Bizarre Life of Sydney Sedrick Read online

  Table of Contents

  Acknowledgements

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  BIZARRE LIFE OF

  SYDNEY SEDRICK

  MANDI CASEY

  SOUL MATE PUBLISHING

  New York

  Bizarre Life of Sydney Sedrick

  Copyright©2011

  MANDI CASEY

  Cover Design by Rae Monet, Inc.

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, business establishments, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the priority written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  Published in the United States of America by

  Soul Mate Publishing

  P.O. Box 24

  Macedon, New York, 14502

  ISBN-13: 978-1-61935-021-2

  ISBN-10: 1-61935-021-1

  www.SoulMatePublishing.com

  The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

  I’d like to dedicate this work to some of the strong, successful, and supportive women in my life. Mom, for all of your love and life’s wisdom, Grams, for the inspiration of going after my dreams and knowing that anything is possible, Michele, for your never ending encouragement, and Carrie, for being my P.I.C. in all things, and helping me keep it real.

  Acknowledgements

  Without the hard work, great ideas, and support of the Rockin’ Romance Writers, you know who you are, this book wouldn’t be what it is. So, thank you ladies. I’d also like to thank Deborah Gilbert and Soul Mate Publishing for believing in my story. Last, but not least, I’d like to thank Nancy for our daily decompression sessions. They are priceless.

  I’d also like to thank my loving husband for his understanding and support while I go after my dreams.

  Chapter 1

  Freezing wind whipped around me as I closed the door of Morning Sun for the night. A longing to be wrapped in the warmth of the heated front seat of my Jetta sped up my step. A thick layer of snow covered the sidewalk, making it difficult to navigate.

  It had been my turn to close the store.

  Aunt Judith had a treasured event to attend. Some flower and garden show. She seriously needed to enrich the barren wasteland that was her social life. My social life wasn’t any better, but we weren’t talking about me.

  Rushing toward my Jetta, parked on the deserted street, I struggled to control my shivering from the subzero temperature. My teeth chattered no matter how hard I tried to stop them. Through my gloves, my fingers felt like ice cubes.

  I heard something rustling nearby.

  I halted, waiting and listening to see if the noise continued. Besides the occasional set of car tires crunching over snow a few streets away, the night was silent. Snowflakes whirled densely in the air, melting on my skin as I picked up the pace to run to the car. Holding my wool coat tightly against my thin frame, my body wouldn’t relax, despite the quiet of the night. Shrugging my shoulders to lift the scarf up closer to my ears was a wasted effort against the frigid winter air.

  That’s when I heard the rustling noise again, like something was being dragged over snow.

  I stopped walking, to listen.

  The sound came from just ahead. Unfortunately, there were no streetlights on this side of the road. The noise changed from something being dragged to something resembling a baby’s soft whimpering.

  My chest tightened. Fear gripped me, and my heart pounded faster, echoing in my ears. I inhaled a deep breath and took a few steps forward. I slowly peeked around the corner of the building before I lost my nerve.

  Halfway down the alley, a very large man with long, shaggy hair bent over something on the ground. Trying to be as quiet as possible was difficult, but I must have succeeded. The man didn’t seem to notice my approach.

  The outline of his back muscles showed through his thin, dark-blue, short-sleeved shirt. A T-shirt? It was, like, twenty freaking degrees outside, and this guy was in a T-shirt? Oddly, he didn’t seem to be bothered by the cold at all. He wasn’t shivering or huddled into a ball like I would have been without a coat.

  The man remained hunched over something the size of a small child. I didn’t know what to do. Should I scream for help? No one would hear me. If I interrupted the man, would he run away, or would he attack me? My mind was in chaos. I couldn’t figure out what to do.

  He focused on the small object like a dog with a bone. His mangy hair, torn jeans, and the guttural sounds emanating from his chest made him appear homeless. He didn’t look like he wanted to be disturbed. I took a step forward, and my boot crunched loudly on a small pile of snow. That got his attention. He turned his head, and I saw his long, light-brown hair covering most of his face. Dirt and grime smeared his unshaven jaw. Then his eyes bore into mine.

  My heart stopped.

  The man’s eyes were feral, like an animal’s. They had bronze colored rims around the irises. The black of his pupils shined with an inhuman iridescence. His eyes burned with anger and hatred.

  I froze, paralyzed by fear, unable to move a muscle. The supposed fight or flight response eluded me.

  I turned to run, my boot slipping on a patch of ice, only to be pounced upon by the oversized man with catlike eyes. He rammed into my torso like a football player tackling a receiver with the ball and knocked me over. Lying on top of me, he pinned me to the snow-covered ground and snarled, baring his teeth. The serrated razors lining his mouth were overly long, similar to that of a shark.

  My breathing quickened, and my chest tightened in fear. The crushing weight of his body made it hard for my lungs to expand.

