lm down a little. I lift my gaze to meet Fynn’s. He is as grave as ever. I know I could never ask him to console me. Would he even know what to say? But, he is here, not Anderson. And, I need him.
“Do you think my dad’s alright?” I whisper, feeling the salty taste of my tears in the corner of my mouth.
He sighs heavily before replying. He lets go of me, and we both get up from the floor.
“I doubt it, Maddie,” he tells me the truth.
A part of me appreciates his honesty. That’s what I need right now. I can’t get lost in daydreams that will end up killing me. But, another part of me wants to squeeze my fists and start hitting him with all my might, because how dare he assume that my father is dead. My mind is screaming with pain, my heart can’t stop skipping every other beat, and I feel like I can barely stand up.
“I think I need to lie down a little,” I feel like I’m reliving the same scene from before, only it’s much more difficult this time.
A sudden sensation of nausea hits me like a tidal wave. I bend over and throw up the remnants of my sandwich and coffee. It feels like it lasts forever, getting all of it back out, and when I’m finally done, my stomach contracts a few more times, but nothing more comes out. The stench hits me like a ton of bricks, as I wipe the corner of my mouth with my upper hand.
“I’m… sorry…” I manage to say weakly.
“Don’t worry about it,” he is quick to reply. “I’ll clean that up. Let’s get you to bed now.”
Unsteady and weak, I allow him to take me to my room. I feel the cold, wet cloth as he wipes my face. Sleep takes over me violently, like a tornado, promising no rest. Only more turmoil.
Chapter 14
Anderson
I doubt I’d been asleep for longer than an hour or so, and yet it seems like I missed everything. Fynn quickly updated me on what happened over the phone, and I see he’s out of his mind. Even though, just by looking at him, you’d never tell. He is that good at hiding it. But, I see his fingers. They’re not calm, as usual. They’re the only part of his body that always betrays him when he’s like this.
“So, that’s why I think we should head over there now,” Fynn wraps up telling me exactly what happened, and suggesting to go and hide somewhere else, somewhere where not even the police would know where we are.
“Is it still safe?” I wonder. “We haven’t been there in about…”
“Five years,” he reminds me. “Luckily, we didn’t need to use it. The police safe houses, any of the ones we used, did the job. But, this time, we’re screwed.”
“You think the hiker had something to do with the call?”
“Everything points to the contrary, but it can’t be a coincidence. It just can’t.”
“You know I trust you when it comes to smells and gut feelings,” I remind him.
“I know,” he tries a smile. “Thanks. Really.”
“So, we wake her up and get going?”
“I think so,” he nods, drumming his fingers silently against the kitchen table, as if following an inside rhythm which is trying to soothe him, only not very successfully. “Just get what we need the most. Some food. Water. Leave the rest. We need to go now.”
“OK.”
“Actually, you go get the girl,” he tells me. “I’ll grab stuff from the kitchen. Just shove her stuff in her bag and don’t spend too much time on it. I’ll be waiting outside by the car.”
“Sure thing,” I nod again, and rush over to Maddie’s room.
I wasn’t in on the conversation, but judging from what Fynn told me, Sven either knows where we are or he’ll know very soon. And then, there’ll be Hell to pay. We need to get the heck out of here and now.
With those thoughts in mind, I knock on Maddie’s door, and immediately enter without even waiting for the OK. She’s lying on the bed, her entire body covered with a blanket. She’s breathing slowly, evenly. She’s fully asleep and I almost feel bad for waking her up. But, there’s no time to spare.
“Maddie,” I call out to her, shaking her gently on the shoulder.
She stirs a little underneath the blanket, but doesn’t acknowledge me.
“Maddie, you need to wake up,” I tell her again, a little more loudly. “We need to go.”