Page 152 of The Vanishing Place
“You can have the bitch,” he said. “She’s not worth it.”
Effie stood behind Lewis, Anya clutched at her side. “I’m going to go and help your mum,” she said. “Okay?”
Anya nodded and Effie released her. She walked in the light from Lewis’s torch, watching Daniel the whole way, until she reached her sister’s side. Daniel stood a few meters away, hands still raised, held by the threat of Lewis’s gun.
“Tia,” she whispered. “It’s me.”
Her sister turned her head, then lowered her arms.
“It’s time to get up,” said Effie softly. “Then we’re going to leave.” She stroked her sister’s cheek. “All of us. You and me and Anya. We’re getting out of here.”
A smile parted Tia’s lips, her teeth lined with blood, and she placed a shaking hand in Effie’s.
“You came back.” She coughed.
“Yes. I came back.” Effie brushed the hair from Tia’s swollen face. “Tia, I’m so—”
A gunshot splintered the black air, stealing Effie’s words and vibrating through her ears. She spun her head around, spotting the darkened figure in the trees. He stood with his arms raised and a gun held to his face.
Peter? Or Adam?
Effie scanned the scene, trying to make sense of it. But it was too dark. There were too many unknowns.
Lewis, outnumbered now, had turned toward the new threat.
And Daniel was gone.
Before Effie had time to react, her stomach exploded with pain—the force of a foot—and she crumpled to the ground. The trees and ferns spun around her and she vomited into the dirt. The pain in her abdomen rooted her to the ground, her body emptied of breath, and there was nothing but white behind her eyelids.
A bright white light, flooding her vision.
Then somewhere, far away, there were voices. A violent splintering of air.
Crack.
Then another. Two gunshots.
Effie stumbled forward on hands and knees until she was stopped by something soft and warm.
A body.
Hacking up saliva, Effie rubbed at her eyes, blinking the white flashes from her vision. Then she sat up. But when she pulled her hands away, she froze.
Tia lay there, eyes closed and lips open. Unresponsive.
“No.”
At some point, two figures crouched down next to her in the leaves—the girl and Lewis—but she couldn’t think or see past her sister’s body.
“Tia.” Effie sobbed and sank to the ground, her words barely a whisper. “You can’t leave me.”
“They’re gone,” said Lewis. “Peter and Daniel. They’re gone.”
This can’t be the end.
“Peter’s dead. I shot him.”
This is meant to be the beginning.
