Page 11 of Shielding Aubree

Cotton.

Not dirt.

Not rocks.

Fabric.

Sheets.

Her eyes snapped open, and everything shifted.

She knew where she was, but her heart was still pounding in her chest.

Her skin was cold and clammy.

Her mind a jumble of thoughts but one swam to the surface.

She had to get up.

She had to get to the bathroom.

She didn't want to throw up in the bed.

Been there.

Done that.

It took forever to get the smell out.

Shuddering, she used the motion to work herself free of her blankets.

How she'd gotten wrapped up in them, she'd never know, but that didn't matter now that she was in it.

It took a lot to work her way free and even more when she had to get to the bathroom.

It left her shaking and gasping as she emptied whatever was in her stomach into the toilet bowl.

When she was done, she laid down on the bathroom floor. Feeling the cool kiss of the tiles against her cheek, she fell back asleep praying that she could sleep the rest of the night through.

She was exhausted.

And she was tired of running scared.

She had to change her future and hoped that The Refuge was the place to do it.

3

The news on TV was quickly becoming a mess, he decided. Or at least it didn't deliver on the news he wanted.

The story that he was looking for hadn't been on the news in weeks.

Then again, it might be best that the public and the news seemed to have decided that it wasn't top story news. Flipping open the newspaper that had been delivered that morning, he scanned the pages for information.

At the bottom corner of page three was something interesting.

FAMILY REPORTS WOMAN MISSING

A young woman from Denver still has not returned home from her road trip to visit a friend who lives in Albuquerque.

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