Page 90 of Depraved Boys

After starting the engine, I reversed out of the courtyard and drove toward the academy gates at twenty miles per hour. As soon as the roads became treacherous, I would drop down to ten and be extra careful.

I cleared the driveway and entered the darkened, main road. Trees and hedges reflected in the moonlight, but I put my headlights on full beam to light my way. My heart thrummed a steady beat.

“It’ll be fine,” I told myself. “Just take it slow.”

The road made a few sharp turns—nothing I couldn’t handle at such a slow speed—then I joined Hard Knott Pass, the stretch where Mom and Dad had died. My throat became hoarse, and I choked back a sob. How could fate snatch them both from me on the same night?

My heart thrummed a steady beat as I negotiated the treacherous road at a ridiculously slow pace. My headlights warned me of upcoming turns and gave me the assurance I needed to continue driving.

Moments later, bright lights filled my rearview mirror, making me squint. Some inconsiderate person had left their lights on full beam. I slowed down on the roadside and stopped.

The car behind me stopped about thirty feet away.

“Overtake me,” I shouted. Seriously, what was wrong with some people?

Then the car backed up.

I furrowed my brow. “What are you doing?”

They didn’t need to reverse to overtake me. There was plenty of space both between us and on the other side of the road. I couldn’t even track its progress in the rearview mirror, because its lights were blindingly bright. I slumped in my seat and waited.

Seconds later, the other car crashed into my rear corner, sending my car over the side of the mountain. My heart exploded in my chest, my stomach lurched from the upside-down movement, and a scream tore from my lips.

As I tumbled down the slope, I caught glimpses of a figure in black standing at the edge of the mountain.

Ice filled my veins and spread toward my extremities. I couldn’t tell if the person was young or old, male or female, white or Asian. But as the car rolled me toward my death, I was sure of one thing:

This was no fucking accident.

END OF BOOK ONE

READ BOOK TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

My stomach lurched with each revolution of the car down the mountainside, and my heartbeat accelerated with each passing moment. Blood roared in my ears, drowning out the sound of the radio but letting in every gut-wrenching creak and crash and crush of the car’s metal bodywork.

I had to stop looking at the moonlit figure in black. I had to jump out. Jump out before the vehicle fell into the stream. Or into a boulder.

I wedged open the door, but the car tumbled into a tree trunk and forced it closed. “Fuck!”

My fingers shook over its handle, and when I pulled it, the door jammed. Cold despair washed through my insides. I was trapped. Trapped in this metal coffin.

With more force this time, I opened the door and lurched out to freedom, but my seatbelt held me back. The car paused, and a released breath whooshed out of my lungs. Just as I undid the belt buckle and was about to jump out, the car overbalanced and continued descending. But the door still swung open. There was still a chance.

I leaped out of the car and hit my shoulder and the side of my head on a rock. Pain radiated through my skull, my right shoulder, and the right side of my hip, and I squeezed my eyes shut. The creak and crash of the car continued as it tumbled further down the valley.

When I opened my eyes, the figure in black descended toward me at an alarming pace.

Cold panic exploded through my chest and surged through my veins.

If I didn’t run, they would catch up with me.

If I didn’t run, they would finish the job they started.

“S-shit.” I stumbled to my feet. Pain lightning-bolted across my left hip, and a scream tore from my lips. But I couldn’t dwell on that. I needed to run.

As I shuffled along the mountainside, my feet skidded on mud and on vegetation still wet from the rain. I splayed out my uninjured right arm and tried to maintain my balance. A crack of thunder filled my insides with cold terror, but I picked up my pace. I turned, and a flash of lightning illuminated the mountainside and the advancing dark figure.