Extract from
The Follower by Koethi Zan
He didn’t even
appear to register her words.
Then she heard a
door slam and turned toward the sound. Her heart leapt, though she could hardly
believe what she saw. For there, just a few hundred yards away, was a farmhouse
all lit up. A plump, middle-aged woman headed straight toward them. She looked
like someone’s favorite aunt, wearing a loose-fitting housedress, her wispy
brown hair pinned up messily.
It was surreal,
unfathomable, yet there she was, walk- ing across the moonlit yard filled with
scrubby brush, past an overturned wheelbarrow and a clothesline where shirts
twisted precariously in the wind, the cuffs of the sleeves nearly touching the
ground.
Julie thought at
first it was a hallucination, but no, she was real. Hope welled up in her. It’s
so hard to kill hope.
Her abductor
still had her by the arm, with the nose of the gun now pushed into her back,
but she took a chance that he wouldn’t kill her in front of a witness.
‘Help me! This
man kidnapped me. Call the police. Run! He’s dangerous. He has a gun!’
In that moment
she felt a rush of relief. Help was here. Maybe there were even others inside
who had heard her scream.
But the woman
didn’t react. She just walked toward them, calm and unhurried.
‘Do you hear me?
This man abducted me! I need help!’
Everything began
to unfold in slow motion. The woman’s lips were pressed tightly together, her
eyes fixed steadily on Julie’s captor. There could be no mistaking the
situation. She had to get it. But her expression wasn’t right.
If anything, the
woman’s eyes glistened with a kind of adoration. She ignored Julie, who stood
there frozen. Julie realized at that moment that this woman was not appalled or
outraged or terrified. She wouldn’t be her savior, delivering her from evil.
No, she wouldn’t
help her. She was in on it.
About The Follower
The Follower
By Koethi Zan
Published by Vintage (E-book: 23 February 2017; Paperback: 18 May 2017)
ISBN: 978-1784702335
Publisher's description
SHE'D DO ANYTHING FOR HER HUSBAND.
Julie has the perfect life
A kind boyfriend, loving parents and good
grades. She has everything ahead of her.
Cora’s life is a nightmare
A psychopath for a husband, a violent
father and a terrible secret. There’s no way out.
But one night, their worlds collide
Locked in an isolated house together, they
must work out what has happened – and who they can trust to set them free.
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