  Thoughts raced in my mind. Oh my god, was he going to kill me? Rape me?

  The animal-like man grabbed my arms with both of his hands. His fingernails were like talons digging into my skin. When the tips pierced my flesh, flashes of hot pain made their way up and down my arms. I pulled my right arm back against his hand, and cried out as one of those talon-like nails cut a deep gash across my wrist.

  “Help me!” I screamed to no one. The street was empty. Tears formed at the corners of my eyes. I was going to die here in this alley. He tightened his grip on my arm like a vise, forcing my blood to well up under his palm. His freaky, feral eyes stared at my wrist with utter fascination. He took a deep breath in, his lips parted, and his nostrils flared. Another dart of fear stabbed through me.
The smell of my blood must have stimulated his taste buds. My breath came in pants now, clouding the air with tiny white puffs. He didn’t even have the common courtesy to make eye contact before he went for my throat.

  He grabbed both of my hands and pinned me to the ground. I squirmed, and the gravel from the alley dug into my back and shoulders. He used his free hand to cover my mouth. The stones from the cold ground pressed against my skull. I struggled against his hold, but it didn’t matter. His strength was inhuman, and his ability to keep me restrained appeared effortless. Leaning over my body, he placed his mouth above my neck. He slid his long, slimy tongue along my skin, then bit down. His teeth tore the flesh on my neck. Lightning hot pain shot through my neck as he tore at my skin with his teeth. He groaned with appreciation at the taste of my flesh. I could feel a thick warm liquid trailing down my neck, filling the air with a coppery odor. All I could think was that he’d gnawed a hole in my neck, and I was going to die. My stomach cramped and turned. I was going to puke.

  “Stop, stop this, you’re hurting me!” I moaned against the hand covering my mouth. I could feel the acrid bile rising up my throat. I was going to get sick against his hand. The pain in my neck was subsiding. Instead of a sharp ripping pain, it became a heavy pressure as he slurped at my blood. The alley was less clear now. A fog was rolling in. A boxy sound echoed in my ears. I was going into shock.

  I shuddered in horror.

  My body refused to give up. My vision cleared with a blink, and full sensation returned.

  The pain was unbearable when he used his tongue, lapping at the bleeding wound he’d created with his teeth. When he pulled his head back and looked into my eyes, long streams of stringy saliva tinged with the red from my blood hung from his mouth. The pain caused my head to whirl with the threat of passing out. His breath smelled like he’d chewed on a decaying body. The bile in my throat rose again when I felt the heat of it on my neck.

  Barely aware of my surrounding, I heard a door open. The building we were next to was made up of a group of storefront businesses all connected to each other in the same plaza. The last storefront door opened, and footsteps crunched on the snow-covered sidewalk. My attacker jerked and snarled at the sound.

  Someone was coming out of that store.

  Struggling with all my strength against the hand binding my arms to the snow, then trying to scream underneath the man’s iron grip over my mouth, didn’t work. Whoever it was must have startled my attacker, causing him to leap off me. The animal man looked at me one last time, and I stared back through foggy eyes, my vision fading. A low growl erupted from his throat, then he ran down the opposite end of the alley until he was no longer visible.

  Stunned, I could do nothing but lie there in the cold snow and focus on breathing for a minute.

  Was this what dying felt like?

  My body was still in shock from the attack. I lifted my head to see how the rest of me fared. The wound on my neck felt like hot pokers were stuck into the muscles.

  My clothes were torn. Strips of cloth lay shredded on the ground around me. The pockets of my wool coat hung from the seams, with chunks ripped from the fabric, and my black leggings had holes in the knees.

  The cold air on my bare skin felt like needles pricking me with every gust of wind. My mind was in a state of chaos.

  What the heck just happened?

  Who was that crazy man with feline eyes, and what was he doing going around biting people and licking them like a dog licks a spoon of peanut butter? This was one of the worst nights in my entire life.

  The realization of the situation struck home. I was in Kenosha with no one to call for help, and I was completely alone. My aunt didn’t have a cell phone. Heck, neither of us did. Not setting up a cell phone account the second my little car drove across the Wisconsin state border was a very bad decision. The excuses ran through my mind at alarming speed.

  Okay, Sydney, focus. Now wasn’t the time for I wish, I would haves.

  Even if I had a cell phone to use, there was no one to call, well maybe the police, Animal Control, or Freaks Are Us? Who knew what would have happened if that door hadn’t been opened? What would the mad man have done if he hadn’t been scared off?

  Whoever came out of the store and spooked the attacker must have walked away in the opposite direction.

  My body shook so hard, my teeth rattled, and it wasn’t from the cold. I lifted a hand to my neck to feel how badly I was injured. The shaking of my hand caused the torn flesh in my neck to hurt worse. I took my hand away and remained on the ground, not moving.

