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The man’s voice boomed up the steps as I scrambled Sydney onto my back.
“Hold on as tightly as you can, okay?” I asked.
“Okay,” she said, with a whimper.
She wrapped her arms and legs around my body, burying her face in the crook of my neck. I ran around the house, taking corridors and hitting dead ends before I found a window. I had no idea where the front door was, and I didn’t care. I could hear the man stumbling up the steps, but it didn’t look like there was anyone else in the house.
I tried to open the window to no avail and realized it was painted shut.
I slammed the glass shard into the window and
shattered it. I slipped us gently through the open window before I fell to my feet. I ran across the lawn and felt the pavement of the road underneath my feet. The sun was blinding. The pavement was searing my skin as I continued to run, and soon I felt the smooth warmth of sand underneath my toes.
I squinted, allowing my eyes to adjust as I hiked Sydney up onto my body.
I looked around, trying to get my bearings. I couldn't hear the man behind us, but there was a commotion. I was standing on a beach—that much I knew. But in front of me was endless ocean and to the side of me was thick brush.
The brush.
That was my only shot at hiding us in time.
I made a run for it, my lungs pumping as hard as they could. Sydney was clinging to me, her nails digging into my skin. It took forever for my eyes to adjust to the sun, but as soon as I hit the grove of trees, the darkness allowed me enough reprieve to look around. The ocean was crashing against the shore and there was a beach on the other side of the grove. I made a run for it, not bothering to look back to see where the man was.
My best attempt at helping us was finding any sort of civilization on this damn island.
I ran through the grove, branches slapping across my face. My feet touched down on sand again and I collapsed to my knees. My eyes were burning, and my lungs were heaving. My head was on fire and my legs were aching.
I heard the giggling of children and it caused me to whip my head up. I got to my feet as Sydney’s tears trickled down my skin. I looked around at the families swimming in the ocean and taking pictures of their vacation as they were walking up and down the pier.
The pier.
Holy shit, we were only half a mile from where I had been kidnapped.
I could hear the thundering of footsteps behind me and I took off again. I held tight to Sydney’s legs as we made our way down the beach. People were staring at us like we were insane, but then I heard the trickling of voices that made me smile.
“Is that the girl?”
“The one from the poster?”
“I think that’s her.”
“Help!” I screamed. “Call the police! He’s after us!”
I ran along the beach, blowing by the pier Morgan and I had stayed on. Tears of relief were flooding my cheeks as people began to pick up their phones and dial. Off in the distance, the house rose. The beautiful vacation home that had become a haven for a parent’s worst nightmare.
My worst nightmare.
I ran over the small tract of pavement before I slammed back down into the sand. The house seemed too far away, yet it held so much hope. Throngs of people were emerging from their huts, and the thundering footsteps I’d heard in the grove were no longer present. Blood was pumping through my veins and the sun was beating down on my aching body. I wanted to scream, to cave in on myself, and let the world go black. The adrenaline that had propelled me this far was starting to dissipate, leaving me more exhausted than there were words to describe.
Then, I heard the most beautiful sound I could ever have heard.
“Police! Brooke! Over here!”
I stopped in my tracks and fell to my knees as the crowd behind me had converged on our captor and held him down until the police could arrest him. Sydney slipped from my back as officers came toward us. One of the guys held Sydney tightly and another man picked me up in his arms. Tears were flowing down my face as I watched our kidnapper get hauled away in handcuffs.
It was over.
That was when everything went black.
