Monster’s Prey (Monster Duet #1)

Prologue

Piper

Istare at him for exactly two minutes and thirty-four seconds before I start screaming.

It’s pointless. I know it even before the scream leaves my mouth. No one can hear me here. I’m going to actually have to reach for the telephone and compose the number if I want anyone to help me.

But my mind is blank with shock. Where’s the phone? Who do I call? Who would even come?

No one gives a shit about the Days. We’re nothing. Not a day goes by when someone doesn’t remind me that Dad is the lowliest of all the lowly employees at Devil Tower.

Or was. Because right now, he’s looking straight through me, his eyes glassy, a trickle of blood dribbling out from the side of his mouth.

He’s been shot. Murdered. My father is dead.

At last, I tear my eyes away from the gruesome sight of his body slumped forward on the dining room table, his face crushed sideways on the physical newspaper he still insists on reading.

I fumble for my cell phone, remembering it’s in my back pocket, remembering that I should be calling 911…

isn’t that what people are supposed to do when they come home from college to find their father has been murdered?

But a sudden overpowering worry causes the phone to fall from my hands.

“Mom?” I cry out. “Mom?”

I run through the living room into the hallway that leads to our rooms and the bathroom. My heart beats wildly, a cold weight in my stomach as the conviction of what I’m about to find nearly strangles me. I open one door, then the other… and freeze.

There she is. My mother, still seated on the toilet, her torso pressed backward against the flushing system, her mouth wide and her eyes shut.

Dead, too. A bullet to the brain.

“Help! Help!” I scream frantically, even though it’s useless.

I’m going to have to call.

Somehow, it feels nearly impossible to do so. It’s one thing to scream, it’s another thing to compose those three digits that mean it’s final. My parents are dead. Murdered. And I’m an orphan.

Stumbling back to the living room, I sink to my knees, grab my cell phone, and press the numbers with a trembling finger. Then I bring the phone to my ear.

“You’ve reached 911, what is your emergency?”

“Yes, hi. This is Piper Day. Please come right away. They’re… they’re all dead.”