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Back Alone in the Woods Save as PDF
Chapters (63)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Chapter One
  4. Chapter Two
  5. Chapter Three
  6. Chapter Four
  7. Chapter Five
  8. Chapter Six
  9. Chapter Seven
  10. Chapter Eight
  11. Chapter Nine
  12. Chapter Ten
  13. Chapter Eleven
  14. Chapter Twelve
  15. Chapter Thirteen
  16. Chapter Fourteen
  17. Chapter Fifteen
  18. Chapter Sixteen
  19. Chapter Seventeen
  20. Chapter Eighteen
  21. Chapter Nineteen
  22. Chapter Twenty
  23. Chapter Twenty-One
  24. Chapter Twenty-Two
  25. Chapter Twenty-Three
  26. Chapter Twenty-Four
  27. Chapter Twenty-Five
  28. Chapter Twenty-Six
  29. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  30. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  31. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  32. Chapter Thirty
  33. Chapter Thirty-One
  34. Chapter Thirty-Two
  35. Chapter Thirty-Three
  36. Chapter Thirty-Four
  37. Chapter Thirty-Five
  38. Chapter Thirty-Six
  39. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  40. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  41. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  42. Chapter Forty
  43. Chapter Forty-One
  44. Chapter Forty-Two
  45. Chapter Forty-Three
  46. Chapter Forty-Four
  47. Chapter Forty-Five
  48. Chapter Forty-Six
  49. Chapter Forty-Seven
  50. Chapter Forty-Eight
  51. Chapter Forty-Nine
  52. Chapter Fifty
  53. Chapter Fifty-One
  54. Chapter Fifty-Two
  55. Chapter Fifty-Three
  56. Chapter Fifty-Four
  57. Chapter Fifty-Five
  58. Chapter Fifty-Six
  59. Chapter Fifty-Seven
  60. A letter from Charly
  61. Acknowledgements
  62. About the Author
  63. Also by Charly Cox

Ultimately, she knew there was no way she was going to be able to convince her own head and heart to willingly go back inside that place. Instead, she’d hugged the pocketknife in her palm, allowing a false sense of security to calm her. It may have offered no real protection, but it was all they had.

And then night had once again enveloped them in its entirety, forcing them to scale new heights of what Addis was sure Aunt Grace would call bravery, but which she called a losing battle to survive. And now with another day approaching, she nestled closer to her best friend and burrowed her head into the crook of Em’s neck.

‘Do you remember that time when Josie Martins and Brenda Mosley dared us to go through that haunted house?’ Em’s hoarse, scratchy voice was probably caused as much from her many spells of jagged crying as from the cold and fear.

Addis’s pulse spiked at the mere mention of the memory. It hadn’t been her finest moment. ‘Yes.’

‘Neither of us wanted to do it, but I mean, it was Josie and Brenda, our sworn enemies since the fourth grade.’

Addis loved Em, but exhaustion, starvation, and this hellish ordeal made her want to lash out to get to the point already. Because forcing her to relive that experience was not helping boost her confidence level by any stretch of the imagination. Besides, that had been fake. This was real.

‘Well, even though we wanted to give up, we stuck it out. Together. And we got out of there. We puked afterwards, but we did it.’ Emerson lifted her shoulder until Addis raised her head and stared at her. ‘And we’re going to do this, too. We have to. Because this time, we don’t have a choice. This time, we can’t say no and walk away. Because this time, if we don’t do it, we’re going to die. And I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to meet my maker just yet. We have too many plans. And since we’re stronger together, I know we can do this.’

Addis wanted to believe her, but her penchant for positivity had run out somewhere between walking into her kitchen to discover her parents’ murdered bodies and their daring yet foolish escape that had turned into nothing more than a colder version of captivity. ‘What if you’re wrong? What if we can’t?’