AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He killed them.
“Oh god,” I cry as my body goes slack. I can no longer fight as the man seizes the opportunity and shoves me inside the car. “What did you do?”
No one else has noticed Paulette and Logan yet, still too busy fighting with the man, trying to pull me back out of the car. Memphis is holding on to my shoulders while either Mara or Austin tugs on my arm. Maybe both of them. I can’t tell. My mind is fuzzy and the world is pure chaos. Everyone is screaming.
Suddenly, Memphis is shoved away from the car, away from me, and the man steps forward to block him from my view. I can’t seem to move. It’s as if I’m frozen in place.
I catch glimpses of Memphis on the ground as he wipes his bloody lip with the back of his hand and stands up again, ready to fight. I blink slowly, trying to figure out if this is really happening.
It can’t be. It just can’t.
“Let her go!” Memphis is shouting, but I can hardly hear him. It’s as if I’m underwater, a loud ringing fills my ears, drowning everything else out.
None of this is real.
None of this is real.
None of this is real.
“You can’t get us all,” Memphis shouts, grabbing hold of the man’s neck as he tries to pull him away from the car. “It’s four against one.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” I hear the woman’s voice and know she’s here, though I don’t know where she came from. Memphis releases my hand, though I hadn’t realized he’d been holding it, and the man steps away. But when I turn my head, it’s not the woman after all.
It’s Mara speaking. And Austin is standing next to her.
They’re both looking at me with expressions I don’t understand, expressions that feel both bitter and proud. I blink at them, my throat dry and scratchy.
“What are you—”
Before I can finish my sentence, I see the gun in her hand.
CHAPTERTWENTY-ONE
I’m dreaming. That’s the only possible explanation for all of this.
Ethan is dead. Paulette and Logan are dead. Mara and Austin are helping the man take us back to the house.
The house we’ve been staying in.
The house we now know these people own.
Mara has a gun in her hands, which I’m just learning she kept hidden inside her bag all this time.
We are being taken against our will, and I have no idea what they’re going to do to us. If we’ll be dead within minutes or hours.
If I’ll ever see my family again.
Something in my chest cracks at the thought of my parents wondering why I haven’t come back from my trip. Waiting at the airport for my return flight. Worrying. Calling. Having to accept that I’m not coming back.
What have I done?
What is happening?
Why is this happening?
Memphis, Mara, and I are crammed into the back seat next to Logan’s and Paulette’s bodies while Austin rides in the front seat next to the man. I’m practically on Memphis’s lap. His hands grip me tightly as he seems to try to convey so much fury and fear. I try to focus on the feel of his breath on the back of my neck. To know that I’m not completely alone. It’s the only thing keeping me grounded as I realize my feet are resting on a chainsaw on the floorboard.
This was all planned.
