Chapter 38

• The doorbell rang and I got up. Strange, I hadn’t felt another presence. I wondered briefly if I had imagined it. The doorbell rang again, much longer this time. I went downstairs and opened the front door. Thunder cracked loudly as I did so.
• She was soaked through from the rain and covered in mud. She was shivering and crying. I touched her arm and felt as if I had been struck by lightning. I pulled her inside. She was ice-cold and her lips were blue and a sudden protectiveness came over me.
• “Are you okay?” She looked like something from a horror movie. Her lip was bruised and had fresh blood on it. I could feel her pain, it was intense. I smelled old blood and when I looked down, I saw that her pants were soaked with it.