Hated what he’d done to her. Hated what he’d wanted to do to her. But no one deserved to be eaten alive.
    Esau smacked his lips. “Delicious.”
    “Sweet Jesus!” Back yelled. “You can eat him later!”
    Esau shook his head as he took another bite. “The flesh is the most flavorful when the heart is still beating.”
    Clyde moaned so deeply that Evie felt it in her stomach.
    “Fucking kill Darion first!” Back yelled.
    Esau rose from his knees to stand.
    “Finally!”
    But it wasn’t to come after Darion. Instead, Esau squeezed some blood from the spleen, then used it to scrawl scripture on the wall.
    “No!” Back yelled, but that didn’t stop Esau one bit.
    * * *
    Jake juggled three bags of groceries as he tried to get the key into Evie’s lock. Finally, the key slipped in and Jake