Chapter 64

He limped to the front door, grabbed the handle, gritted his teeth, and snapped the lock open. Vaughn’s son was out there. Vaughn’s son needed help. “You’re damn fucking right I’m made for that kind of thing.”

He yanked the door open, steeled himself against the rush of cold, and hitched over the threshold. In the corner of the porch, Lyle squatted, breathing hard. He was naked, and how that was even possible Randy couldn’t imagine. The bottom of Randy’s feet already burned from the cold seeping through his socks, and though the air was still, the temperature was brutal. The skin of Lyle’s face, chest, arms, and thighs were crisscrossed with violent slashes or tears, and Lyle’s eyes burned with an unholy yellow that was unlike anything Randy had ever seen before.

“Lyle?” Randy stepped forward, his grip tightening on the umbrella he’d taken as protection, even as he reached out with his other hand. “What happened, buddy?”