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Dread ruptures inside of me again, and I roll onto my belly, pushing to my feet.
A piercing scream echoes behind me that’s quickly cut short, followed by a thud.
Don’t look back, my head tells me, as I hobble over the guardrail, down the sandy incline. The agony throbs in my ankle, air burns in my chest. There’s nowhere to hide. Only the endless sand and dunes for miles, but I keep on, trudging over the soft surface that kicks up into my wound. A crashing sound from behind has me skidding to a halt, and I turn to see Boyd’s car barreling toward me through the sand.
Oh, my fucking God!
Screams tear through me, echoing in my ear, and I limp forward, desperate to ignore the agonizing pain with every step. My feet tangle beneath me, and the earth crashes into my face.
The car comes to a stop, and I scramble to get back to my feet. Once upright, my foot flies out from beneath me and my shoulder smacks into the sand. The gritty surface scrapes across my skin as my body is dragged backwards, and I kick out, the pain shooting through my ankle the moment it makes contact.
“Ah, fuck!” I cry out, and Boyd gathers up both of my legs, pulling me by my calves. I grapple for something to hang on to, but only soft sand slips around my fingers. Grabbing a handful of it, I toss it at him, employing the same method he used on Mr. Goodman, but he turns, dragging me behind him.
Once alongside his car, he releases my legs.
Pushing to my elbows, I sit up from the ground to flip over, and a flash out of the corner of my eye is the only warning before a knock to my jaw rattles my teeth. Another hit kicks my head to the side, and I lie disoriented, staring at my reflection in the chrome hubcap beside me.
Jaw throbbing, I blink hard to focus.
“I’ll give you this, you young bitches don’t go down easy. Last one didn’t, either.”
He killed Nell. It wasn’t Lucian, or Schadenfreude. It was my father.
The world shrinks to a pinprick and swallows me whole.