Did she hear footsteps? Heavy breathing? More growling. In the distance, she heard the howl of a coyote and her blood froze in her veins.
Run! Faster!
She sprinted wildly, crazily, one foot in front of the other, panic gripping her, her breath coming in short gasps, her legs cramping, her damned lungs burning.
Go! Go! Go! Don’t stop.
Upward she raced, driving forward until her lungs felt as if they might explode, and she came to a narrow spot where the trail twisted between two huge boulders. She flung herself against one. Gasped for air. Was certain a bloodthirsty demon, the kind she’d been reading about in her latest horror novel, was on her tail and ready to leap out at her to rip her face off.
She looked back over her shoulder, ready to square off with the otherworldly creature or lunatic or creep of a teenager, only to find nothing but the engulfing black night, the forest of towering pines and scrub brush, the heat of August settling like a shroud.
No footsteps pounded up the path, no labored breathing echoed through the night, no guttural sounds of a beast’s warning reached her ears.
She saw and heard nothing. No bat wings. No frantic footsteps of kids in the forest. No breath of wind moving the branches. Even the coyote had stopped its lonely cry.
Which was weird. Less than an hour ago, there had been at least fifteen kids when they started the stupid game, maybe closer to twenty. Who counted? All she knew was that she was with a group of teenagers who had collected in the scrubby area that had once been a parking area for some of the Long family’s lumber business. Cars and trucks had been parked haphazardly over the sparsely strewn, weed-choked gravel, music pulsing from the speakers of Austin Reece’s car, a BMW, the only one in the mix of beaters, pickups, and ancient SUVs. Kids had been hanging out in clusters, some drinking, more smoking, some toking it up, she guessed from the skunk-like odor of weed mingling with the more acrid scent of cigarettes. A low murmur of conversation, punctuated by laughter, had rumbled across the open area while silhouettes moved across the smoky beams of headlights from some of the vehicles. Red tips of cigarettes and the glow of cell phone screens indicated where others had been gathering.
Bianca knew some of the girls. Red-haired Simone Delaney had been in her English class and Seneca Martinez, who had been on the track team, lived just down the road from the little cottage in the woods where Bianca had grown up. They’d ridden the bus together all through grade school. But they weren’t close now. And Lindsay Cronin? She was okay but always followed along with the crowd. You just didn’t know where you stood with her. One minute she was your best friend, the next your enemy. So weird.
Maddie had come to one of these parties before, and her reason was simple: she hoped to hook up with Teej O’Hara. As if she had a chance.
Come on, Maddie. Get real. Everyone knows that Teej is half in love with Lara Haas. And even he has to stand in line.
Lara was definitely the “it” girl of Bianca’s class. And Teej, with his quick, killer smile, athletic body, and sharp wit, was out of Maddie’s league, at least in his inflated opinion of himself. Bianca suspected Maddie knew she was being used, but didn’t care, or thought it was a way to make TJ fall in love with her.
Oh, sure.
While they’d hung out before the game had started, Maddie had barely shown interest in what Bianca had been saying, and it wasn’t j
ust because even then Bianca had second-guessed the idea of the party.
“I really should get back,” she’d said. “This doesn’t look good.”
“Stop being such a wuss.” Maddie’s fingers had still clutched her phone, her head moving slightly, her eyes squinting as she surveyed the group that had gathered.
“He’s over there. By Reece,” Bianca whispered back, hitching her chin to a clutch of boys passing around what appeared to be a bottle on the far side of Reece’s Beemer. With its parking lights giving off an unearthly golden light, a throbbing beat coming from its speakers, the silver car was the hub of the party. “He’s with Castillo and Devlin,” Bianca added. “Big surprise.” Those two were always hanging around Teej, hoping some of his popularity would rub off on them.
Finally, Maddie caught sight of Teej, and the faintest of smiles had slid across her jaw.
“You know the idea is to run from him, right?” Bianca reminded.
“Run, but not too fast.” Arching a brow, Maddie slid Bianca a knowing glance, and from that point on, Bianca had realized she was on her own. The minute the girls took off into the woods at Reece’s “Go!” she’d lost sight of Maddie. It was as if her friend, who’d begged her to sneak out and join the others, had planned to ditch Bianca from the get-go.
Even now, Maddie was probably trying to hook up with Teej—that was, if she wasn’t with him already.
But that didn’t explain why there were no others nearby. In the parking lot, the “rules” of the game had been explained by Kywin Bell, a nineteen-year-old with a near-shaved head of blond hair and intense blue eyes. A couple of important inches shy of six feet, Kywin had one claim to fame. As a senior this past football season, he’d scored the winning touchdown in the big game against their archrivals by intercepting a pass and snaking his way to the end zone with two opposing players clinging to him but unable to bring him down.
That had been nearly a year ago. Kywin had since graduated, and now worked in a local feed store and still hung out with the younger kids. He kept saying he was going to college like his older, larger, and more athletic brother, but was waiting for the “right” offer to play ball, which was all BS, as most of the colleges Bianca knew about had already started practicing for the coming season. It was the end of August, for God’s sake.
Obviously Kywin was either a liar or self-deluded or both. Somehow he’d placed himself and Austin Reece in charge of the phones so that everyone was “cool” with the cells and keys being confiscated. Then, while the burning tip of a cigarette had bobbed from the corner of his mouth, Kywin had told everyone that the girls were supposed to go “hide” and the boys would “seek.” That produced a snort of laughter from Austin. The object, Austin had interjected, was for the girls to elude their hunters by running or hiding or using any trick they could. The two boys, tall, broad-shouldered Austin and all-bunched-muscle Kywin, had shared a knowing look that should have sent alarm bells ringing through Bianca’s brain. Reece had explained that the last girl who didn’t get caught was the big winner, though Bianca didn’t know exactly what that girl might win. Kywin, the bohunk, hadn’t explained. Nor had any of the other idiot boys, most of whom she’d known since preschool, including Teej, who had, she hated to admit, turned out to be a real hottie with a hard soccer body.
Big deal. He was also one of the biggest egomaniacs in the school and his two sidekicks, Rod Devlin and Joaquin Castillo, weren’t much better.
A minute or so after the girls had taken to the woods, the boys were let loose. She’d heard the boys hollering, big feet thundering as they gave chase. It had been unnerving and energizing and scary as hell. For the first time in her life, she’d felt like prey being stalked. Adrenaline had fueled her as she’d picked her way through a copse of saplings. All she’d known was that she didn’t want to get caught. As careful and silent as she’d moved, it had worked. For a while. Then she’d cautiously stepped around a clump of brush.
A meaty hand, slick with sweat, had reached out of the umbra and clamped over her shoulder. She’d shrieked and jumped before she’d recognized Kywin Bell, the jerk-wad.
“Got you, you little cop-kid-bitch! Now, you’re gonna git it!” There had been an evil, almost sexual, tone to his deep voice, and she, quick as a cat, had managed to slip out of his thick-fingered grasp.