Page 28 of Property of Anchor
She nodded back the way I’d come.“About a quarter of the way back to the haunted house.In the grass near the path.”
I rubbed the fabric between my fingers, and my skin crawled.
Pearl had already turned back toward the water.“There’s something floating,” she said, walking slowly along the narrow shore.
“Pearl—”
She ignored me and moved closer.
I followed, and my heart started to hammer.The fog was thick here, curling low around our legs.She stopped about three feet from the water’s edge and stared down at a lump half-submerged in the reeds.
“What is it?”she asked.
I stepped forward, hand already going to the knife at my side.
My boots hit the edge of the water.
A shape.Pale.Bloated.
Dead.
Pearl moved closer, curiosity tugging her forward.
And then she saw it.
The face.The slack, swollen jaw.The eyes half-open and clouded.
She opened her mouth to scream.
I was already moving.
I wrapped my arm around her from behind and pressed my hand gently over her mouth, pulling her back against me.She froze, body trembling, and every muscle taut with fear.
“Don’t scream,” I whispered into her ear.
Pearl
“I’m not going to hurt you, doll,” Anchor whispered, his breath hot against the shell of my ear.
But his hand over my mouth and the way he gripped me tight against his chest told a different story.
My heart was beating so fast it felt like it was trying to crack through my ribs.My body locked in fear, but it wasn’tjustfear.I didn’t think Anchor was going to hurt me.Not really.That instinct you have, the one you don’t learn but are born with, it wasn’t screaming at me to run.It was just… pulsing with adrenaline and a low, simmering panic.
He waited a beat.
“I’m going to move my hand,” he said.
I nodded once.
He peeled his hand away but kept his arms wrapped tightly around my waist.I didn’t try to move.Didn’t speak.Just stood there with my back to his chest, staring at the lifeless body floating in the shallow water.
“That’s a dead body, Anchor,” I whispered hoarsely.“A real dead body.”
Not like the actors in the haunted house with their pale makeup and fake blood.Not like the rubber corpses staged along the boat ride.
This woman was real.And dead.
Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, which was sewn shut.Her shirt was ripped open.There was something carved into her stomach.
