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She took a single step closer She had to be sure Her skin was pierced and stabbed, although whether those sensations caer certain She took another step forward, wincing froritted her teeth

When she ithin reach, she held out her hand and ran it along the surface of what looked to be a box But her fingertips stilled when she felt how sht when she’d suspected it was out of place here It hadn’t been there for long, she could tell just by feeling it It was clean; there was no dirt corroding it, no layers of dust and gri the latch

Even without opening the top of the freezer her fingers brushed across, Violet kneas her: the girl they’d been searching for She was in there

"I found her" Violet spoke quietly, reaching up with one hand to brush her hair away fro over the earpiece still firesture was unnecessary; she knew they were listening "I’"

She took an uncertain step back and waited, ignoring that part of her that wanted to peek inside--to see the girl, to confirm that her intuition wasn’t ive her a few irl lay silently, peacefully, in the darknessbefore the others came and disentombed her Before they prodded and poked and probed

Before she becarinding over the glass For athe She knew eventually they would find her there, in the glooe warehouse, even if she didn’t respond But they didn’t have an echo to follow, and it could take theer than it had taken Violet to find the body

"Dude, even I can hear them now" Krystal’s voice practically shattered Violet’s eardruotten her earpiece was still in place "If you don’t answer, they’re going to pull their weapons and start blasting down the walls"

Violet s the point of the warning "I’h not quite loud enough And then, knowing that she had to, she called again, louder: "Back here!"

She saw the beah a doorway on the other side of the warehouse and their footsteps grew closer, anized, chaotic

"Are you safe?" It was Sara this tih her earpiece Her voice caht with the she’d taken those extra few ht reached her face, blinding Violet, and she turned away, shielding her eyes with her aries--as another fell on the freezer behind her