Progressive Properties is aggressively taking over where small neighborhoods once flourished. Now Angelique's Shelter, St. Gabriel's, is under attack. Who shows up at her door to deliver the news? John McDougal, now a prominent property attorney, an...
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Angelique had fallen into a deep sleep the moment her head hit the pillow. The sheer exhaustion of the last few days taking its toll.
Once again she was falling, plummeting into an abyss of darkness. She woke to an animal licking her face. Startled, she tried to focus her eyes to take in her surroundings. She appeared to be in the middle of a glade.
She could hear loud voices nearby. She scrambled to get to her feet and run, but her legs wouldn't obey. Instead, she crawled to where the glade was thick with brush and bushes. She tried to hide, but the puppy incessantly barked and circled her hiding place. She tried to quiet the animal. She even tried to throw a stone near it to scare it away, but nothing would deter him.
The voices were getting louder.
"I think Buddy has found something. Come on!"
A boy came crashing through the brush. The sight of him made her heart want to sing. Her immediate thought was to reveal herself to him, but then she had seen the rifle in his hands. Fear took its toll.
She stayed hidden and observed the boy from her hiding spot. He looked to be no more than sixteen or seventeen years old.
"What is it, boy? A rabbit? A fox? Did he run under here?" She held her breath as the boy crawled closer, gun still in hand.
Suddenly, another crash through the brush followed by a breathless, "John, what is it?"
"Shhhhh! Do you want to scare it away?" asked John, waving his hand impatiently at the younger boy to be quiet.
"I know I don't," said a third voice, "I just want to shoot whatever it is."
The third boy looked older than the other two. His black hair and large build made him a menacing presence. He propped his rifle against his right shoulder, lining up some invisible target. Angelique could not stop the shiver of fear that coursed down her spine. She wanted to scream but was too afraid to make a sound. She prayed they would go away.
"Well, whatever Buddy has found, it's in that bush over there," the younger boy volunteered.
"Oh, is it now," said the older boy, cocking his gun at pointing it at the bush where the younger boy showed him.
Just as the shot rang out, the shepherd began pulling at this pant leg, knocking the older boy off balance. "Buddy, what the hell are you doing?" Trying to push the dog off, he yelled to John, "What the hell has gotten into your dog? Get him off of me!"
John wasn't paying attention to the older boy. He was too intrigued by the sound of sobbing coming from somewhere in the brush. "Danny, shut up, will you? You must have injured the animal. Hear that?"
"Sounds eerie, if you ask me," the youngest boy said, kneeling next to John.
Danny finally pushed the dog away. Highly annoyed, he said, "Fine, then let me put it out of its misery," and cocked his rifle to take another potshot into the brush, but he never got to take the shot...
