Free The Lost Girl by Lilian Carmine Page A

would be the most dumb thing in the world to do.
What was I? Stupid?
This wasn’t a horror movie! And if it was, I sure as hell wasn’t going to be one of those bimbo girls that always got themselves killed off doing idotic things in the few first minutes. If there really was a psycho in my room, hewasn’t going to reply, “Sure, I’m right here, watching TV and waiting for you to get out of that freaking long shower. By the way, be a doll and toss me that knife there on the nightstand, will ya? I wanna hurry up with the atrocious murder; my favorite show is about to start!”
    Maybe I really was losing my mind here, seeing shadows lurking in the dark, waiting to get me. But what if that boy from the bookstore had broken into the house and was here now, waiting for me, in that dark room? I looked around urgently, searching for something I could use as a weapon.
    As it turned out, bathroom facilities aren’t particularly great at doubling as weapon storage. Unless I wanted to soap the killer to death, or tie him up with toilet paper, there was nothing I could use to protect myself. Curses!
    Well, I guess I did have my martial arts training to put to use. But then again, martial arts were all fine and dandy until the murderous bastard appeared with a gun in his hands. No amount of karate chops can counter a bullet to the head …
    I stepped out of the bathroom into the darkness of my room, and turned on the lights. There wasn’t anyone there.
    Yeah, that’s what the murderous dude wants me to think, right? To relax and let my guard down. Then he’ll be inside the closet or under the bed, waiting to murder me … with that knife he left on the nightstand while he was watching TV!
    I searched under the bed, and then inside the closets. If this had been a horror movie, a scary soundtrack would have been playing in the background this entire time.
    It had just been a tricky play of lights and shadows again. There was nothing to worry about. Maybe if I repeated thisto myself a dozen times, over and over, I could convince my jittery nerves …
    After I was done inspecting my room, I quickly got dressed and left my bedroom to inspect the dark living room downstairs. Silhouettes and smudges of light danced around the quiet room, branches and leaves on the trees outside creating shadows that played over the walls and floorboards. Suddenly I could see things moving everywhere, and hear suspicious, creaky noises teased out from all around the room, with unseen threats lurking in the corners of my eyes.
    Panic started to rise up in my chest and my heart pounded. My body’s instincts screamed for me to run.
Run. Run! You need to get out of here! Now!
    I was completely taken over by fear as I bolted upstairs for Harry’s room, yanking the door open and running inside without thinking twice. His room was completely dark, so I turned on his lights, shouting his name at the top of my voice.
    Harry shot upright in his bed, momentarily blinded by the bright lights bursting unexpectedly through the room.
    “WHAT? What? Is it a fire?” he asked groggily, trying to understand what the hell was going on. I glanced around his room, searching for lurking shadows or any murderous strangers holding big scary knives, but found nothing out of place. Only Harry staring back at me with a stunned expression.
    Boy
. Talk about being embarrassed now!
    “Erm … Sorry about barging in like that. I-I just wanted to know … if I could stay with you until Tristan comes back?” I mumbled, all red in the face. No way in hell was I going to stay in my room all alone tonight.
    Maybe I hadn’t left the bookstore incident so far behind me after all. I’d thought I was over it, but this embarrassing meltdown was proof that maybe that wasn’t the case.
    I was glad when Harry agreed to stay with me. I would have been scared out of my mind if I’d been all alone in this house. Harry sighed, relieved that the house wasn’t in fact on fire, and patted a