The girl ran.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZiwekY34pn
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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.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDVvR04PZh3
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Get to the road. Get to the road. Just get to the road.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9DrjdEqfVv
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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.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9KVHOLPUq6
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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 . . .141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUvi4h1xIAd
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No.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwWHZsruWQ9
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She had to get to Clear Springs.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYTvXoKnTwj
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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.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRRm9594XT7
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If it were day . . .141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm7K5QTev7t
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If she weren’t so tired . . .141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiYwAQckqs6
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If, if, if.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLGzTABbUoD
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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.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYtS8nbO8fV
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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.”141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBLPtXedCyh
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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.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHsWxCqEaCe
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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.”141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡonlhsp9sCH
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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.”141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfvfY1fYeIZ
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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.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfRVctqVX6E
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Nothing.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT1bHltQvJg
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There was nothing but the hand on her head and the pain lying in wait for her.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTG9IQNRRRt
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“You have to do something.”141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf0MeZbvr8O
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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.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwBUXqnuCbt
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This one was different.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUPApBWb1H9
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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.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJtWmxMSdnn
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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.”141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡasq6uE5hKh
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“Julie, language.”141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMAsh5Pipz2
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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.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoGCBi8LcMM
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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.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaeydNvs3eF
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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.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXy1BJyyt65
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“Maybe not before. This is different.”141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV3H8k55lH7
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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.141Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmchhD6OWFr
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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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