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I alh but I holdMy back is against the cold hard car Myfroen and tooyour cell phone" He has an accent It’s English No Australian I glance around and think of what to do If I pull the phone from my pants he won’t be able to find me But then neither will Stuart I decide to risk it I fish nal I have a bar I text as fast as I can

’HELP! BAD GUYS! PLEASE COME FIND ME!’

It delivers I hear a ping in the parking lot My stouy or dead at the hands of the bad guy

My breath is gone My legs becoet closer I slowly place the phone on the ground I back up silently, fighting it as it starts to over His feet crunch the old dry snow I’ I back up My exhale makes mist in the air I try not to breathe I hold my mitten over my mouth It makes me sick, but I don’t have any other choice It all feels faetting lightheaded

I lean into the carup

"Eirl as adopted into a Catholic church Don’t they usually name you after a saint?" His voice is like nails on a chalkboard It burns and hurts He isn’t my benefactor I would know his voice anywhere This is a bad et at my benefactor Just like he said they would I was foolish Why didn’t I listen? Why didn’t I stay with the car? I had to walk and be stubborn because I didn’t want to see Stuart Stuart who is now fighting for

I’ in between the cars next toI can see I count to three and jump up I sprint behind the cars and jump over a small barricade His shoes slap the hard road behind me It’s the moment I’ve trained for

What I haven’t trained for hitspain I sla The lonely comes fast and hard My feet won’tthrough the water, clutching the side of a building His feet are crunching on the crusty ground behind me I fall into the cold snow My knees scrape on the hard crust I’up toto kick me I blink but runt and cry out I hear it but it doesn’t feel like it co woolen pull down over my face And then I’m out

Chapter Nine

The dark is a quiet place Reflection and conteine the worst things possible

I don’t have to reflect or contes possible are I know about the things that hide in the dark Insanity is the least of them

I am curled in a ball in the back corner of the roo me out that I don’t knohere he is

Hiined loving, now feels as if an appendage isI miss the feel of it when it vibrated and I kneas there He was always there for h the silence My heartbeat quickens It sounds like Stuart He screa harder into the concrete His screa I cannot iine the horrors he has seen, or the pain he has experienced, to ile They have hurt hiain It isbreaths that keep me company in the dark

The darkness keeps me awake

My butt hurts, my heart hurts, my throat burns from the tears in there and ht is harsh and white I squint to see a hand rise in the open space A gun is lifted I don’t have ti out of ain My throat gets thick andfatter When I hit the floor I cannot ain I am alone in the dark I put a hand down on the cold concrete floor and rub it back and forth I dreamt I was back in my dorm The cold hard floor tells me otherwise

I push and lift er and thirst are brutal I push ain I hate how dark it is It feels like a vast empty space

When I rub my eyes I feel like my hands are bonier than they were I don’t kno many days have past My stomach is pulled in and I can feel my ribs when my arms sit on my belly

I was already thin from the sprints, but now I aetto die soon I want to cry out I want to beg But I don’t I sit and wait I don’t wait long when the screa theain He cries out words I don’t knohat they are but he is begging Pleading It sounds like they’re ripping his fingers off Maybe they are I sob dry heaves and shake

"Please god Please save him Please make them stop" I whisper into the darkness, desperate to drown out his screams and pleas

A movement catches my attention I almost crawl up the wall "Who’s there?" I whisper