Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 112449 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112449 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
Sending me back.
***
I jolted awake.
What happened? How did I get here?
The last thing I remembered was the New Boys surrounding us.
Quinn came after me. She tried to rip my hair out of my head and got a broken nose for her trouble. People who didn’t know farm girls, made fun of them. Those with sense, figured out a lifetime wrestling with stubborn goats, hammering posts, and working in the fields left you more than prepared for a fight.
She and I grappled on the ground and then... then...
Then someone fell on us. A jolt of pain pierced the memory, bringing it back in stark clarity.
Two guys were fighting and didn’t see us. They tripped, coming down hard, and knocked the wind from me. A bloody Quinn was carried off by a friend who rescued her.
Then someone came for me.
Hands lifted me up. I made to shake free of them, and a tiny pinch pricked my arm.
I lifted my hand to see and something fluttered to the ground. Sitting up, my gaze fell on the single black letter lying on the grass. I wished that was the only thing beside me.
I swept around—a thick, sludgy horror crawled across my skin.
The sun was setting on Black Widow Hill, and its only two constant visitors. They had placed me on top of the unmarked grave, framed in a circle of white roses.
My stomach rebelled.
Pitching forward, I vomited in the grass—heaving and heaving past the point I had anything left.
He had me. He touched me! He took me!
The Letter Man took me with such terrifying ease. Under the eyes of dozens of people. Then he laid me on top of my closest held secret.
I was stripped bare. Exposed. I felt his eyes on me through the trees, and for all I knew, that’s where he was. Watching.
Waiting.
I scurried out of the flower ring. Getting to my feet, I scanned the tree line for a hint of movement—so much as the swaying branches.
If he wanted to hurt you, he had hours to do it. Sense cleared my hazy mind. That’s not why you were brought here.
Looking down, I fell on the letter.
Slowly, I picked it up and broke the seal. A single white card lay inside.
Choosing Verlice was delicious irony, but then I never much liked the man.
I’m proud of you.
For a moment, I thought you were truly gone. That wonderful, wild creature destined to destroy Bedlam in her fire.
I believed guilt and conscience destroyed you. I should’ve had more faith. As you need to now.
One cannot understand the pure, righteous spirit of sacrifice until they are forced to make one. I have given you a gift. You have given me hope.
You’re ready.
It is finally time for us. I will send the time and place of our first meeting.
Stay psycho,
Love you. XOXO
***
“Thanks for letting me stay.”
“You didn’t even have to ask.” Paris skipped into the room. Both arms were loaded down with DVDs, a remote, a bag of popcorn, and two soda cans balancing dangerously on top of it all. “We’ve been planning this Doctor Who night for forever.” She lost her smile. “I wish it didn’t have to happen this way though.”
I helped her lay out the stuff on the pink ottoman at the foot of her bed. I had to make room among the muffins, cookies, and chips. I pegged her as trying to cheer me up.
I needed it even though she didn’t know the full reason why.
After leaving the hill, I waited for Frankie at my stop. I thought of going back to campus. Where he walked the grounds, waiting for the perfect time to steal me away.
I tried to get off at the stop and my feet wouldn’t move. Frankie closed the doors and set off again. The next time they opened, I was a ten-minute walk from Bay Avenue.
The gate guy called Paris. Her voice sounded through the speakers and my ability to lie deserted me. I told her flat out someone grabbed me during the brawl and dumped me in the woods. I told Cairo the same thing.
“They’re dead,” he growled. “It was the Crows. They took you like Legend did that long-haired bastard. They wanted us going mad searching for you.”
My pulse picked up at the thought me going missing would’ve driven them mad.
“Are you guys okay?”
“We’re fine,” he replied. “Roan was stabbed. He didn’t see who did it.”
“What?” I cried.
“Stay there. We’ll get you in the morning.”
Thus our conversation was over, but at least the guys didn’t think I ran off and ditched them at the first sign of trouble.
“And this is trouble,” I muttered. “Do you think it’s true, Paris? Do the New Boys have enough support to chop our town into pieces?”
“I still don’t understand what happened today.” She bent next to the DVD player, flipping through discs. “I’ve been getting texts all day, telling me fifty different versions. All I know is from the last two years I’ve spent studying government, nothing is ever that easy. Jeremy and his buddies can whip those cowards into a mob. Doesn’t mean he can get them all into the voting booth.”