Page 65 of Catching Fire

She was alone in the small room as light filtered in through windows on two walls. Pressing herself up with her hands against the dirty hardwood floor, she slowly dragged herself upright. If she’d felt like this on any normal day, she would have rolled over and gone back to sleep. But it was painfully obvious that this wasn’t normal, and she had to save herself.

The memory of Sanders shoving her in the trunk for the second time as her limbs had gone heavy and dull spurred her into action. Whatever he was using on her, he was dosing her wrong. Maybe she simply wasn't susceptible to the medication he’d injected, because he clearly hadn’t expected her to wake up in the trunk, and he probably didn’t expect to come back to someone alert enough to fight him.

She had to take every piece of luck that she had, because nothing else was working.

How long had she been out?

Given the angle of the sun burning her eyes, it appeared she’d been under for maybe even several hours. The other option was that it had been a full day and several hours, but she figured that was less likely because she wasn't hungry. That could be a fault of the adrenaline, or the drugs, though.

Slowly, she pushed her way to her feet. This time when she stood, her soles stung and screamed, fighting back against her desire to be upright. But her need to see out the windows more than overshadowed her need to stop the pain.

When she looked out, she saw fields beyond the windows and trees in the far distance. She could only see two directions. Aside from the lack of noise there was every possibility that there was a city behind her. But given what she knew of Sanders, she was far away from everyone.

Even as she tested the glass, wondering if she could break her way out, Seline heard a car in the driveway.

Her car?she wondered.

But that detail didn’t matter right now. She could fight Sanders when he came in, or she could take a chance on surprising him. Without her heels and with no weapons at hand, Seline quickly decided her best chance was to let Sanders come in and find her curled up on the floor. Let him think she was still out cold.

So she padded softly back to the middle of the space. As she lowered herself to the floor, she heard the front door open several rooms away.Another small house, his preferred site for operation.

It was very similar to the one that Geller had taken Maggie to. But of course it was, that cabin had been another of Sanders’ preferred killing spots. Lowering herself to her knees, Seline realized she was already at the ‘secondary location.’ Meaning she was as good as dead if he got to her.

As she curled onto her side, her feet thanked her for getting off of them. She looked down to see that they were swollen. Harsh red cuts and dirt marred her skin, and her clothing was torn and stained. She must look an awful mess, but that was the least of her concerns.

She tried to remember the exact way she'd been curled on the floor, but who knew if she'd rolled around or stayed the way he’d last left her? She closed her eyes and shallowed out her breathing as best she could. Adrenaline raced through her system once more as the door creaked, right in front of her, but she couldn't even peek at him. If he saw, it might mean he killed her.

Sanders came in and nudged her with a toe. For a moment, she considered playing it as though she were waking; she almost groaned and rolled over. Thinking that if she offered a sign of life, if she looked to still be drugged, he might leave her be. But she very quickly had a second thought. She needed to lookfullydrugged. Let him think his medication was still in full effect.

So she stayed limp and fought to keep her breathing as slow as she could. She let him nudge her, offering only the slightest sound when he kicked at her side hard enough that she should have responded if she were awake. Seline was proud of herself for not giving it away. And she hated him even more.

It seemed to work. When he was convinced she wasn’t awake, he knelt down to pick up her wrist and check her pulse. She could only pray it wasn't racing. But he didn’t seem to respond to the quick staccato beat of her blood. Maybe he was bad at feeling the small changes beneath his fingertips, maybe he just felt enough to know that she was still alive and didn't care beyond that.

Though she wanted to yank her wrist away from him, she let her hand hang limp. This was her only chance.

She heard the tiny sounds that said he was shifting position. But she couldn’t open her eyes to see. Seline kept playing possum because her life did depend on it. Above her, his voice offered a soft but clear, “All right,” as he nudged her one more time.

Only then did she realize her mistake as she felt the needle plunge into her neck one more time.

Chapter Forty-One

“It's okay man.”

Kalan felt Luke's hands settle on his shoulders in a gesture that was meant to be comforting. But Kalan exploded, shaking off his friend and nearly knocking him backwards. “It's not okay.”

There was nothing okay about this

Seline was missing. And he hadn't even gotten to take her out on a real date. As if that were the real problem here. He shook his head, but nothing cleared. If anything, his thoughts fogged more. He’d fallen crazy, head over heels in love with her. And, aside from looking deeply into her eyes a couple of times while they'd made love, he’d done exactly jack shit about it.

Now she was gone.

Verner and Rossi had set up camp in Seline’s living room. They hadn't done this when Maggie disappeared. Then, they’d set up on the front lawn, but they quickly informed him that because Seline had not been taken from her home, it wasn’t considered a crime scene, like Maggie’s place had been. There wasn’t any evidence here for him to destroy.

That was almost worse.

They were keeping her abduction quiet.

Quieter than the last time this had happened. The very thought of that made Kalan explode again. “Why is there athis time?Shouldn't you have learned betterlast time?”

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