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Zusatztext "Chilling — think 'Mean Girls' meets 'The Exorcist'...a fast-paced thrill-ride."— MTV.com “Pretty Little Liars fans! get a sneak peek at your new favorite book The Merciless …a nail biting thriller.”— Seventeen Magazine “Sick. Wicked. Twisted. This is my kinda fun.” —Marlene King ! executive producer of Pretty Little Liars " Mean Girls with an occult twist."— Kirkus Reviews "This pulse-pounding! debut novel creates a wickedly creepy atmosphere where mean girls quickly turn homicidal."— School Library Journal "Page-to-page Stephen King-style terror..."— Booklist "After finishing this gruesome and heart-racing novel! readers will be left wondering if the devil is in us all."— VOYA Informationen zum Autor Danielle Vega spent her childhood hiding under the covers while her mother retold tales from the pages of Stephen King novels. As an adult, she can count on one hand the number of times in her life she's been truly afraid. Danielle has won numerous awards for her fiction and nonfiction, including a 2009 Pushcart Prize nomination for her short story "Drive." She lives in Brooklyn. Follow her on Twitter @dvegabooks Klappentext "The Merciless is chilling. Think Mean Girls meets The Exorcist."-MTV.com Danielle Vega delivers blood-curdling suspense and terror on every page of this thrilling debut novel. Fans of Asylum by Madeleine Roux and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children will devour this terrifying series. Brooklyn Stevens sits in a pool of her own blood! tied up and gagged. No one outside of these dank basement walls knows she's here. No one can hear her scream. Sofia Flores knows she shouldn't have gotten involved. When she befriended Riley! Grace! and Alexis on her first day at school! she admired them! with their perfect hair and their good-girl ways. They said they wanted to save Brooklyn. They wanted to help her. Sofia didn't realize they believed Brooklyn was possessed. Now! Riley and the girls are performing an exorcism on Brooklyn-but their idea of an exorcism is closer to torture than salvation. All Sofia wants is to get out of this house. But there is no way out. Sofia can't go against the other girls...unless she wants to be next. By the shockingly twisted end! readers will be faced with the most haunting question of all: Is there evil in all of us? "Pretty Little Liars fans! get a sneak peek at your new favorite book The Merciless…a nail biting thriller."-Seventeen Magazine ***This excerpt is from an advance uncorrected proof*** Copyright © 2014 Alloy Entertainment C H A P T E R S I X “I still don’t understand why it would bleed so much.” Mom wraps up the chicken we just had for dinner in tinfoil while I fill the sink with soapy water and start the dishes. I shrug, staring at a folded dishtowel next to the sink. It’s red and white with a picture of a rooster on it. “It was a really big zit,” I say. I cleaned the blood from my face and covered the piercing with a Band-Aid before my mom saw it, but I’ve had to change the Band-Aid twice since she’s been home. Already the new one is red with blood. Mom puts the chicken in the fridge, frowning as she closes the door. Our phone rings, and Mom leans over the counter and picks it up. “Flores residence,” she answers. A tinny-sounding voice echoes from the other end of the receiver, and Mom smiles. “One moment. It’s your friend Riley,” she says, handing me the phone. “She says she has a homework question. Just don’t take too long.” I slip out the back door with the phone and curl up in the wooden chair on our patio. Our backyard stretches forever, without any streetlights or nearby houses to break it up. It’s unnerving, like being walled...
