Here It Ends by Dan Lawton

Author:Dan Lawton [Lawton, Dan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-05-24T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Present day. Randolph was groggy. His thoughts were cloudy. His head was killing him. The headache stretched from his temples to his neck. His everything pulsated. He remembered Gary coming on to Sheila, then he remembered Gary hitting him in the head with something. After that, he did not remember much. Nothing, really. Just blackness.

And now, as he watched Sheila leap to her feet and run across the room toward the person in the doorway, he felt like he was missing something. His view of the doorway was blocked, so all he saw was Sheila’s back—and her hands behind it.

The unknown person wrapped their arms around Sheila. Two different people sobbed. Randolph sat where he was with Benji and Patricia, not wanting to interrupt whatever what was happening across the room. As the clouds in his mind parted, he thought he might know who it was, but he tried not to get his hopes up. Considering how they were taken and brought to this place, that seemed unlikely.

Sheila turned back with the person—a woman much younger than her; a girl, really—next to her. The girl had her arm around Sheila’s waist. Randolph did not recognize her, but he would not have even if she was who he thought she was. He tried to stand up but struggled.

“Let me help you,” the girl said, running over to him.

He did not realize just how young she was until she got closer. She was tall like a full-grown woman, but had childlike features and was thin like someone who needed time to fill out their frame. The girl slipped her arms under his armpits and lifted on the count of three.

His knees wobbled at first, but he quickly settled and composed himself.

“Are you okay?” the young, thin girl asked him.

He nodded. “Thank you.”

The girl smiled quickly but did not otherwise acknowledge him.

“How old are you?” Randolph asked. She could not have been more than fourteen, maybe sixteen on her best day.

Sheila stepped forward and said, “Randolph, this is her. This is my sister.”

“I’m Minka,” the girl, Sheila’s sister, said.

Minka. The person who was behind all this, the reason for Sheila doing everything she did. The person Sheila was here to protect.

“I’ve heard so much about you,” Randolph said. “And I’d love to chat, but . . . any chance you have something to cut us free?”

Minka smiled and Sheila laughed.

“Will this work?” Minka pulled out a switchblade.

Relief flooded through him. “I think you’re my hero.”

Each of them turned and showed Minka their backs. One by one, she cut them free. When the zip tie snapped and his wrists were free, it felt like a weight fell off his body. The blood rushed to his wrists and fingers and made them tingle. He shook them out until all the sensation returned again. Burn-like marks covered his wrists where the plastic had dug into his skin.

Instead of a celebratory feeling, the energy in the room became awkward. They were one group of people but clearly with different agendas—three against two—and what to do next was not clear.

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