Shaking like a ceiling fan on its highest setting, they carefully, inch by painfully slow inch, pushed out on the door, relieved to see it lifting and not locked. It was difficult to know when the door was completely opened because all that greeted them was the thickest darkness Addis had ever experienced. A painful ache spread throughout her chest as she fruitlessly prayed for her dad to materialize so he could wrap her in his arms and tell her she was safe. She needed to hear it from him just one more time.

But no matter how fervently she wished for that fantasy, it wasn’t going to happen, so she would just have to force herself to believe that she and Emerson could do this on their own.

Outside the crawl space, they stopped, their bodies jerking at every cricket’s chirp, every tree limb scraping along the side of the cabin.

Addis repeated Emerson’s earlier words. ‘On the count of three, we stand. One. Two. Three.’ Except their first attempt made it clear their muscles weren’t as cooperative. Not willing to give up now, when the possibility of escape peeked on the horizon, she used the wall for support until she managed to get upright. While Em did the same, she trained her eyes in what she believed was the direction of the door, blocking out any thoughts of what was beyond. One step at a time was her motto right now, so they’d just deal with what came next when they reached that point.

An interminable amount of time passed as they felt their way along the wall, cringing with each creak and crying out when Addis’s hand sliced across a protruding nail. After making one nerve-wracking, gut-turning stop in the kitchen for a tepid drink of rust-flavored water from the old pipes, Addis’s fingers encountered the door. Blood pulsing so loudly it was difficult to hear, she tapped her fingers up and down until she felt the lock, wincing when a splinter shot beneath her fingernail. Then, leaning her forehead against their barrier to freedom, she released the bolt. Emerson’s hand slid down her arm, and together, they turned the knob, flinching at the screeching sound as the bottom of the door rubbed against the floor.

Outside on the porch, it was still pitch black even with the sliver of shrouded moon casting a dim glow. Disoriented, Addis lifted her gaze to the dark clouds that were responsible for the starless night. ‘Which way do we go? Without the stars, I don’t know which way is north. What good is an interest in astronomy if I can’t use it when I most need it?’