Page 114 of Pretty Nightmare

The deep, rumbling waahh-waahh-waahh of a siren blares from somewhere down the street to my right and then a firetruck goes racing by.

I take a deep breath and try to think about what comes next.

I need Indie. I’m not leaving her behind again. I made dozens of promises to that girl on thousands of days when we were growing up. I promised her I would keep her safe. I promised her I would keep her sane. I promised her that we’d be friends forever.

And where are we now?

Right back where we started from, from what I can tell.

Running in the woods. Running for our lives. Running away from the men.

An ambulance siren screams from another direction and I tilt my head a little trying to see around the dollar store.

Fuck.

Fuck.

Fuck!

I run. I run hard and fast. But when I come around the side of the Family Dollar building, I stop dead in my tracks.

The Thunderbird Inn parking lot is filled with police cruisers and fire trucks. And just as all this registers, I see the ambulance skid to a stop near the lobby entrance.

Our hotel door is wide open. Dozens of cops are crowding around it.

And for a moment I can’t move. I lose every survival instinct I ever had and I freeze there. Picturing what that little girl did to Beck and Moore.

And then I turn around.

And I run.

RIGHT NOW

I watch McKay and Adam walk away. Follow them with my eyes as they pass the fountain and head back towards the Boucher mansion across from the park.

I want to call out and stop them. Tell them everything. And I almost do. But my phone buzzes in my pocket and I fish it out and press accept. “Yeah.”

“What happened?”

I sigh. Rub that spot right between my eyes with two fingers. “They threatened me. Blah, blah, blah—”

“What happened about Wendy?”

“I didn’t even get that far, Nick. They just… ‘We’re gonna kill you, you stay away.’ Same old shit.”

I can feel Nick’s anger on the other end of the phone. It comes through like heat. “I gave you one question to ask them. One. Did you ask them anything?”

“I asked about Indie.”

“But not Wendy. Did you at least warn them?”

“They are not going to believe me. I don’t understand why you don’t just call up Adam and tell him the truth. He’d listen to you.”

“You know goddamn why I can’t do that. I’m dead, Nathan.”

I practically guffaw. “Please. Everyone knows you’re alive.”

“They think I’m alive. What they know is another story. I don’t understand why Wendy will get you papers and passports, but not agree to meet you face to face.”