Lost Girls (Book One in the Academy Series)

Intro

Your dead will live.

Their corpses will rise.

And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.

Isaiah 26:19 New American Standard Bible

Intro

You're still being followed. It's the middle of August, the middle of the day. Your white T-shirt is clear with sweat, every gasping exhale raw and angry. You've crested the hill. You feel safe.

A glance back proves you are not.

An ancient sedan idles a few yards back. Sunlight reflects off its windshield in bright spikes. You can't see who's at the wheel. You can only guess.

You've never seen his face. He lurks in the shadows by Our New Place and the diner. You know him. Well.

He's mad at your father but in your head you say, "Pa."

You've never called Dad "Pa."

You don't know why the man is following you.

Daylight dissipates almost everything. Two memories remain.

The stomach-dropping feeling that you can't escape.

And the cabin door, the one you so carefully locked, now wide open and gaping with deadly invitation like the mouth of a Great White.