Page 117 of Hide And Seek

As my knees hit the dirt, I clamped a hand over my mouth, dragging in a silent breath. Footsteps pounded past, then slowed.

“Where the fuck did she go?” Chris’s voice, sharp and breathless.

“Doesn’t matter,” Jensen said. He was close enough that I could hear the edge in his breathing. “She can’t have gotten far.”

I squeezed my eyes shut.Go. Just go,I willed myself.

But I couldn’t move. Not without giving myself away.

“You’re sure?” Jensen asked.

“Sure about what?” Sutton snapped.

“You said she knows. How much?”

“She doesn’t know any of the details,” Sutton said. “But she knows enough.”

“Fuck,” Chris muttered.

“I’m sorry.” Grace’s voice cut in, pitiful and strained. “I didn’t know she was listening.”

Jensen spoke again, lower this time. “We can’t let her get back to the hall.”

“And when she doesn’t?” Chris said. “What do we tell everyone else?”

“We tell them the killer got her.”

Something in my chest twisted hard enough to hurt. There was no hesitation in his words. No doubt that they’d get away with my murder. Just like they got away with the last one.

“Spread out,” Jensen said. “She wants to get back to the hall, so she’ll probably run for a while and then try to double back to the campgrounds somewhere. Cut her off.”

Footsteps shifted again. Closer, closer, closer…

One of them moved around the far side of the rock.

I didn’t wait any longer. I pushed up and ran.

I zigzagged as I went, cutting between trunks and ducking low branches in an attempt to break their line of sight. My lungs burned, each inhale scraping raw against my throat, but I managed to stay upright, even as my arms flailed and the ax slipped in my grip.

Behind me, the forest exploded with movement. The others were still coming, but not just from one direction. They were splitting up again, probably trying to flank me.

“Alissa!” Jensen’s deep voice rang out, closer than I wanted. “Just stop!”

“You’re only making things worse for yourself!” Chris added from somewhere to my left.

I kept going, blindly sprinting. Footsteps thundered right behind me.

“It’s four against one, Alissa!” Sutton shouted. “You aren’t going to get away!”

God, she was close. Way too close.

They all were.

I veered hard to the right, aiming for another stretch of trees, trying to slip through where they couldn’t move as fast. A branch caught in my hair and yanked, ripping a strangled cry from my throat, but I tore myself free and kept going.

We tell them the killer got her.

The words were echoing in my head now, drowning out everything else. I couldn’t let them catch me. Couldn’t let them get away with it.