rozdział 1 Opowieść Zakończona Dla dorosłychOn her sixteenth birthday, Helen finds a strange, evil house in the centre of deep dark woods. Within that house, Helen finds a jigsaw puzzle that must be solved at all costs.
Forced to confront disturbing events from her past, Helen's fear grows as she sees something in the puzzle picture that she instinctively knows is not of this world, and that it is something to be feared.
EXTRACTS:
As the fire reached the Guy, flames lapping quickly over his legs, his body, Helen thought she heard a scream of terror; a scream that seemed to come more from his dark, pleading eyes than from his mouth. The Guy was alive. She tried to tell her parents, but her throat was clogged with horror and fear.
...what a horrible sensation it must be to have your warm white bone, which had been shielded from the cold by flesh and blood, suddenly thrust out of you into the freezing winter air. Helen almost vomited when she saw steam rising from the wound.
She wanted to scream...to scream so loud that she knew if she did, her own scream would frighten her all the more. She wanted to run from this house...but her legs would not move because she knew - somehow just knew - that if she ran, something would come out of the house...and it would come after her...and it would catch her...
Lizzy was seven years old today, all done up in a pretty white dress and perfectly done pigtails...and then Lizzy called out, "Watch this!" as she came out of the kitchen door with a huge knife that glinted so brightly in the afternoon sun, and was, somehow, very ugly.
And then Helen discovered what ugly really was...
A tense, disturbing story where, for Helen, unease turns to steadily rising dread, and, eventually, to primal fear and sheer terror.
