Hide and Shriek by Alison Hughes

Author:Alison Hughes
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781459818750
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2018-06-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

We ran.

We spun around and tore back around the corner, bolting in panic. Scattering like birds chased by a dog.

The awful thing about panic-running, other than the panic, is that you have no time to think. No time to plan. You just know something bad is behind you, so moving forward is the only idea in your head.

I didn’t know where Dylan headed, but Tess and I both ran on instinct—we raced up our street, straight for home. Tess overtook me like she always does, and I struggled to keep up with her.

Where’s Cam? Dylan? Don’t lead them straight to our house. Don’t want them to know where we live… My brain was sputtering out half thoughts and questions as I sprinted up the street after Tess.

The car screeched around the corner and picked up speed, aiming right at us. As I glanced over my shoulder and looked straight into those headlights, I had a moment of sheer terror. They were gaining fast, coming up right behind us.

Get off the road, get off the road! Go left, right, anywhere but straight!

I grabbed Tess’s arm and pulled her in a sharp left into the McGregors’ front yard. Two doors down from our house. They were away, I remembered in a panic. I glanced up at the dark house. Hammering on their door would be useless.

There was a short hedge in front of the house that gave us a little cover.

Crouching, stumbling, panting, we headed for the path to the backyard. Tess yanked open the gate. The car screeched to a stop. A door opened.

“They went in here,” said the Boss in a low voice. “I’ll corner them in the backyard.” The dog whined. “Keep Diablo quiet.”

“Oh god,” breathed Tess, right into my ear. “Em, they have Cam.”

“What?”

I grabbed her hand. It was ice-cold. “Knocked him out. He’s in their car trunk! They shoved him in there. Oh god.” Tess was shaking with fear. Actually, more like shuddering. Tess, my confident, tough-girl sister. That scared me probably more than anything.

“Go, go,” I whispered, pushing her into the backyard.

The Boss called softly, “Playtime’s over, kids. Come on out. We got your friend. You know that. We need to talk.”

I heard him fumbling with the catch on the gate. We had maybe three seconds, and then he’d be in the backyard.

Talk. A shiver went down my spine. What kind of talk? Like this guy really just wanted a reasonable discussion.

In the whirling racing of my mind, a few things stood out.

We know this yard, even in the pitch black. He doesn’t.

Distance, that’s what we need. We need to put distance between him and us. We need to get to a phone.

The gate creaked.

“Hop the fence. Now,” I said. Tess was shaking so badly I was afraid she wouldn’t be able to climb this fence we’d climbed dozens of times. But, thankfully, hopping fences is like riding bikes. If you’ve done it enough, you always remember how to do it. Even when you’re being hunted in the dark, that old fence-hopping habit kicks in.

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