Lunging forward, she brushed branches from her face. Thorns scratched against her bare legs, but she kept moving, plunging through the darkness. Her heart was beating frantically, pulsing in her ears when she heard his breath coming in hard, fast gasps.

So near!

So damned close.

Even though her twin was tied up, she hoped Chloe was using this distraction to try and escape.

Hurry, hurry, hurry!

“It’s no use, bitch,” he said, his voice so close to her she flinched. Oh, God, he was right behind her! Adrenaline spurred her legs faster just as she felt fingernails swipe over her bare shoulder and fall away. “I’ve got you!” His foul stench told her that he was close, inches away. He took another swipe at her, this time grabbing her arm. Zoe leaped, trying to break free of the pincer of his grip. Her shoulder wrenched as she yanked her arm back and his moist hand, sweaty and probably bloody, slipped away.

“Shit!”

The force of evading him sent her airborne. She landed hard, and her ankle gave way. Letting out a groan, she began to roll down a steep hill, her body bumping and sliding over mud and leaves. Picking up speed, she kept traveling down, down . . . away from him. She surrendered to the momentum and let herself tumble like a stone.

Above it all, somewhere beyond her violent descent, she heard the far-off rev of an engine.

Chloe? Oh, God, please. Let her save herself.

Splash!

Zoe slid into the water.

“What the fuck?” the freak cried from the top of the embankment. “Shit!”

As she felt the current tug her downstream, she silently prayed that her twin would get away.

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 4

“It’s happening. It’s happening again!”

Arianna’s voice came from the mist. A whisper.

Please, no. “Where are you?” Brianna demanded. She stood in a dark thicket cloaked by rising fog. Although unable to see into the darkness, she knew her twin was nearby. She could feel it. “Arianna?”

“Help them.”

“Help who?”

“The others.”

“I don’t know who you mean.”

“The ones like us, silly. Help them,” Arianna said, and in that moment Brianna found herself alone in a desert under a broad blue sky and parching bald sun. Cacti stood guard over acres and acres of sand. “Arianna?” Brianna said again. The only answer was the rush of wind and the cry of vultures circling overhead. When she looked down at the ground she saw them: two bodies curled in fetal positions, mirror images facing each other. Pushed by the gusting wind, sand scattered away from their bones: hollow-eyed skulls with long teeth and empty nasal cavities, rounded, exposed ribs, and knobby vertebrae bleached by the intense sun.