Chapter 20
THE HORRIFIC ex-dog must have slowed to savor feasting on my innards, but it still closed fast, only a yard or two away. Any moment, its razor-thin tentacles would s***h my back, my face, my throat.
Coppery fear bulged in my throat. My planned exit through the mudroom, blocked by three hundred and twenty pounds of air conditioners.
The narrow window, set high in the wall of the greasy kitchen, wouldn’t pass Alice. No escape that way. Nothing else. Nowhere else.
Trapped.
Toenails razored holes in the linoleum with the creature’s every step. Something sliced the air by my ear.
I flung myself forward into the cramped mudroom, turning sideways to squeeze through the narrow gap between the door frame and the air conditioners.
Half a dozen tentacles clanged against the air cond
