AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Five yards.
She would close her eyes when she jumped to make sure she didn’t get sand in them and try to land on her forearms, not the heels of her hands. She had some vague memory that landing on your hands could break your wrists, so it was best to land on the back of your shoulder. She had no idea how to do that, so forearms seemed like a good compromise.
“Ah, here we are. Don’t worry, soon we’ll be in the middle of the Atlantic, and then we’ll call him. He’ll tell us what to do next.”
Sylvia was reaching for the door latch as Alicia spoke. There was a boat anchored at the end of a small, rickety dock that stood alone on another long expanse of beach. In the distance, she could see the gray ribbon of a road winding along the higher ground inland.
A boat. If Alicia got her onto a boat, she was fucked.
Sylvia hit the unlock button with one hand, yanked on the handle of the door with the other, and tried to fling it open.
“No!” Alicia shouted, reaching into her door pocket.
She hadn’t factored in the resistance of the air. She forced it open with her foot.
Sand, kicked up by the front tire, was splashing into the car.
Sylvia grabbed onto the doorjamb with her right hand, ready to jump.
Alicia swerved the car to the left. Sylvia fell backwards. The door slammed shut on Sylvia’s fingers.
She screamed in pain, heard the crack as bones in her hand snapped. White-hot agony froze the breath in her chest, and her mind went blank except for a single thought.
Pain, pain, pain.
Then the adrenaline surged again, and Sylvia kicked at the door once more. It hadn’t latched—thanks to her fingers—and swung open. She braced her foot better on the bottom of the doorframe, and this time when Alicia swerved, the door banged into her knee. More pain, but nothing compared to her right hand, which she couldn’t bear to even look at.
Alicia picked up speed, the car making an odd noise as she raced across the sand toward the dock. They were long past the point where Sylvia had planned to jump out.
She was hurt and would have no cover once she was out. But there was no turning back. The past few moments had proved that this woman, who had once meant so much to her, was willing to not just drug her, but hurt her.
“Sylvia, stop it this instant!” Alicia yelled.
Sylvia jumped.
Her back was to Alicia, so she didn’t see her teacher’s hand move.
The instant before Sylvia leapt from the car, Alicia stabbed a second needle into her. She felt the sharp, precise pain for only a moment before she was airborne, flying out of the car. She instinctively curled her right hand into her body, protecting it. She landed hard on her left knee, then shoulder. The third thing to hit was her face, which slammed into the sand.
For a moment, she was lost, suffocating.
Then momentum took over and she rolled over and over, sand flying around her, her elbows, knees, back, and head impacted again and again as she instinctively but unhelpfully tried to curl into a fetal position.
The first time she rolled, the plunger of the needle pressed into the sand, forcing the ketamine into her body.
By the time Sylvia’s body came to a stop, the drug was already swimming through her blood. In a way, it was a blessing because it meant she didn’t hurt. She had just enough awareness left to push onto her side, so she didn’t suffocate facedown in the sand.
Her eyes already closed, she slipped into unconsciousness as the waves lapped against the sand only a few feet from her motionless body.
* * *
“I’m curious,” Hugo said, glancing over his shoulder at Oscar. “You said Sylvia sent an SOS. What did she say? Did she say she was in trouble?”
Oscar shook his head. “No. She sent an arrow emoji. That’s our family’s signal for distress.”
“Your family has an organized way to signal for help?” Hugo turned back around and glanced at Lancelot. “And Eric thinks you’re paranoid,” he murmured.
“Who’s Eric?” Oscar asked.