  It was hard to think straight. My breathing was rapid and shallow. I couldn’t slow or deepen my breaths. The glittering snowflakes continued to fall all around me, covering my body. I had stopped feeling the cold air. My head ached from where the man had held it in place against the alley stones.

  Slowly standing and brushing the snow off, pain exploded in my back. My purse and car keys were lying beside me in the snow. Obviously he hadn’t been hiding in the alley waiting to rob someone. The animal man had left me without taking anything, except for some blood and flesh.

  When I leaned over to retrieve my things, I spotted the object he’d been crouching over. It wasn’t a baby, thank heaven, or at least it didn’t look like one. Anymore. My stomach lurched, and the dry heaves kicked in.

  A whiff of old blood hit me in the cold air. I turned my head to stick my nose into my scarf, trying to block out the acrid smell of meat before vomit hurled from my body. Seeing dead animals on the side of the road always made me feel sick to my stomach. Seeing the chunk of raw meat the man had been chewing on in the alley, staining the snow with oozing blood, made me want to puke. The meat in the snow was unidentifiable, and I really didn’t want to think about the dark patch of what might have been human hair lying in a wet stringy line.

  I looked around to make sure there was no sign of the attacker before grabbing my purse and keys. I sensed the heat of someone’s, or something’s, glare on the back of my neck and body as I stumbled the rest of the way to the car.

  Cold air whipped up the back of my coat.

  Was the crazy man still out there?

  My hands shook as I put the key into the door lock, climbed into the driver’s seat, and locked the doors before starting it. Blood seeped from the gash in my wrist and dripped onto the steering wheel.

  Get home, Sydney. Time for hysterics later.

  I had no idea who to call or tell about what had happened. My thought processes were numb. It was either that or a little touch of hypothermia was setting in.

  Warm air blew through the vents in the dashboard of the Jetta as I pulled into the driveway of my aunt’s home. The porch light shone bright over the front door. Aunt Judith was already home from her date. Only her car was parked in the driveway. There was a lot to talk to Aunt Judith about, and relief washed over me that she was already home and alone.

  The scent of herbal tea with honey hung in the air the moment the front door swung open into the house. The smell was a welcome change from that of old blood, which had stayed with me the entire ride home. Closing the heavy wooden front door against the cold, I yelled out, “Aunt Judith, I’m home.”

  She came to the doorway of the kitchen on the opposite side of the living room and waved. “Hello, my dear, come and tell me how your day at the store went.” Her gray hair gently glistened from the lamp light on the coffee table.

  Admittedly, she did have a glow about her that made me change my first impression about the successfulness of her date. Guilt hit me hard. I hated to ruin her night by telling her about the attack, but there was no other choice. Someone else had to know.

  Feeling suddenly woozy, I took baby steps into the kitchen, through the swinging white door, and looked closer at her. The sight of her in her housecoat and long silver hair braided over her shoulder made me smile, despite the night’s events. She had her old nightgown on, which meant she was definitely alone. Of course, she still had her usual be
ads around her neck, with their different patterns and color streams. She told me a long time ago that each combination of the colorful beads had a special charm placed on them that gave her some kind of protection. She’d never said from what.

  I headed over to the kitchen table and dropped my purse on the top before pulling up one of the wooden chairs to face her so we could talk. “Aunt Judith, you would not believe my night. I was attacked by a man, Aunt Judith. A very scary, very large man!”

  Aunt Judith paled. “Oh dear Goddess.”

  “When the man turned around, his eyes were like a wild animal’s. His teeth, well they weren’t like anything I’ve ever seen before.”

  “Sydney, did the man do or say anything to you?”

  “Yes, he attacked me like a cat toy and bit a chunk of skin off my neck.” I didn’t mean to yell at her, but my neck was killing me. The pain didn’t get better on the way home, it got worse. The torn skin on my neck felt like someone was stoking a fire in my tissues and making it hotter.

  She went even paler. “Oh, well, honey, don’t you worry, everything is going to be just fine, just fine indeed.”

  “I think we should call the police.”

  She shook her head and said sternly, “No, we don’t need to call anyone, Sydney. Everything is going to be just fine,” she repeated as she leaned over the kitchen table, patted my hand with hers, and grabbed her cup of tea from the counter.

  She didn’t mention the blood still dripping down my neck, over my collarbone, and onto my shirt.

  “Don’t you worry about a thing. Tomorrow you’ll feel better. Don’t go calling anyone. I’ll fix you something up that will make that neck of yours feel lots better.”

  She didn’t examine my wound, didn’t scream and cry. She left the kitchen, just like that. She hadn’t even encouraged me to call the authorities. She told me everything was going to be just fine. I wasn’t really sure what I had expected, probably for her to cry and demand that we leave Kenosha, but no reaction at all was definitely a surprise.