Page 33 of Haunted Prey

I stumbled forward, forcing my feet to move despite the pain in my arm and in my side where I’d hit the ground. I cameupon the paved road behind the wall and started to take it down one direction, forcing myself into a jog, then a run, afraid the security guard would be on me.

As I got to a bend in the road, a truck came upon me, its lights nearly blinding me. I covered my face as it swerved around me, its horn blasting as it passed.

I heard the driver curse at me, but I kept running.

The sunlight was nearly gone as I came upon a long stretch in the road and I brought my pace back to a slow jog. Cars passed but not a single one was Lena’s.

Terror gripped me, certain that by now, Severfalls security would be out in their vehicles and already driving along the road to look for me. I almost made a conscious decision to move back into the woods on either side of me, to give me somewhere to hide, when a purple jeep with several stickers on its back came upon me. The passenger window slid down and I saw Lena’s face.

“Eve!” she said, her eyes wide. “Hurry, get in the back!”

I saw headlights coming from the facility and noticed the car was a black Mustang.Shit.I didn’t wait to see if it had a red stripe down its side. I wrenched open the back door and climbed inside. A man with dark curly hair and bright hazel eyes who I’d seen at Lena’s parties was in the driver seat and Lena snapped at him to floor it. Soon, we were going from zero to sixty in a matter of seconds.

I steered my gaze back to the road behind us and saw the lights had disappeared. I wanted to cry a little with relief.

“Holy shit, Eve, I can’t believe you did it,” Lena said. “I was scared you wouldn’t.”

“Me too,” I breathed out, wincing as I moved my bad arm.

“What’s up?” Lena asked, as she peered around. “Did you hurt your arm?”

“The asshole security guard did.”

“We’ll get it looked at.”

“Just get me as far from here as you can,” I demanded.

As the jeep raced down the road, I curled into myself, hugging my arm, unable to believe I’d actually done it, that I’d actually gotten out.

The dark woods flew past me as night drew in. It took miles for me to eventually calm as Lena turned on the music and tried to talk me down. When the shock wore off, I started the process of putting Severfalls past me mentally instead of just physically. The only brief thoughts I had were of the girls, feeling guilty for leaving them.

The last thought was of the note I’d slipped Leo.

You were wrong.

PART 2

NICE SEEING YOU AGAIN

CHAPTER EIGHT

I sat on the green futon, wrapped in blankets, with a tea mug resting on the desk beside me and a book open in my lap. The soft patter of rain against the window filled the quiet room. The room was smaller, less tidy, with the futon, the desk, and a dresser as the only furniture shoved against either wall. A spider had spun a web in one corner, and a slight draft seeped in through the window. On one wall hung an old world map, and a few boxes were tucked away in the closet.

It was no more than a freshman's room, and I would take it in a heartbeat over anything Severfalls had to offer. Gray light from the window melded with the warm orange light from the lamp on the desk.

The house was quiet since most of the other inhabitants were at their classes. I could only hear a couple talking downstairs.

The room was free to use for a short time since it had yet to be filled for the semester. Lena’s friend Marcus, the one who had driven us back to Michigan State in the Jeep, had offered the spare room at his residence. His housemates weren’t around often to take notice of me, and if they did, many were international and didn’t know who I was. Out of precaution, I stayed clear of them anyway.

As much as Lena wished for it, and I would have liked to, I couldn’t stay at her place. Not after everything that happened there, not when she was so popular and there were too many people coming and going at her house. And not with the possibility that the cops might come looking around. I didn’t know if Severfalls would call them or not or if they’d send their own security but either way neither me or Lena were willing to take the chance.

Thankfully, Marcus wanted to help. I was surprised that he was willing to risk the trouble it might cause him, being involved in my escape and keeping me at his place. That was until Lena made a remark that they “may or may not be on the cusp of dating officially” as she put it. So, in other words, he was going the extra mile to make their title as a couple happen.

Either way, I was grateful.

The pain in my arm hadn’t disappeared. I was too afraid to go to urgent care in case I was spotted, afraid of being found. I determined on my own that it wasn’t broken since I could move it, but it still hurt like hell to do so.

“Can you get here tonight?” Lena had asked her friend, Rachael, who was going to nursing school. She dropped by thirty minutes later.

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