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Now she needed escape Now she needed not to be in this world, this terrible world of the FAYZ Books were the only way out

After just a fewAtteet her fear: failed It was all right there, still, right there in front of every other thought

Outside, a breeze caused tree branches to scrape the side of the house A corner of Astrid’sconcerns

She wondered where Sa for her as she longed for him

Yes, yes, she wanted him She wanted to be in his arms She wanted to kiss him And s he wanted she wanted, too

Stupid jerk, didn’t he get that? Was he so clueless he didn’t know that she wanted it all, too?

But she wasn’t Sah Astrid the Genius, always so irritatingly in control That was the word he’d thrown at her: control

How could Sam not realize that if they crossed that line it would be one more sin? One more abandonment of her faith One more surrender to weakness

There had been too many of those It was like little pieces of Astrid’s soul were flaking off, falling away Some pieces not so small

Her self-control had crumbled so swiftly it was almost comic After all the teirl had evaporated like a bead of water on a hot skillet, sizzle, sizzle, all gone And what had eed then had been pure violence

She had tried to kill Nerezza In screae The memory of it made her sick

And that wasn’t all of it She had wanted Sa Brittney as well

Astrid couldn’t be that person She had to put herself back together She had to take time to rebuild herself She was afraid she would shatter Like a glass sculpture, chip chip chip away and all at once it would shatter into a thousand pieces

And yet, a cool, calculating part of her knew she could not alienate Sam too much Because it was only a ured out that there was a way out of the FAYZ

The exit door was right in front of the just a few feet from Astrid

A simple act of murder

Others had seen what Astrid had seen on that cliff, when Little Pete’s mind had blanked out, overwhelame

A simple act of ht to brush his teeth Ought to change his pajaht to

His forehead was daht, but this orse She pushed the button on the thermometer by the bed, waited for it to zero out, and stuck it under Little Pete’s tongue