AllFreeNovel
Share Us
the present
The hot sand at the side of the road burns her bare feet. Her lungs are on fire and there’s a really bad pain in her side. Her legs feel like jelly. It’s sheer panic that propels her forward now.
She saw what they did to Mummy; she knows what they’ll do if they catch her.
They didn’t find her because she was hiding behind the bougainvillea planter in the courtyard when they came, like she used to do when she was little.We’re going to play a game.I want you to be as quiet as a mouse.She didn’t make a squeak.
The road ahead of her shimmers and she doesn’t know if it’s because it’s so hot or because she’s exhausted. Sweat trickles into her eyes and she wipes it away. She has no idea where she is. Nothing looks familiar. There are no houses or people anywhere. All she can see is sand and scrubby grassland, stretching for miles in every direction. Nothing she can hide behind if they come after her. No one she can ask for help.
Terror wells up in her. She knows Mummy is dead. She’s nearly six years old, now. She understands what dead means.
Mummy told her torun! don’t look back!and even though she didn’t want to leave her, she did as she was told. But she’ssotired now. Her feet are raw and blistered, and her legs are so wobbly she’s weaving drunkenly back and forth at the side of the road. She doesn’t know why they want her, only that she mustn’t let them find her.
Run!
Don’t look back!
She runs.
