CHAPTER FORTY-TWO: I didn’t let Sean take me home. I needed something, and he wasn’t it. Instead I sat in the grass after school outside with Ally. She kept holding my hand or putting her hand on my shoulder, different things - to let me know that she was there for me. I still hadn’t been able to say a thing since running into Vance. And my hands shook too badly when I tried to write or text. So I sat there, replaying the horror of being so violated in this place that I loved so much. I went over and over every second of it, and tried to figure out why I hadn’t been able to fight back, but I came away with nothing. Ally sat with me patiently, as she had been during lunch and Trigonometry, in her comforting way. She had held my hand tightly and gotten everyone to leave me alone when Sean had dug more and more, asking endless questions trying to learn what had happened. The bus pulled up to the curb and I got on with Ally. The two of us sitting in my unofficially reserved spot. I ha

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR: Nightmare. Another. I knew it somewhere in my mind while it was happening - that it wasn’t real. But it didn’t help. All around me were warm, moist hands touching me all over, pulling at me as I tried to run. But it was pitch black and everywhere I ran to there were more arms. I was screaming but nothing would come out of my throat. There was no relief. I continued to run, desperate for anything, anything other than darkness and arms, and warm clammy flesh. I stumbled. Face first, and more hands reached out grabbing me. I pushed off from something and tried to stand but could only flip myself over. On my back, I tried swatting and kicking arms away. I hit one and it let go, but another hand grabbed my ankle and before I knew it I was trapped. Totally trapped in this darkness, covered arms and hands. And as more and more clamored on top of me I saw a pair of eyes in the distance, silver. And as the arms covered my vision, I thought about how sad I was that I had

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX: My ankle ached and I sat down on the ground giving it a rest. After some minutes of watching staff and firefighters crawl over the school in search of the source, I remembered my phone. I looked to see four back-to-back missed calls, from Jake? Why would he call me in the middle of the day? There were some texts too from Jake, and Evan, and even Nick. >: Hey Rach, call me >: Please. When you can. Or text >: Hey there, just checking in. How are things? :) >: Can you send up a flare or something to prove you’re alive? I wrote back to Nick first and worked my way backwards. >: Working on it >: I’m alright, thanks. You can tell him to calm down lol >: I’m okay. Sorry to have everyone worked up My phone immediately buzzed. I read the new message from Jake in between checking on the princ

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT: Jake ~ She wasn’t responding. We had gotten to Melbourne about an hour ago and I was pacing in front of Donna’s. Evan had driven us here and we left his car down at the park. “Should we just walk by her place?” I asked, revved up. Nick looked over at me, “I don’t know if that’s the best idea…” he watched me pace some more. “Well we’ve got to do something, this isn’t helping anyone,” Evan commented. “Ugh, fine,” Nick resigned, “But!” He put up his hand, “But if you start losing it over there, you’re listening to me and getting the hell out of there.” “Fine,” I grunted. I was already walking off towards her place. Rachel ~ My eyes fluttered open again. Sleep just wasn’t coming. My mom and Meg had left a few minutes ago, she had some friend’s birthday party to go to and they would be gone for a couple hours. I was on the couch looking up at the ceiling again, trying to connect the little glitter specks in our popcorn ceiling (from the 70s) to mak

CHAPTER FIFTY: Jake ~ “Let’s go! It’s almost time!” Evan yelled excitedly. “Coming!” I called back. Today was Nick’s birthday and he was having his first shift tonight. He was currently out in the forest with his parents and a small group of pack members, excluding my parents who were out visiting a neighboring pack about some changes they each wanted to make on our alliance. I was working on some homework and pushed it to the side to get up and follow Evan out. Heading down the hall and down the flight of stairs, my mind immediately went to Rachel. It had been a miracle that I had been able to get my thoughts focused on homework earlier. A miracle made from running until I thought I would pass out. I was so riled up. I’d been this way since Monday, over three weeks ago now. That night when I’d texted Rachel, and the next morning when I had tried speaking to her, I knew it was true. We were definitely connected. Somehow my body knew when she was sinking back into whatever he