Endurance - Jack Kilborn [81]
There was only silence.
She shifted from one leg to the other. Without her gel socks, the sockets on the prosthetics were starting to chafe, because they no longer had a perfect fit.
I’ll snag them after I grab my legs.
Deb opened the closet door.
Two naked men were sitting on the closet floor, going through her suitcase, throwing her clothes everywhere. They had bulbous, bald heads, and crooked mouths. One had three nostrils. The other had an empty hole where his nose should be. The whites of their eyes were stop-light red.
Before Deb was even able to gasp, three hands reached out at her, grabbing her Cheetahs, pulling them out from under her so she fell onto her ass.
Deb kicked out, trying to pull away, but the two men were already crawling on her, pawing at her thighs, her hips, her chest.
And that’s when Deb realized, to her horror, that it wasn’t two bodies on top of her.
It’s one body with two different heads.
Kelly felt sick. Sick and scared and hurt and overwhelmed and most of all, young. She felt more like a first-grader than a teenager.
She looked at Mom, who was in a heated conversation with Maria about which way to go. The pregnant woman, Sue, stood there like a zombie, completely zoned out. JD was sniffing around, waiting for someone to tell him what to do. The only one who seemed to be okay was Cam. He leaned against the wall, arms crossed, looking vaguely bored.
I wish I could act more like him.
Kelly was wracked with worry. Even though she was out of that horrible cell, they were still trapped in these tunnels. And according to Maria, there were a lot of bad people who lived here. Kelly knew that even if they got away, they wouldn’t have anywhere to go. They were in the middle of the woods. The car didn’t work. Maria and Sue and Larry had been here for a long time, and hadn’t been able to escape.
What if we’re trapped here forever?
“Mom?” Kelly said.
“In a second, Kelly.”
Kelly wished Grandma was with them. Mom was strong, but Grandma was strong in a different kind of way. She was calmer, more rational. Though Kelly didn’t know her grandmother very well, she knew that if anyone could get them out of this situation, Grandma could.
“You okay?”
Kelly glanced up at Cam, who had moved next to her.
“Yeah,” she managed.
“You’re very brave,” Cam said.
“You think so?” Kelly hugged herself. “I’m scared out of my freakin’ mind.”
“We’re all scared, Kelly.”
“Even you?”
Cam nodded.
“Even when you… broke that man’s neck?”
Cam glanced away. “Yeah. That was scary. But he was hurting bad and wanted to die, so I did him a favor. Besides, death isn’t so bad.”
“How do you know?”
Cam took off one of his leather gloves and showed Kelly his wrist. It was covered with scars.
“After my friend died, I killed myself.”
“You mean you tried to kill yourself,” Kelly corrected.
“No. I succeeded. I was actually dead for two and a half minutes before they revived me.”
Cam held out his arm, so Kelly could touch it. They scars were creepy, but kind of cool, too. She ran a finger across one, surprised by how bumpy it was.
“What did it feel like?” she asked. “To die?”
Cam shrugged, tugging his glove back on. “It was like going to sleep.”
“It wasn’t scary?”
“There are a lot scarier things than dying, Kelly.”
“Like what?”
Cam stared at her. “Like living.”
Kelly decided she liked Cam. She liked his straight talk, and how open he was.
He’s also kind of cute.
“We’re going this way,” Mom said. “C’mon, Kelly.”
Kelly began to follow.
Cam thinks I’m brave. How do brave girls act around cute guys?
Without second-guessing herself, she reached out and took Cam’s hand.
When she felt him squeeze it back, Kelly wasn’t as scared as she was before.
As expected, Letti’s room was empty. Florence found the secret entrance in the back of Letti’s closet, and considered going in.
Not yet. I should check all the other rooms first.
Florence was still shaken up by what she’d done to the Sheriff. After witnessing suffering, misery,