Before He Wakes by Max Allan Gunnells
About Before He Wakes:
Combining their intelligence and determination, the two begin plotting an escape from their shared prison. Overcoming each obstacle only presents another obstacle standing in the way of their freedom. It will take all of their ingenuity and strength to find their way out of this mess.
They know their captor is still out there, and it is only a matter of time before he returns.
Before He Wakes is a fast-paced and tense thriller that ratchets up the suspense and tension before the thrilling conclusion.
Proudly represented by Crystal Lake Publishing—Tales from the Darkest Depths.
Excerpt:
The pain clouded Patrick’s mind, making it hard for him to concentrate or think clearly. He even wondered if he were talking to anyone real or if he were experiencing auditory hallucinations. Could head trauma cause such a thing?
“Are you still there?” the girl asked from the other side of the wall.
“I think,” Patrick said and laughed, the sound shrill and brittle. “Where are we?”
“I don’t know. I woke up in here, same as you. I haven’t been outside of this room since.”
“How long have you been with me?” Patrick said then gritted his teeth as if the act of thinking were as strenuous as bench pressing two hundred pounds and tried again. “I mean, how long have you been here?”
“It’s hard to say. I don’t have a watch, and there are no windows here, so it gets hard to keep track of day and night. Like, right now I have no idea if it’s morning, noon, or midnight. As best I can tell, I’ve been here two or three months.”
Patrick turned around so that his back was now against the wall. He let himself sink down until his rear hit the floor. “How did you get here?” he asked, hoping her answer to the question may help him answer it for himself.
“He brought me here. He found me in the park, knocked me unconscious with a baseball bat, and I woke up here.”
Indeed, her words brought a revelatory spark of memory. He’d been jogging through the parking lot toward the bookstore. Behind him he’d heard a car door open and a voice call out, “Hey, son!” He’d turned, but that was where the memory began to break down. There had been a figure there, but he couldn’t make out any details, and the blur of a long cylindrical object rushing toward his face. Could have been a bat, he supposed.
“How old are you?” the girl asked. What had she said her name was? Caitlin, Connie, Clarice…
Clare!
“I’m twenty. How about you, Clare?”
“Fifteen. I’m a freshman at Riverside High.”
“That’s in Greer?” Patrick asked, finding that the gears in his brain were moving with a little more ease.
“Yeah. I live just off Highway 14.”
“I go to Furman in Greenville.”
“Greenville, huh? He’s branching out. The lady before you was from Greer like me.”
“The lady before me?”
“Yeah, there was a woman in that room before you. She was already here when I got here.”
“What was her name?”
“Linda,” Clare said, then added, “I think.”
“You think?”
“Well, honestly, she gave me different names on different days, but Linda was the one she gave me most often. I kinda think that was her real one.”
“What happened to her?” Patrick asked, not really wanting to know but feeling like he needed to know.
“I…I don’t know. He took her out of here maybe a week ago.”
“Took her out? Was she…I mean, had he…?”
“She was still alive at the time,” Clare said. “I don’t know what happened to her after that.”
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