Silenced by Fear

By Nicholas Jordan

She thought she had escaped the past. She was wrong . . .

16-year-old Kitty has worked hard to get her life back on track after suffering years of traumatic abuse at the hands of her stepfather. And with the support of her amazing boyfriend Aaron and her best friend Lexi, she really starts to believe she can put the past behind her for good.

Until girls at her school start getting assaulted. Someone is stalking and targeting her friends one by one. The local sheriff has no idea who attacker is or how to find him. Which means Kitty must try to discover the identity of this masked serial rapist herself, while also confronting demons of the past.

Can she put an end to this man's spree of violence or will she herself become a victim once again?

If you like a thrilling and suspenseful mystery with a twist ending that you will not see coming, then you'll love this book!

Get Silenced by Fear today to find out if Kitty can triumph over both the terrors of the past and present!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nicholas Jordan
• Release date: Dec 8, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386177050

Book preview

1

PLEASE DON’T COME IN.

Eyes wide open, Kitty Prescott could not take her eyes off her bedroom door. She was lying on her left side in bed, clutching her covers tightly to keep them swaddled around her.

Giving her a sense of safety and security.

Even though it was a false sense.

She was never safe, and there was nothing worse than feeling unsafe in your own home. Home was supposed to be the safest place of all. It was where you went when you were scared or just needed to get away from everything.

But not for Kitty.

Just about anywhere felt safer than home for her. But being a thirteen-year-old girl with younger siblings to think about, and a mother who hardly paid attention to her, there was very little that Kitty could do about that lack of safety.

At least that was the way she looked at it.

She considered telling her mom when it first started happening, even though he made her promise not to. And on more than one occasion, she came very close, but she could never bring herself to do it.

Now it felt like it was too late.

She worried her mother might not believe her. And if she didn’t, what would he do to her then? Would he hurt her? Or even worse, would he do the same to her sisters to punish her—something he implied he was willing to do.

Kitty couldn’t let that happen.

It was better to suffer in silence than risk anyone else getting hurt.

This is for the best.

Just then, Kitty’s ears picked up a creaking sound in the hall right outside her door. Someone was out there.

Coming closer.

Her heart beat faster in her chest—pounding against her ribcage as if it could sense the impending danger of the situation and wanted to escape.

Kitty’s eyes locked on to the door, dreading what seemed inevitable. She couldn’t look away. Not yet anyway. Not until she knew for sure.

Don’t come in.

Don’t come in.

Don’t come in.

She repeated the same three words over and over again in her head, as if the silent mantra actually had some kind of power to protect her.

Of course it didn’t.

Nothing could protect her.

Not from him.

A shadow appeared beneath her door. Her stomach twisted into a nervous knot and she quickly rolled over so that she was facing away from the door. Then she pulled her blanket over her head.

Maybe if he thinks I’m asleep . . . he’ll leave me alone. It never happened that way before, and she didn’t honestly believe it would happen now, but when faced with a feeling of absolute helplessness, she did anything she could to give herself that sliver of hope.

So she closed her eyes and waited to hear the sound of the door opening.

But it didn’t happen.

Several minutes past and there was no sound whatsoever save for the frantic beating of her own heart.

Opening her eyes again, Kitty allowed herself a moment of optimism. And she even considered rolling over again to check to see if the shadow had moved on.

But that thought had barely been conceived in her brain when her ears were treated to the gut-wrenching sound of the doorknob turning.

She shut her eyes again as her heart sank. The door swung open and then closed again.

Closed. She was trapped.

Only the two of them in the room.

He was free to do as he pleased. And she knew that he would.

Kitty heard the sound of heavy footsteps moving across the floor and then the bed shifted as he sat down. She bit her lip and kept her eyes shut tight. She gripped the blanket securely around her body. Her last line of defense.

A futile defense.

That was soon negated when she felt a hand grasp the blanket and make an attempt to yank it off. But she held it in place.

Now, now, none of that, Kitty. The soft and calm voice of her stepfather always made her skin crawl. Let go of the blanket.

It was meant to sound like a request. It wasn’t. And there would be consequences if it wasn’t obeyed.

She learned that the hard way.

So Kitty did obey. She let go of the blanket and allowed him to pull it away to reveal her now trembling body underneath.

She was left with only her thin pajamas to fend off the cold. But that wasn’t why she was trembling. She was terrified. And her pajamas would do nothing to fend off the source of that terror.

Now open your eyes, her stepfather again spoke in that soft voice that she hated so much.

Like every time Kitty was forced to endure this special treatment from her stepfather—as he liked to call it—she just hoped it would be over with as quickly as possible.

Knowing she couldn’t put it off any longer, Kitty rolled over on to her back and opened her eyes at last.

That’s a good girl.

•         

2

KITTY AWOKE WITH A START—plagued once again by a nightmare of the past. They weren’t as frequent as they used to be, but she doubted they would ever truly end. You can’t completely erase the past, nor can you pretend like it never happened.

