Chapter 2 - THE HOUSE WITH NO LIGHTSMarcus drove twenty miles above the speed limit.
Leo sat rigidly in the back seat, clutching his injured hand against his chest.
The black SUV remained behind them.
Three times Marcus tried to lose it.
Three times it appeared again.
At a red light, Marcus suddenly turned right.
Then left.
Then another right.
The SUV followed.
“Who is that?” Leo asked.
“Shut up.”
“Is it the police?”
Marcus slapped the steering wheel.
“No.”
“Then who?”
Marcus looked into the rearview mirror.
“Someone who shouldn't know we're alive.”
Leo stared at him.
The words meant nothing.
Then they passed the road leading to their neighborhood.
Marcus did not turn.
Leo's stomach twisted.
“That’s our street.”
“I know.”
“Why didn't we go home?”
Marcus didn't answer.
The SUV suddenly disappeared.
Marcus slowed.
He waited ten seconds.
Nothing.
Twenty.
Still nothing.
He pulled into a gas station and killed the engine.
For the first time since leaving the visitation center, he looked at Leo.
“Your sister is safe.”
Leo nodded.
“Where?”
“Somewhere.”
“Where?”
Marcus's face hardened.
“You ask too many questions.”
Leo looked out the window.
His reflection stared back at him.
A frightened boy with wet hair and swollen fingers.
Then he saw something.
A shape in the reflection.
Someone standing behind the car.
Leo turned.
No one.
He looked again.
Nothing.
“Marcus.”
“What?”
“I saw somebody.”
Marcus looked into the side mirror.
“Get down.”
Leo obeyed instantly.
Marcus reached beneath the driver's seat.
When his hand emerged, he was holding a black handgun.
Leo stopped breathing.
Marcus cracked the door open.
“Stay here.”
He stepped outside.
Leo watched through the space between the seats.
Marcus walked around the back of the car.
Then he disappeared.
Ten seconds.
Twenty.
Thirty.
Leo waited.
A knock sounded against the rear window.
Leo screamed.
A woman's face appeared.
Not Sarah.
A stranger.
Mid-thirties.
Dark hair.
Wet coat.
She held both hands up.
“Leo?”
He froze.
“How do you know my name?”
The woman looked at his hand.
Then at the message still faintly visible on the rear side window.
“Because Sarah called me.”
Leo stared.
“She did?”
“Yes.”
“Where is she?”
The woman glanced toward the store.
“We don't have much time.”
“Who are you?”
“My name is Elena.”
“Are you a police officer?”
“No.”
“Then go away.”
Elena's eyes filled with urgency.
“Your sister isn't in the basement because Marcus forgot her there.”
Leo felt the air leave his lungs.
“She’s there?”
Elena nodded.
“She was hidden there before the visitation.”
“Why?”
Elena looked toward the store again.
“Because someone has been trying to find her for seven years.”
Leo did not understand.
“Who?”
Elena opened her mouth.
A gunshot cracked through the parking lot.
She dropped.
Leo screamed.
Marcus appeared from behind the sedan.
He dragged Elena out of sight and fired toward the tree line.
The gas station erupted into chaos.
People ran.
A car crashed into a fuel pump barrier.
Someone screamed.
Marcus grabbed Leo and shoved him down.
“Stay down!”
Leo shook uncontrollably.
“Is she dead?”
Marcus did not answer.
Then the black SUV tore out of the parking lot.
Marcus watched it disappear.
Only after it was gone did he turn back.
Elena was gone.
Not dead.
Gone.
Marcus stared at the empty pavement.
Leo saw something sticking out of her fallen coat.
A photograph.
He crawled toward it.
Marcus grabbed his arm.
“Don't.”
Leo pulled harder.
The photograph came free.
It showed two children.
A little girl with dark curls.
And a seven-year-old boy.
Leo recognized the boy.
He was staring at himself.
But the girl beside him wasn't Mia.
Marcus snatched the photograph.
His face went white.
“No.”
Leo looked at him.
“Who is she?”
Marcus stared at the picture.
May you like
Then whispered:
“She should have died.”
