AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Leo sounds deadly calm.
“West. Toward the city.”
Beyond the city is the rest of the country. If they get her out into that vast sprawl of highways and open fields, I don’t know how I’ll find her. The trees on the sides of the road stretch, looming over the car, pushing the sky. I’m going to have the mother of all attacks when this is over.
Or it’s already happening now, and I’ll never make it to her.
Leo is saying something.
“—hear me?”
“Yes.”
“I need you to send me your location. I’m on my way, but it will be easier if I can see where you are. Pick up your phone and unlock it.” Leo walks me through the steps to share the location with him like he’s not going to murder me for this later. “Okay. I have it. Can you still see the van?”
“I can see it.”
“How far ahead of you?”
“I can’t tell. I can still see it, but—” There simply isn’t time to explain the ways that my mind distorts perspective, to tell him that I don’t know, moment to moment, whether I’ll see the world or an artist’s rendering. “The roads aren’t good.”
All my processing power shunts into showing me exactly how bad the roads are. The tire tracks have compressed the snow into black, glittering ice. My headlights refract, the beams splitting into infinite constellations. It’s a steep drop from light to darkness. So much contrast my head aches. The boundaries shimmer and blur. One of my front tires bumps the edge of the tire tracks, and the wheel jerks in my hands.
“—right now?”
The voice doesn’t belong to either of my brothers. I have a moment of sheer disorientation, which is swallowed by panic. I can’t lose myself, or I’ll lose Daphne.
“What?”
“You said you had panic attacks. Is it happening right now?”
Her brother.
“Yes.”
“It’s not going to stop you from getting to Daphne, because it can’t. You’re the only one who can see where she is. Does the van have a license plate?”
“Why do you care about the license plate?”
“Read it to me.”
This takes true focus, which is probably why he’s asking.
I pay less attention to the ice on the roads and more attention to catching up. The van accelerates.
“It’s a Jersey plate. R-H-U—” They go around a curve.
“Did you lose sight of them?”
“Curve in the road. “2-3-J.”
“What color is the van?”
“Black.”
Daphne’s brother is disturbing traffic. Horns howl in the background, the sound thinning as he leaves them behind.
“Can you still hear me?” he asks.
