The Summer I Died: A Thriller by Ryan C. Thomas, Cody Goodfellow Page B

infant, she struggled to her feet and stood, teetering. My heart leapt. Was she going to free us? Were we saved after all? Wonder Woman had nothing on this lady. This was the strongest female I had ever seen. She took a step toward us and wobbled.
    “ That’s it, ” Tooth cooed. “ You can do it. ”
    That’s when the door flew open and Skinny Man stepped into the room waving a shovel in his hand. It was a satanic stage entrance, our screams providing the background music. He ran in and kicked her in the stomach, shattering our hopes, and from the sound of it, some of her ribs as well. She landed in the goo and lay still. Then he hefted the shovel and turned his attention to us.
    “ This is for Sundance, ” he sneered, and swung the shovel into Tooth’s thigh.
    The blade slipped right through the flesh and bit into the bone, sticking there with a clunk. Tooth let loose with a scream that was pure blood and hatred. Dizziness washed over me , steering me toward a fainting spell , but I remained conscious somehow. Skinny Man left the shovel protruding from Tooth’s thigh and went and dragged the woman to the center of the floor in front of us.
    “ Now, ” he said. “ We’re gonna play a little game. It’s called — ” And he started to sing. “ The arm bone’s connected to the shoulder bone. The leg bone’s connected to the hip bone. ” He flipped her onto her stomach and exposed a back so grotesque, so extensively burned, I couldn’t tell where the muscle ended and the skin began. Her entire lower-middle half glistened with third degree burns, and there was a small glint of white bone visible through it all. And the blood: so much of it I felt like I was looking through rose-tinted glasses.
    “ The hip bone’s connected to the — will you stop screaming? ” he said to Tooth.
    But Tooth had gone from screaming to blathering. It was an angry, cursing nonsense filled with a lot of “ kill you ” and “ fucking die ” phrases. Blood trickled from the shovel blade and ran down his leg and soaked into his white sock. I prayed it hadn’t hit the artery, but until it was pulled out we wouldn’t know for sure. Now neither of us could run.
    Skinny Man gave me an I’m-not-playing-around kind of look and pointed at Tooth. “ If he don’t shut up, I’m gonna put that shovel in your neck. ”
    I knew he was serious; hell, he was hoping for it to happen. I wanted to purge my tear ducts of everything inside but was too afraid of the consequences. “ Tooth, please, ” I mouthed around my gag, “ I don’t want to die. ”
    I don’t know how, but he stopped making noise and composed himself. Tooth wasn’t so much tough as he was just crazy, a lost soul with nothing at stake. Right now, the look in his eyes would send Hannibal Lecter running. But he was also in tremendous pain and the fact he was able to calm down said a lot about his will power. He was going to live through this. I, on the other hand, was going to die like a bitch.
    “ That’s better, ” Skinny Man said. “ Noise makes me crazy, hurts my head. And stop calling me names! Acting like you didn’t have that coming, killing my dog and all. Lucky I didn’t shove it up yer ass. I done a girl that way once, split her right up the middle. Oh yeah, the asshole is a pretty flimsy invention, rips like tissue paper. ”
    “ I’m gonna kill you, ” Tooth said.
    “ I don’t think so. You’ve got a penance to pay. You shouldn’t have hurt my Sundance! He didn’t do nothing but try to protect me. ”
    “ You’re a half wit. ” Tooth’s mouth was full of phlegm and spit.
    “ No, I’m not. I’m an animal lover is all. I had that dog since he was a pup. Watched him grow up, him and his brother both. He didn’t deserve to die like that. ”
    “ Why don’t you untie me and I’ll kill the other mutt, too, make everything even-Steven. ”
    Skinny Man didn’t like that. He gleefully wrenched the shovel from Tooth’s thigh and put it in