Annie Bot by Caragh M. O’Brien

Author:Caragh M. O’Brien
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: null
Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers Ltd
Published: 2024-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

chapter five

“NO SHIT,” CODY SAYS. “That’s him, isn’t it?”

She retreats to the kitchen again. He can’t be here. It’s too soon.

“Annie, wait,” Cody says.

Footsteps are audibly rising on the basement stairs, but Annie doesn’t wait for Jacobson to appear. She bolts for the back door and twists the knob. Then she jumps down the steps and onto the dark leaves of the backyard.

“Annie?” Doug’s voice calls from around the house.

She runs. The lake is a flat, dark shimmer on her left, and the woods are a dense blur ahead of her. She pumps her arms and sprints with her knees high to avoid tripping.

“Annie! Come back!” Doug’s shout is angry.

She feels the twist inside, the ache that comes from disobeying him, but she keeps running. Farther behind her, she hears Jacobson’s voice, too, but she presses her hands over her ears to block them both out and speeds into the forest. Branches whip past her face. She switches on her infrared vision, but it causes the trees to blur and streak, slowing her down. She turns it off again. She hears Doug calling and the pain inside her intensifies. She trips and catches herself with her hands, and in that moment, she hears Doug’s voice again, closer now.

“Annie! I said stop!”

She lunges upward, covering her ears again, but a wrenching grab at her shirt pulls her back. She struggles to get free, but Doug knocks her over in the wet leaves and covers her mouth with his hand. He pins her down and presses his forehead to hers.

“Just stop,” he says. “Enough.”

He’s still clamping his hand over her mouth, blocking her nose too. She grips at his fingers to try to pull them off, and kicks against the leaves, getting her heels into the dirt, but he’s too heavy on top of her. She tries to twist her head away, but she can’t get free. She can’t breathe.

“Quit struggling,” he says.

She tenses every muscle, holding still.

“You don’t need to breathe,” he says. “Remember? So, don’t.”

She stares up at him, holding her breath, afraid.

“Are you going to be quiet?” he asks.

She manages a nod.

He releases her face and instead pins her arms with both his hands. She tries once more to break free, but he crushes her left wrist. The pain is brutal, and she freezes again.

“Stop that,” he says. “You will not embarrass me any more. Hear me?”

“Okay,” she says. And again, “Okay.”

She hears footsteps running closer, and then Cody appears behind Doug. He leans over, hands on his knees, breathing hard.

“She’s fast,” Cody says.

“Leave us alone,” Doug says. He gets to his feet and hauls Annie up by the wrist, her sore one. She winces in pain, but he doesn’t let go. Turning, he heads back through the forest, pulling her behind him. When she stumbles, he jerks her harder.

“Take it easy,” Cody says. “You’ll hurt her.”

Annie looks back over her shoulder to see he’s following them.

Doug only tightens his grip. “Keep up,” he says.

When they reach the open area of the lawn, Jacobson is outside the front door, and Delta stands beside him.

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