Page 146 of Serenity Falls

‘Where would we stay? How would we make money?’

‘We could take this book. Sell it. It must be worth something. And if that doesn’t work out, we’re sixteen. We could get jobs.’

‘Our parents would look for us, Milo.’

‘And? It’s a big world out there. Much bigger than fucking Serenity Falls.’

I remained silent, brain whirring. Escape. A fresh start. Where no one knew my name. I could even change it. Become someone else. And yet … I thought about my mom. How she was such a major pain in the butt, but I knew she loved me. If I left and she didn’t know what had happened to me, it would rip her heart out.

I shook my head. ‘I can’t. I can’t do that to my mom.’

A darkness flickered across his face. An angry look I recognized. ‘Right. So, you want her to carry on parading you like a trick pony at every party and event in this town.’

‘No, but this isn’t the way, Milo. Let’s go. Please.’

Reluctantly, he nodded. ‘Fine. But we take the ledger.’

‘We can’t. It’s too big to fit in our backpacks.’

‘I’ll carry it then. I want that map.’

I made a snap decision. I ripped out the page of the tunnel maps, folded it up and stuffed it in my pocket. ‘Okay? Now let’s go.’

He gave me a look. ‘You know that ledger could’ve been worth a lot of money.’

‘Yeah, well, it’s not worth anything if you drop it in the lake. Now c’mon.’

Sobriety had kicked in. I could feel panic gnawing at my gut, time bleeding away.

‘Okay.’ Milo nodded.

We scurried out of the secret room. Milo slid the bookcase shut. As we reached the door of the cabin, he caught my arm. I turned. ‘What?’

‘Thank you.’

‘For what?’

‘For … being with me.’

And suddenly he kissed me, harder and fiercer. I pulled away. ‘We don’t have time.’

In the dark, his face was unreadable. ‘I know.’

We flicked on our flashlights, hurried down the steps and back into the forest. I scanned the trees for chalk marks, spotted the first one. We tracked them back through the woods. A couple of times, I thought I’d lost them, but then the flashlight picked up a sliver of white and we ploughed on.

It felt harder on the way back, without the adrenaline and anticipation. We were tired, the alcohol no longer making us giddy, just dehydrated and nauseous. At one point, I stumbled, and my foot sunk deep into mud. I yelped and managed to tug it free. But it was a reminder that this was swampland. Go the wrong way, and you could get stuck deep.

I could hear Milo panting behind me. Where was the damn river, the fucking boat? And then I saw it. A glimmer between the trees. Light reflecting on water. I picked up my pace, emerging on to the riverbank. Hauled up on the mud was the kayak.

I glanced at my watch: 10.31 p.m. We’d already missed curfew. There was going to be hell to pay from my mom. We dragged the kayak to the water’s edge. I climbed in. Milo clambered clumsily after me, almost tipping the boat.

‘Careful,’ I chided.

‘Sorry.’

We pushed off, and I dug the paddles fiercely into the water, but it was hard to gain any speed. It was too narrow, the banks too close. We couldn’t risk grounding the kayak, and Milo seemed to be having difficulty steering from the back.

‘You okay?’ I half turned.