Page 83 of My Heart to Find

Damien grabs my arm. “You okay?” His eyes are wide.

But I can’t answer because Jana’s shouting for everyone to look out the window.

“I already said!” Trevor yells. “That was thirty-one, with the red door.”

My breaths hurtle through my lungs, and Damien’s still touching my arm—but his fingers don’t feel bad. Just cold. Ice cold. Or maybe it’s me who’s cold.

Jana reverses the vehicle at alarming speed before slamming on the brakes again, throwing us all forward. Damien sticks his arm out in front of me this time though, and I crash into his arm.

“That’s it there!” Trevor says, and then he’s opening his car door and jumping out. I’ve no idea where he got Mr. Richards’s address from.

“Watch the traffic!” Damien shouts.

A car whizzes past us, but Trevor avoids it. Jana kills the engine, then she’s out the car too.

“You okay?” Tenderness swirls in Damien’s eyes.

I nod and stare at the flower air-freshener that hangs from Jana’s rearview mirror. I place my prescription bag on the seat. “Let’s go.”

It’s weird how when my heart’s pounding and adrenaline’s pumping through me that I almost feel like I’m not here. I sort of see everything as if I’m an onlooker, not part of it. See the four of us run up to the house. See how Jana pummels her fists on the door, how the door suddenly gives in—not very secure—and Jana falls forward. She crashes to her knees, and I know I’m standing right behind her, but my brain’s doing funny things to the distance—I may as well be miles away.

Trevor and Damien pull Jana up, and then we’re all inside and there’s the strong smell of coffee and dog.

Dog. I look around nervously.

“Hello?” Jana yells, and she’s shouting so loudly it feels like my eardrums might burst with the pressure of her voice. Because the air’s too heavy too, squeezing around me, and Jana’s still yelling. “Phia!”

“Marnie?” Trevor yells.

Damien turns to me. “Is this definitely the right house?”

I shrug. My head pounds. I can’t make sense of anything. There’s a loud thumping in my ears. it might be my heart rate. I can’t quite tell.

“Marnie!” Trevor shouts. “Are you in here?”

“Oh my God, did you hear that?” Damien says, his voice low.

Hear what? Hear what?

But then they’re all moving, and I’m numb as I follow. Nervous energy fizzles through my legs, and my heart rate’s too high. My vision dims. Dark walls. Stairs. Going downward.

A musty smell. Thick, pungent. And something else—

Jana retches.

“Get that door open!” someone shouts, and my ears are distorting things, because I can’t recognize it as Damien or Trevor. Or maybe it’s me, I don’t know. Everything’s just too...

I need to get out of here.

I sink back into the shadows, but my arm catches on something. Something plastic. I flinch. It touched me. I’m contaminated, I’m—

Get out of here now! It’s too dangerous. Too—

“Help!” a voice cries.

But I can’t help. I can’t do anything. My head’s spinning.

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