‘Hurry.’ Becca pushed the words past clenched teeth.

Cheyenne settled her other knee onto Faye’s back and then steadied herself by gripping their shoulders.

Just as she had with their first two attempts, Faye squeezed her eyes shut, her lips pursed as her face twisted in pain. Her nostrils flared as she sucked in air through clenched teeth.

It was Jersey’s turn. Sweat beaded on Rachel’s lips as she locked her arms into place, waiting for Jersey to get into position.

She wanted to apologize for the pain, but instead Jersey said, ‘Nod when you’re ready.’

Rachel sucked in a deep breath and dropped her head forward. Jersey moved into place, balancing herself on Faye’s and Rachel’s backs, holding her breath as Rachel’s body trembled beneath her. This time, however, Rachel’s arms held as she managed to keep herself from collapsing to the floor.

‘Katelyn, hurry,’ Jersey urged.

Quickly, Katelyn shuffled over to the pyramid and, apologizing for every gasp of pain, she carefully climbed her way to the top. Balancing herself, she whispered excitedly, ‘I can reach it.’

Jersey closed her eyes to block out the pain, breathing in and out through her nose. The seconds ticked by as she waited for Katelyn to find the latch that would send her to the outside to find help to free them all.

Suddenly, Katelyn wailed something undecipherable, and her movements became jerky, causing the pyramid to become more unsteady. And then she was banging on the window, over and over, ignoring the others as they pleaded with her to stop, to tell them what was wrong. But she didn’t stop, and before Jersey could process what was happening, they were all tumbling to the ground, their arms and legs flailing, muffled groans, sharp gasps, and whimpers bouncing off the walls around them.

Tremors shook Katelyn’s body as she sobbed, crawling away and burrowing into a corner. Her words, when they finally came, were a combination of disbelief, helplessness, and fear. ‘The glass is too thick to break, and the window’s nailed shut.’

Stunned silence filled the room as they came to terms with the realization that their fleeting hope of escape was nothing more than an impossible fantasy. Then one by one, everyone moved back to their mattresses, their surge of courageousness flying through the bars of the cell and abandoning them to the truth.

This sense of hopelessness was almost worse than before they’d even tried. Jersey watched as Katelyn rocked her quaking body back and forth, and felt the weight of failure on her own shoulders at the knowledge that, no matter how much they all wanted to, none of them could save the young girl, shield her from the nightmare that was to come.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Thursday, May 23

Alyssa paced as she listened to Hal’s end of the conversation. The second he’d mentioned the phrases ‘matter of life or death’ and ‘search warrant,’ the person who’d answered the phone had handed him off to a manager who was pulling up the cell tower information as quickly as he could, which, in Alyssa’s estimation was ten times slower than it should be.