Slowly sitting up in bed, Kitty found her sheets damp. Waking up in cold sweats was nothing new to her, but she still hated it. She brushed her sweat-soaked dark brown hair out of her face and heaved a sigh.

Just a dream, she reminded herself. It was just a dream.

She took a few deep breaths to calm herself. Afterwards, she did the first thing that she did every morning. She grabbed her phone off the nightstand by the bed and sent a text to the most important person in her life.

Good morning, love, she typed quickly and then hit send. She literally counted the seconds as she awaited the reply.

It didn’t take long before she felt her phone buzz in her hands, bringing a smile to her lips. She checked the message and read the reply even faster than she typed her own message.

Morning, babe. Be there to pick you up in an hour.

K. See u then! She sent a text back to her boyfriend.

That was all that Kitty needed to get out of bed. She never got up until she got that morning greeting from Aaron.

She went straight to the bathroom. A warm shower would feel great right now to wash away the perspiration still clinging to her body, as well as take away the chill of early morning.

After stepping out of the shower and wrapping a towel around herself, Kitty used another towel to dry her shoulder-length hair. Then went to the mirror and frowned at her appearance.

So plain.

So average.

So inadequate.

Why Aaron is attracted to me, I’ll never know. But thank God that he is. I don’t know what I would do without him.

Aaron always told her how pretty she was. The way that he talked about her, you would think that he was referring to an angel.

But Kitty had a hard time believing him when she looked into the mirror and saw something very different staring back at her than what he described. In fact, when everyone who cared about her told her she was pretty, she had a hard time believing any of them.

Her best friend Lexi told her she was pretty.

Her other friends said the same.

So did her mom.

And her stepfather used to tell her she was pretty all the time.

But I’m not pretty . . . and I’m definitely not an angel.

Kitty opened the drawer and started to gather all the makeup she would need to fix her face into something that she would allow the outside world to see.

Time to make myself less hideous for Aaron.

Pinning her hair back behind her head, Kitty got to work with her usual routine. Hiding her pale skin and unsightly freckles as best she could, and throwing on a little blush as well. Her bright green eyes were the only part of her body that wasn’t substandard in her mind.

And some eyeliner and shadow helped to really make them standout.

Only once she was satisfied with her makeup—and combed every last knot out of her hair—did Kitty leave the bathroom and go to her closet to pick out something to wear.

A task that she normally dreaded. It always felt like a no-win situation. Nothing ever fit on her quite the way she wanted it to.

Even though Kitty was sixteen years old, her figure was more like that of a preteen boy. A flat chest, narrow hips, and scrawny limbs were hardly features desirable in a girl her age. She pretty much had the least womanly shape imaginable.

But it was all that she had to work with, so she had no choice but to make the best of it.

Skirts and shorts were out because she hated to show her legs unless it was so hot that she didn’t have a choice. Fortunately, it was an overcast day with a light drizzle outside, so heat was not a factor. Late September in the town of Crystal Springs was pretty much guaranteed to mean some rain.

Kitty tried about six or seven different combinations of tops and jeans until finally finding something that was acceptable for her. Not perfect, but perfect was not a possibility as far as she was concerned.

Gathering up her clothes—and underclothing—she returned to the bathroom and got dressed in a white tank top and skinny blue jeans worn underneath a navy hoodie.

She turned around in front of the mirror a few times to get a good view of herself. Then smoothed out the folds in her hoodie. She was already starting to have second thoughts about the outfit when she heard someone knock on her bedroom door, causing her to jump.

Dammit, I hate being so skittish, Kitty thought before stepping out of the bathroom.

Who is it? she asked.

Who do you think it is?

Kitty recognized the voice of her little sister, Dana.

What do you want?

Mom says you have to come downstairs for breakfast.

Ugh, she knows how much I hate to eat in the morning.

But the chances of her getting out of here without her mom forcing her to eat at least something were slim to none.

Alright, I’ll be down in a minute, Kitty told her sister.

Hurry up. Mom’s putting breakfast on the table right now.

I said I’ll be down in a minute. Kitty rolled her eyes. She went to the nightstand by the bed again and grabbed her cell phone, stuffing it in the back pocket of her jeans.

She paused to look in the bathroom mirror once more and get a look at her outfit. She decided that she wasn’t a big fan, and considered changing again, but with her mom pressuring her to come downstairs, and Aaron on his way to pick her up, she just didn’t have time to be so picky.

So she grabbed her backpack off the floor on her way out the door and then started to head downstairs. The closer she got to the kitchen, the louder the ruckus of her younger siblings became. Every so often, she heard her mother snap at one of them, no doubt trying to keep them at least somewhat quiet and under control.

But was failing miserably.

And Kitty was not surprised.

As much as she loved all her younger siblings, she had to admit that they were pretty much all little brats.

Entering the kitchen, Kitty was greeted by the sight of her mother, dressed in an apron over pajamas, flipping pancakes on the grill while her brood of five children—not including Kitty—rushed around the kitchen, or sat at the table, stuffing their faces.

Hey, Mom, Kitty said.

Morning, her mom said without looking up from the grill. Her curly red hair was worn up in a loose ponytail