#Chapter 40: Run Before They Catch You

I run before my mind can catch up, my legs carrying me through the dimly lit corridors. My breath is ragged, and my heart pounds in my chest like a drum. The echo of Sirius’s chilling threat rings in my ears, spurring me to move faster: I will cut your tongue out and make you swallow it back along with your blood. Or maybe I should just kill you now? Shhh don’t beg now, I promise Elise will be an amazing child to Frankie. The threats make me nauseous, and my throat tightens like I am unable to breath. The image of him, wild and dangerous, haunts me. The look of his gun pressed against Claudia’s temple, his eyes filled with a cold, unyielding fury—it's burned into my mind. I can still hear Claudia's desperate gasps, see the tremor in her hands as she tried to push him away. My stomach churns at memory. I have to get away, to find a place to think, to breathe, and I stumble my way back to the garden in the middle of the compound. I make my way through the darkened corridor