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She didn’t es It would serve as one h above, the cosdozens of wings She prayed they belonged to birds
She stu her way in alrains and dust swirled around her, and she could feel the crunch of straw beneath her feet A part of her warned that she’d just backed herself into a corner, while the other part insisted she just needed a few minutes to recover And this was shelter She wouldn’t stay long
She crept along the wall, arms out She passed what she assuo inside She worried about what else ht be in here with her: spiders, rats, possu more feral, like coyotes She really didn’t knohat kinds of animals made homes in abandoned barns
Finally she found an alcove behind the long row of stalls at the far end of the barn, and she slipped inside, feeling around for a corner she could hide in She batted at cobwebs, swiping them from her face, her hair, her coat, and her hands She did her best to make a small nest of straw so she could sit Just for a minute
It was hard to relax as she strained in the darkness, checking to be sure Caine wasn’t near She thought about her parents, and her aunt and uncle She thought about Jay, and blinked back hot tears
She wondered if they knew yet She wondered if they were as scared as she was She huddled in a ball, wishing it were someone else’s arue--and the sedatives Caine had dosed her with earlier--won out and her eyelids became heavy
It wasn’t the barn door that woke her, or even the pungent scent of burning rubber It wasn’t the flashlight bobbing over the landscape of the barn’s interior, shining light on dust motes so thick it should’ve been difficult to even breathe
It was so else that pulled her from the slippery depths of sleep, somewhere she never should have been in the first place It was the sound of the floorboards groaning with the weight of each hollow step he took over the planked floor
She was fully awake then, her eyes huge as she peered out fro She waited, knowing that he was stopping at each stall, searching inside, and her heart thundered painfully Leaping silently to her feet, she stayed low, crouched
By the peripheral light of the flashlight, Violet could see several things at once On the opposite end of the barn, there was another way out, a side door Unfortunately, even if she decided to run for it, he would see her, and et there
There was also a loft overhead, with a staircase she could surely reach It was directly ahead of her, just a few short feet away But even if she made it to the wooden steps, there was no way she could climb to the top without his notice
"I know you’re in here," his voice rang out as if reading her mind, and Violet’s blood ran cold "You can’t hide forever"