The girl ran.227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjOTIgwjBVW
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She ran with everything she had in her, her thin arms pumping and her bare feet slapping the dirt. The long grass sliced at her skin, each piece a tiny razor blade. It hurt. Everything hurt. But if she was caught again, it would be so much worse.227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL7nKuQ6Wme
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Get to the road. Get to the road. Just get to the road.227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCQbWPf4EAI
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Already her strength was flagging, her body failing her despite the desperation driving her on. She couldn’t stop. She couldn’t rest. She couldn’t do anything but run.227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBZtLpWHq7k
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The ground changed beneath her feet, and it took her three full strides before she realized it. She turned a full circle, trying to get her bearings. It was so hard to think past the blood pounding in her head and the dozen sharp pains that screamed to make themselves known now that she’d stopped moving. Maybe I could just . . .227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhnvaF0SKEm
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No.227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6tZWsjYymk
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She had to get to Clear Springs.227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSqw6qBPAU6
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The irony there wasn’t lost on her, even in her current state. All she’d ever wanted was to get out of that little hellhole of a town, and here she was, putting everything she had into doing the exact opposite. She frowned, trying to see farther down the road. It shouldn’t be so difficult to figure out which way to go. She’d spent years on these little two-lane roads that crisscrossed their way through this part of Montana.227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ77MoyNhXg1
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If it were day . . .227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwgfpSh15NV
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If she weren’t so tired . . .227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF9ij7qucaW
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If, if, if.227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡftGZBHX6PY
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Just move. She took a deep breath and put one foot in front of the other, picking a direction at random. The words became a mantra, a promise. Just get back to town. Just get back to town, and this will all be over.227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0PDl8fM6rU
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She wasn’t sure how long she’d walked before headlights cut through the darkness, blinding her. The girl went to her knees without having any intention of doing so. She lifted a shaking hand to shield her eyes. “Please.”227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2x6NPcd1ey
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The driver’s side door opened, and footsteps padded over the asphalt. She squinted against the light, her heart skipping a beat at the familiar profile. “No . . .” I got away. I was so sure I got away. Behind the figure, she could make out the faint, familiar lights of Clear Springs. So close. It might as well have been the moon. She had the same likelihood of reaching it.227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEr7qFxQ0di
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She tried to get to her feet, but her body failed her once again, her legs giving out. She barely caught herself before she face-planted. “Please. I’ll do whatever you want. Just please don’t hurt me anymore.”227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTsHTbFnFvS
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A hand touched her head, all the more horrifying because of its gentleness. “You know I can’t make that promise.”227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVGdMp1xkMm
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The girl had thought herself beyond tears, but that moment proved her wrong. She stared at her scraped and bloodied knuckles, a horrible knowledge settling in her chest. There would be no college, no life beyond the little town that had felt like a prison for most of her life, no future family where she could learn from the mistakes her parents had made.227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7YpJ5PAuUh
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Nothing.227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOXh0MzkFWh
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There was nothing but the hand on her head and the pain lying in wait for her.227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpOpFaMCnn2
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“You have to do something.”227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIOZGYwQKHU
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Zach Owens had heard variations of that same demand ever since he moved back to Clear Springs and took a job as a deputy nine years ago. Now, as sheriff, he heard them a whole hell of a lot more often.227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrPp5ZxHMtm
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This one was different.227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAEoIwBGoti
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He sat forward and pinned both Robert and Julie Smith with a look. “You know I’ve been doing everything I can.” For three days he’d been working his ass off to figure out where the hell their daughter had wandered off to. They didn’t get missing persons a whole lot around here—if someone went missing, it was because they didn’t want to be found. He still wasn’t convinced Neveah Smith wasn’t in that category.227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6giiZcit5w
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“This isn’t like the other times.” Tears welled in Julie’s eyes. “It’s that Martha Collins. She’s got her hooks into my girl, and she’s lured her out to that damned cesspool of sin.”227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq7kgDIQ1Jv
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“Julie, language.”227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWkkkFbDMox
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Zach sighed. It was just like Robert Smith to call his wife out on her language when their daughter might or might not be missing. The Smiths were good people. They made a point to get to church every Sunday and do all sorts of community outreach, even if they were a little zealous about some of that shit. Julie Smith had made it her personal mission to see the cult up on that hill brought down in flames.227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdi18URyGf0
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But it wasn’t Zach’s job to tell her that Martha Collins was too smart to start snatching teenagers off the street.227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKlzW3Kbgvm
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“The folks up at Elysia aren’t responsible for everything that goes sideways in Clear Springs.” In all the time he’d been back in town, he couldn’t remember a single thing they’d done that would shine the light of the law on themselves. Groups like that didn’t make it far if they weren’t able to keep their noses clean.227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUw6XepYn3C
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“Maybe not before. This is different.”227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrc11HwZUzK
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She kept saying that. Zach knew her well enough to know she wasn’t going to let this go. The woman might be sweet as pie, but she was like a terrier with a bone when she got her back up. Having her only daughter up and disappear was more than enough to do that.227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyAR9G6Owhf
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The problem was that Neveah was a little troublemaker. She liked to worry her parents, and she loved getting herself into questionable situations. It would be just like her to disappear for a few days and then waltz back into town with a shit-eating grin and some boy in tow.
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