Page 154 of Devil Inside

Wait—that’s not a jogger.

It’s a girl. A little girl.

She can’t be any older than ten. Her back is to me. All I see is the slope of her spine, slumped over. I can’t tell if she’s hurt, but her head is bowed forward, to her chest. She has a pair of pigtails that drape themselves over her shoulders, exposing the back of her neck.

Sobbing. Her head bobs just a bit, up and down.

I ride up next to her, then stop. “You okay? Are your parents around?”Shouldn’t you be in school?I almost say. There’s something in her hands. I can’t see what. She’s cupping it, whatever it is. Crying over it. Something precious. “Are you hurt? Do you want me to call—”

I cut myself off as soon as I see it.

A robin.

She’s cradling a dead robin against her chest. I hope it’s dead. A rusted red-and-orange chest, a gray-brown back. One wing extends out from the rest of its body, snapped, the shale-gray feathers bent out from between the fingers of her fists, clutching it.

Where’s the other wing?

The robin stirs, flutters. It’s still alive, struggling within this girl’s grip.

That’s when she glances up at me. The fluid motion of her spine lifting as she turns her head to look over her shoulder, one vertebra after another, as if she were precariously stacking a set of building blocks on top of each other, brick for brick, bone for bone.

When she finally turns her head, saving her face for last, shesmiles. I spot a stray gray feather still clinging to her bottom lip. It fans about the air before detaching itself, drifting off, leaving behind the slightest smear of red against her chin.

Her lips break, that smile going wider. When I see her teeth, I realize they’re covered—smeared—with blood.

“Want some?”

The girl takes a bite. The crunch comes quick. All those brittle bones. Her lips split just enough to let a bit of blood spill down her chin. She talks with her mouth full. “Been a while since I’ve had a warm meal,” she minces.“Mmmmmm.”

She holds what’s left of the bird up to me.

“Sure you don’t want a bite?”

The girl tosses the robin. It strikes me in the chest with a sloppythwack. I try to leap back, my legs tangled in my bike, as the bird rolls down my torso before landing on the path.

The girl springs up on her hands and feet. An animal’s gait, not human at all.

“Good to see you, Jordan,” the girl says in a voice that doesn’t strike me as very childlike.

“Who are you?”

“You don’t recognize me?” She frowns. “Oh, Jordan, I’m hurt...”

I want out of this nightmare. I want to wake up once and for all.

I want Lilith.

I put all my weight down on the pedal, pushing off. I try to get a little bit of distance between me and this girl before I glance over my shoulder.

She’s following me on all fours.

Jesus, she’schasingme.

The girl’s making some solid headway, too, closing the gap between us. I have to pedal harder,harder, pumping my legs, but she keeps up, scrambling across the path on her hands and feet, clawing at the ground before leaping in the air and clawing again.

She’s going to catch me. Take me down. So I ride harder.

Come on, Jordan...