Hide by Nell Pattison

Author:Nell Pattison [Pattison, Nell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2021-10-11T17:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

Morna

It’s okay, we’ll just walk along the boundary fence until we come to a gap. That’s what Dan said, and that’s what I keep repeating in my head as we continue. I’m still at the front, in some sort of pretence that I know where we’re going, with Emily behind me and Dan at the back. The panic attack scared me nearly as much as the situation we currently find ourselves in, and it’s all I can do to keep my breathing regular.

Why did I insist on coming this way? At least if we’d all stuck together then we’d have some safety in numbers. As it is, I feel isolated and vulnerable. We’re easy targets here, having a fence on one side and the woods on the other.

I’m sure it can’t be far until we get to the low fence. I came out to the edges of the reserve with one of the wardens last summer, and the huge fence hadn’t run this far then. How far does it go? Lauren said we might run into it, but I ignored her, because I thought we’d be well beyond this section by now. I put my hand out to touch the fence, but then stop. What’s that noise?

‘Are you okay?’ Emily asks me. The girl’s closer behind me than I realised and I jump.

‘I thought I heard something,’ I say, looking past Emily to where Dan has stopped behind us.

‘We need to keep moving,’ Dan says.

‘I heard something,’ I repeat. I move away from the fence and back towards the trees. Is there someone there? Stopping, I hold my breath, but that makes my blood pound so loudly in my ears that there’s no chance of me hearing anything.

There it is again. A cracking noise, like someone stepping on a fallen branch.

‘There’s someone following us,’ I say, my voice coming out as a cracked whisper.

Dan frowns. ‘That was just the snow sliding off a branch,’ he says, his matter-of-fact tone doing nothing to reassure me. I know he’s getting fed up with me, I can read it in his body language, but I’m not going to back down.

‘No, I’m sure it wasn’t. There’s someone moving out there, and they’re following us.’ I can’t keep the panic from my voice.

‘Maybe it was a deer,’ Emily suggests. ‘They’re all over the reserve, aren’t they? It’s probably just an animal.’

I know Emily means well, but this refusal to believe me just makes me angry.

‘For God’s sake, why are you two behaving as if there’s nothing wrong? Someone we know just killed a man, and now he might be after us, too! How do we know he hasn’t got away from the others and turned round, followed us through the woods?’ This idea hasn’t even occurred to me until now, but once the idea is planted in my mind it immediately begins to take root. ‘Emily, of all people you should be most scared about Ben following us!’

‘Why me?’ she asks, confusion on her face.

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