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Cassie didn’t think. She just moved. Whether the woman was a monster, it hardly mattered. No one should’ve been in the woods that night, least of all three little girls. She sprinted forward, picked Laura up with a strength she didn’t know she possessed, and launched herself back toward the house with Sarah right on her heels. The blood pumping through her body drowned out all the other noises, and Cassie couldn’t tell if the woman was chasing them or if she’d turned and run in the opposite direction.

Either way, Cassie, Sarah, and Laura didn’t stop moving until they came crashing through the front door, nearly bowling over Mrs. Lennox in the process. From there, it was a blur of relief and terror and shame for breaking a rule she knew had been in place for her own safety.

34

The nurse returned to switch Cassie out for Laura, and then it was time to return home. The hospital wanted to keep Judy a few hours longer, and Walter had stayed on the promise to keep the girls updated with any developments. Cassie was still buzzing with her newfound memory. If Laura had said anything to her on the ride home, she couldn’t remember.

“Okay, you’re killing me.” Laura shifted the car into park. Somehow, they had already made it back to the house. “Did you and Mom make up?”

“I think so.” Cassie unbuckled her seatbelt but didn’t move to get out of the car. “We still have some stuff to talk about, but I think she’s scared. She wants to keep me at a distance because she’s afraid I’ll leave again, and she wants to hold me close because—”

“—she’s afraid you’ll leave again?”

“Exactly.” Cassie waited for Laura to open her car door, then mirrored her movements, still in a daze. She waited until they were inside and had kicked off their shoes and hung up their jackets before she spoke again. “She told me more about that night Sarah went missing.”

“Anything important?”

“She told me Mrs. Lennox had caught us sneaking back in that night. Then it all came back. I remembered waking up in the middle of the night to a face peeking in the window.”

“Oh my God, that’s terrifying.” Laura had the coffee pot halfway to their mugs. “Do you think it was one of the kidnappers?”

“It was Sebastian.”

Her jaw dropped. “When he was alive?”

Cassie shook her head. “I knew he needed help, so I woke Sarah up and we walked out into the woods. You must’ve followed us because your camera went off. The flash lit up the whole woods like it was daytime, and there was this crazy woman standing there.”

“Holy shit, that’s terrifying.” She blew on her coffee with a contemplative look on her face. “I remember sneaking out into the woods. Following you guys to see what you were up to. I don’t remember seeing a woman though.”

“You had tripped and fallen. That’s why your camera went off.”

“I broke it that night.” She laughed. “Mom and Dad were so mad. They had just gotten it for me. The film was still good, but the lens had cracked. I—”

Laura broke off, her eyes wide.

Cassie looked around, like someone was standing behind her. “What?”

“My boxes upstairs. There was a roll of undeveloped film in one of them. I didn’t toss it because I figured one day I’d develop it, and we could laugh at all the ridiculous pictures I took of you guys.”

Cassie didn’t need to hear another word. She sprinted for the staircase with Laura on her heels. They took them two at a time. When they reached the landing, they took off for the sewing room and crashed through the door, nearly tearing it off its hinges.

Laura dug out her boxes and the two of them ripped through them, tossing stuffed animals, CDs and old toys around the room. Cassie was about to abandon the box in front of her and start on a new one when she saw the cylindrical container tucked under a stack of t-shirts. She held it up for Laura to see.

“Do you think that’s it?” Laura asked. “Do you think she’s on there?”

“Only one way to find out.”

It took less than thirty minutes to find a photo lab, drive to the local Walmart, and get the pictures developed. Cassie felt like she was holding on to national secrets as she tucked the envelope of pictures into her purse and resisted sprinting back to the car. She wanted to look at them the second they touched her fingertips, but there was something sacred about looking into the past like this. She didn’t want witnesses.

Once she and Laura were back in the car, Cassie locked the door and pulled out the envelope. Their heads touched as they both leaned over it. Cassie looked up at her sister.

“Ready?”

All Laura could do was nod.

Cassie slipped the photos out and took them one by one, deliberately taking in each image, all of which she had in duplicates. A blurry photo of a birthday cake as Laura got used to taking pictures. A too-close picture of their Mom. Then a handful of cameos of the family.

“You look so happy,” Laura said.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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