Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 54803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 183(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 183(@300wpm)
Caleb.
I knew he’d come.
The madman whirls, his fake glasses falling down his face, his dirty lab coat whipping around his legs.
An answering growl comes from him—demonic and furious. He transforms into his monster self, but Caleb’s already tackled him to the ground. Bear—my fearless, precious dog is circling around both of them, barking and growling.
Caleb bares his teeth and roars like a dark god coming down to smite the devil himself.
My captor fights like the madman he is, though. He has superhuman strength as well, and is totally out of control. The two animals roar and tumble around the room, smashing everything, knocking things over.
Caleb picks up my captor and throws him across the room. He hits the wall and slides down it, but is instantly up, fumbling at the lab equipment.
“Watch out for the needle!” I scream when I realize he’s filling one of the hypodermics. He can’t take Caleb prisoner, too. He can’t.
Caleb dodges the needle and knocks it from my captor’s hand. It goes rolling and Rachel reaches through her cage bars to pick it up, meeting my eye and giving me a nod.
I nod back.
Caleb tackles our captor and lets out a terrible snarl as he slashes his claws across the man’s throat. A gurgling sound confirms his death. Caleb keeps slashing though, ripping open the guy’s chest and belly.
“Caleb!” I scream.
He shakes his great head and swings it in my direction. His lips peel back from ferocious teeth and he bellows again, even more furious than before.
The women in the cages scream.
He seems to see them for the first time, and roars some more.
He slices his claws through the bindings holding my wrist, scratching some of my skin in the process.
I gasp but quickly mutter, “I’m okay.”
He rips the other side and I’m free. I sit up and yank the needle out of my thumbnail, screaming again as I do. Bear whines at my side, licking my hand and the bloodied scrape on my wrist.
Caleb bares his teeth again, lifts his head toward the ceiling and roars his anger.
I get up to search the body of our captor for the keys to the cage, but Caleb grabs the door of one of the cages with one huge paw and pushes his foot against the body of the cage and tears the door off from its hinges. Rachel lifts the hypodermic needle, ready to plunge it into Caleb’s neck.
“No, don’t!” I scream.
She freezes.
Caleb snorts and bats it out of her hand.
“It’s okay. He’s, um… he won’t hurt us.” I help her out of the cage.
Caleb moves to the next cage, where he tears off its door, too. Then the next.
“Let’s get out of here,” Rachel says, rushing through the door.
Caleb plows through on all fours, knocking us out of the way, like he needs to go first.
“It’s okay. He won’t hurt you, I promise,” I tell them, my brain already working overtime trying to figure out how to explain my pet bear to them.
We go up a set of stairs—he had been keeping us in a cellar, as I suspected. Upstairs is a crude, filthy cottage. Signs of a man barely able to take care of his personal needs.
We all rush outside, even though we’re barely dressed and don’t have jackets or shoes on.
I grip Caleb’s furry shoulder. “Go get Caleb,” I tell him firmly, shivering in the cold. We need him in man form now. We need to call the police and maybe an ambulance.
He shakes his great head, like he’s unwilling to leave me.
I show him the hypodermic needle I picked up after he batted it out of Rachel’s hand. “I’m pretty sure he’s dead, but I’m armed, just in case.”
Caleb snorts and lopes away, his great strides taking him up the side of the mountain with shocking speed.
“What. The hell. Was that?” Julia asks.
“Um, my friend Caleb has a, ah, pet bear. I mean, he’s not really a pet, but they’re friends. He’s highly intelligent.”
Julia, Rachel and Tracy all stare at me with disbelief.
Damn, I’m a terrible liar. But I promised Caleb I’d take his secret to the grave, and I intend to keep that promise.
“I don’t know about you three, but I’m not sticking around here another minute,” Tracy announces, walking into the snow in her bare feet.
“No, no, no,” I call out. “Wait here. Caleb will come and bring help. I promise.”
Tracy looks back, eyes narrowed. “Are you nuts? You told a bear to bring back your friend and you think he’s going to show? You’re as crazy at that guy down there.” She points in the direction of the cellar.
“No, really. Did that bear just save our asses? He’ll bring Caleb. Trust me.”
Her lips tighten, but she comes back and the three of us go back inside because we’re freezing our asses off. I find my clothing in with his dirty laundry and put it on. I don’t have any luck finding the rest of their clothes, but it’s okay, because Caleb’s truck tears down the dirt drive and skids to a stop. He’s out of the truck and running for me before I can even breathe his name.