Page 37 of The Lair

I kept yanking at the door handle, screaming, crying, and hitting the partition screen between us. Nothing broke but me.

Breathing became an impossible task. I cursed myself for not having kept my backpack with me. I could be calling the police right now, begging them to come help me, even though I had no idea where we were or where we were going.

I didn’t know how long she drove for or if we were still in Los Angeles. It could’ve been twenty minutes or two hours; I spent every second trying to get out of that car and blaming myself for being so dumb. Not getting in a stranger’s vehicle is a basic survival skill, something a little kid would know. How could I have fallen for it?

But she knew about my mother. Intimate details no one who wasn’t close to her should’ve known. I didn’t think she was her friend anymore, but I was still confused as to how she knew about her aversion to banana flesh and her dressing room shelves. Maybe she knew my parents somehow?

The car stopped. Looking out of the darkened window, I could barely make out the outside of some industrial area. Nobody else seemed to be around, but there were a few cars parked in the front. No noises either—not that I would hear much inside a vehicle.

Something in me unexpectedly settled then. Calmed when it shouldn’t have.

I didn’t fight it. I’d already neglected my inner voice once today, and it had led me here. It wasn’t going to happen again.

My stomach dropped as Claudia—was that even her real name?—got out of the car. When she opened my door, her hand wrapped around my arm in a tight, hurtful grip, and she dragged me out of the back seat.

We were outside of a warehouse. Mold clung to the walls, and from here I could tell it was mostly empty except for dozens of pallets and containers grouped at the back.

What if she handcuffs me and puts me in one of those?

What if she does something worse than throwing me inside a container?

I knew I had seconds to save my life. That woman, whoever she truly was, had no intentions of ever letting me go back home.

When she stopped to peer inside the warehouse, I saw my chance.

With adrenaline shooting through every inch of my body, I kicked Claudia’s knee.Hard.

She gasped and doubled, releasing her grip on my arm. Maybe she wasn’t expecting me to fight back so aggressively, but I didn’t stay behind to double-check her shock levels.

I ran.

I ran faster than I’d ever ran in my entire life.

I didn’t know where I was, or where I was going, or if Claudia was coming after me, or if someone else who was working with her had their eyes on me.

I just knew I’d die if I stopped.

Then I saw it—a fence.

If I had been older, taller, more athletic, maybe I could’ve jumped over it. But I barely reached five feet, and even from a distance, I knew attempting to climb it would slow me down too much. I knew Claudia would catch up to me.

“This way!” her familiar voice bellowed, not far from me.

Every ounce of me wanted to panic in that moment, to cry, toscream,because I had managed to escape only to be abducted again, and that wasn’t fair.

I have to fight. I can’t give up.

Gravel dug into the bare skin of my legs and arms as I lay under one of the cars parked at the front. There was no other place to hide, no exit, and I knew if I entered that warehouse—even if only to hide—I wasn’t going to get out.

From under the car, I saw Claudia’s heels reach the gate where I had been standing just seconds before. They turned in all directions as she looked for me. Moments later, a pair of dirty sneakers attached to gray jeans joined her.

“Did you seriously fucking lose her?” the man shouted.

“Shekicked me,” Claudia shot back. “She couldn’t have gone far. Search the inside.”

“While you do what?”

“I’ll check if she jumped the fence and is roaming the streets. If she stumbles upon those fucking pigs, we’re done.”

---