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his hand over her mouth and waited patiently until she opened her eyes. The moment Cyrus saw the expression on her face, he knew two things: a) she was still mad at him. And b) she had completely misunderstood why his hand was over her mouth. |
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Her eyes narrowed into slits and she began to struggle. |
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She tried to bite him and he pressed down until her eyes crossed. Then he leaned down and put his lips right next to her ear and whispered, "Something's in the room." |
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Her eyes popped open wide. |
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"Crawl under the covers and don't come out until I tell youunderstand?" |
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Clearly terrified, Kyna kept her mouth shut and replied with an abbreviated nod. |
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The girl's got guts! You gotta give her that. |
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He waited until she was safely underneath the quilt, then crouched on the bed and scanned the room. |
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The bed buckedoncelike something really big had crawled under the mattress and was now trying to stand up. Kyna let out a muted squeal and he reached over and patted her leg through the covers. |
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"Shush!" he whispered. "It's okay." |
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He could hear them nowa sneaky, creepy rasping as they scooted over the carpet. It sounded like the things were all around himover near the bathroom, under the bedbut even with his super-duper night vision he couldn't see a fucking thing and he began to panic. |
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Then the pain hit and his body felt like it was being crushed by a giant hand. Wave after wave of muscle spasms rolled down his neck, into his back and all the way down to the soles of his feet. In that eternity of agony Cyrus couldn't movecouldn't talkcouldn't breathe. He clenched his teeth until they threatened to crack and closed his eyes until, in a moment, the spasms began to subside. As the pain passed, his senses were assailed from a new directionan ancient stench that evoked one of the most terrifying memories from his |
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