Read Crux for Free Online

I’ll help you.”
    Since Shondra is sitting in the same pee I am, I don’t know what she thinks she can do for me, but at least I’m not alone. Maybe I’m not going to be raped, or murdered and stuck in a stainless steel box with a tag on my toe.
    She lays her head on my shoulder and tucks her arm through mine. It’s a sweet gesture, but reflex has me stiffening until I give in. I try to act as if this is normal and not the freakiest experience of my life. I pretend I’m not a loser, not homeless. Whatever. I pretend that I’m camping with a best friend or sister. Yeah, there we go, camping with my sister. Sure. A tear slides down my cheek. I just leave it there. I’ve never pretended so hard in my life.
    I guess I doze off because the next thing I know, Shondra is shaking me awake. “Run,” she yells. “Run!” Shoe scuffles precede panicked voices. The words that finally get me in motion are The Snatcher.
    The wha … ? I don’t know who the hell that is, but the terror in Shondra’s voice is enough to get me moving.
    My backpack slung across my back, I run down the street with no clue where I’m headed. I follow Shondra into the fray.
    Two sets of headlights knife through the gloom. I stop as a bunch of guys in dark clothes pile out of white vans like rats from a burning granary. My legs go numb, and I just stand there, staring and shaking like a fool.
    The men are all wearing masks. Skeletal-like faces glow in the dark; others look like flesh eaters from the Dawn of the Dead flick.
    One guy holds a struggling woman by the arm. He grabs her head with his other hand and forces her tear-glistening face into the light. “Hey, Marshall, is this one any good?”
    “Too old!” Marshall yells back. “The boss says young and hot. Look ’em over careful, you moron. Would you shell out money by the hour for that scag?”
    The skeleton shoves the girl down on the pavement and storms away.
    Marshall lunges for another girl as she darts past. Her shrieks pierce the night.
    I stand, helpless, and watch as her boyfriend fights for her. He throws punches at the goon’s face and kidneys until a bat swings for his head from behind. He crumples to the asphalt and lies in a heap, body still twitching. The headlights show his face is destroyed as blood oozes across his flesh, pooling around his skull.
    His girlfriend’s sobbing pleas are useless. Marshall shoves her in the back of his van and slams the door shut.
    The sound of her desperate clawing carries through the door to rake the nerve endings down my spine. My stomach lurches until I think I might hurl. The whole world is screaming. Doesn’t anybody hear us? Where are the cops?
    Shondra is running in place, pushing against my back, urging me on. “Let’s go!” She came back for me? She yanks my coat sleeve so hard I almost fall over. “Come on! We got to get out of here.”
    I turn and sprint toward the main road. I’ve always been fast and pull ahead of my new friend, not much, just a step or two, but it’s enough. She trips and rolls on the pavement next to me. I whirl around to see a man on the ground behind her, his massive arms wrapped around her skinny little legs.
    These men aren’t men. They must be demons, no hearts, dead from the neck up. They do their master’s bidding without conscience, and I hate them.
    I reach out to grab Shondra’s hands, pulling with all my strength. My chest aches. I pant, trying to fill my lungs with oxygen. “Let her go!” I raise my knee and smash my foot against the guy’s face. A crunch fills the air as his cartilage dissolves beneath my shoe, and I’m pretty sure his beak’s been wasted.
    Another goon jogs to help the one still shackled to Shondra’s ankles. She peers over her shoulder and back to my face. Her quiet words penetrate my panic far more effectively than yelling. “It’s too late. Go.”
    The hell I will. I pull harder but see the other man has almost reached us. My eyes dart around the loading