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Clutching the rope wrapped around her hand, she lurches forward but stops, her heart jumping through her chest. She knew this would be hard. Water frightens her, but more so because she’s alone and it’s dark. She looks around, seeing no one on either bank, no boats coming, and no traffic. She may not get another chance.
Now.
She jumps, gasps, and instantly regrets it, but it’s too late now. Inhaling a deep breath, she plummets down into the night river, her stomach rising past her diaphragm.
But she pushes the fear back down her throat and closes her eyes, hitting the water. She’s engulfed, cold immediately seeping into her bones, but she squeezes her fist around the rope, pushes her arms, and kicks her legs.
Shooting through the surface, she looks around and then up, the rope stretching between her and the tow truck above. Pulling her head lamp out of her pocket, she wades as she fits the band around her skull and presses the button. The brown water around her lights up, and she sucks in a breath, diving quickly.
The light from her lamp illuminates the area around her, and she descends, kicking hard.
Things glint, like shiny rocks below, and it takes a second for her to realize it’s the coins that people toss when they cross.
And then… A straight line appears. Nature doesn’t make straight lines.
She reaches out, touching the steel locker, caked in mud and slime. It sits almost upright, its back corner buried in the river floor. Working quickly, she pulls the rope, having left herself plenty of slack, and ties it around the middle, coming up for air only once before she dives back down to tie it again, head to foot.
She starts to swim up, but the light from her head lamp catches a patch of clear water about fifteen feet away.
She stops, seeing the driver’s side of a vehicle come into view.
The car…
It’s there.
And then a cloud of mud passes with the current, and the vehicle disappears again.
She thinks about swimming over but decides not to. Popping back up through the surface, she swims quickly for the Falls side of the river and climbs back up to the bridge, walking for the truck. Pushing the lever, she reels in the rope attached to the chain that’s attached to the crane. Peering over the side of the bridge, she watches the old school locker rise from the river, spilling water from its cracks.
Bringing it in, she guides it onto the truck bed, rips off her head lamp, and picks up her flashlight. Getting into the truck, she makes a U-turn on the bridge and drives back into the Falls.
It doesn’t take long. She’s a planner. Accounts for all challenges. She knows which roads to take in order to avoid cops. She brought a rolling cart to load the locker onto. She knows which door in the senior hallway of Shelburne Falls High School doesn’t lock.
She doesn’t need help. Doesn’t need pity.
An hour later, she stares at her mom’s locker back in the display case where it belongs.
“Sorry, Dylan,” Thomasin says, wiping off the water under her chin. “But I think I’ll let Kade have his fun, after all.”
She slides the glass door shut and walks away, letting out a long breath.
“I’ll be fun, too, someday,” she whispers.
THE END
Turn the page for a sneak peek at the next installment in the Hellbent series,
Quiet Ones!
This will be Quinn’s story!
Quinn
One Year Later
I peer out the little window in the kitchen door, seeing the man still finishing his coffee. He sits at the table in front of the big mirror, and he’s been there for two hours. I hate kicking people out, but…
Oh, who am kidding? I’ve never kicked anyone out.
