Emma, without thinking much, began pressing more buttons. I hissed for her to stop, but her small fingers moved too fast. With a sharp click, one of the monitors switched.
Not the hall. Not the kitchen.
But us.
The very room we stood in, caught from the corner above the door. The image was grainy, but clear enough.
Emma gasped, stumbling back until she bumped into . Cold swept through my veins.
I gripped the broken chain still wrapped around my wrist and pulled Emma close. "We cannot stay here," I whispered fiercely. "Not anymore."
Her small hand clutched mine tight. She nodded, fear wide in her eyes, but she did not argue.
I grabbed a handful of papers and shoved them under my shirt. Maybe proof. Maybe nothing, but I could not leave them behind. Then I pulled Emma toward the far side of the room. Half-hidden behind old cabinets was another door.
The hum of the machines followed us. The static seed to grow louder, like whispers crawling over the walls.
We were not free. Not yet, but now I knew.
Josh was not the only danger here.
This place was not so ordinary abandoned place. Sothing that had lived in these walls long before we ca.
***
The next thing we knew, we were running into the woods. That door opened to another passage, which led us to the woods.
We did not have any idea where we were going. I regretted that mont when my parents were pushing to join camping clubs during sumr break, and what did I do?
Of course, like any idiotic introvert girl, I denied and took literature classes, too, for romance. Why couldn’t I have opted for the thriller one where the main lead has to survive in such jungles?
Because my brain was scratching for anything. Just even one slightest hint to save us from dying in this jungle. That’s when Emma’s voice broke the chain of my thoughts and shouted, "Mommy, road!"
My eyes widened, and without wasting another second, my gaze focused on the scene in front of .
A road.
Or may I say a freaking highway!
I shrieked as we ran, but I slowed down a bit, matching Emma’s speed. As we reached
As we reached the highway, my knees wobbled so hard that I almost gave up.
For a second, I thought I might collapse right there on the gravel.
The sight of the wide gray road spread out before us felt unreal, like a dream. If touched, the bubble might pop out.
Asphalt stretched endlessly between the walls of trees, a ribbon of escape cutting through the wilderness.
I wanted to fall to my knees and cry, to press my face to the ground and scream that we had made it out. It almost felt unreal. Just like a fairy tale.
Emma squealed beside , her little fingers squeezing mine so tightly they hurt.
Her eyes sparkled with sudden life, and that made shriek too, but my sound ca out broken, jagged, torn apart by exhaustion and disbelief.
We ran to the edge of the road together, our feet slapping against gravel. For the tiniest mont, I let myself believe we were free.
But that was only for a mont.
Highways did not always an safety. They could an strangers.
They could an danger in another form. Monsters did not always hide in the woods. So drove trucks, so smiled kindly, and then...they break you. In the worst way we could not even imagine.
Still, we walked, because just for that fear, we cannot let ourselves stay here waiting for a miracle to happen. After all, they would not happen.
At least, not in real life.
Ti blurred into sothing slippery and cruel.
My legs started to scream with every step, my ankle ached raw where the chain had chewed through skin, but I kept going.
I had to. We had to.
Dragging my one foot after the other, we kept walking ahead. When Emma stumbled and her small legs refused to carry her further, I lifted her onto my hip.
My arms burned from her weight, but I would not stop. I couldn’t. Stopping ant being caught.
The sun dipped lower, bleeding across the horizon.
Orange turned to pink, pink to purple, and shadows stretched long across the empty asphalt.
Each shadow made my chest tighten.
What if it turned completely dark before we found anyone?
Where would we go then?
Hide under trees like hunted animals?
The mont I thought that, another fear slamd into . Josh.
What if he had already returned?
What if he’d walked into that room, seen it empty, and pieced it all together?
He was not stupid. He knew every crack and corner of that place. He would know where we had gone. He would follow the woods, follow the road. He would find us.
The thought wrapped itself around my body like barbed wire, cutting open from the inside. I could almost feel his footsteps behind us.
Could almost hear his breath on my neck. My lungs clenched tight.
We’re not caught yet. We’re not caught yet. One step at a ti, I repeated inside my head, over and over, like it might keep standing.
Emma pressed her cheek against my shoulder, her doll clutched weakly to her chest. Her voice was so soft I almost missed it when she whispered, "We free, Mommy?"
I lied to her, the sa lie every ti. "Yes. Of course. Just a little longer."
The silence of the road crushed .
No cars. No voices.
Just the endless hush of wind moving through the trees, mocking us.
By the ti the sky bruised into deep violet, panic rose sharp in my chest.
If night ca, where would we go?
How would we keep warm?
What if wolves ca? What if Josh ca?
Then, sothing shining showed up, making us almost blind.
I nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw them, a pair of bright beams cutting through the darkness. A mini-van.
It was a freaking mini-van!
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