The Window

That night, Garrick did not return me to the windowless shed.

Instead, he shoved me into a side room.

It had a small window.

Too small, perhaps, but not impossible.

The moment he left, I measured it with my eyes.

Height: reachable.

Width: painful but possible.

Outside: inner yard.

Across the yard: another room with lamplight.

No chain.

That mattered most.

I waited.

Darkness thickened.

The house quieted.

Crickets screamed beyond the walls.

I told myself not to rush.

Garrick was testing me.

Of course he was.

A door left unlocked. A window just large enough. A back gate loose enough to tempt.

Wolf Hollow wanted me to run before I understood where I was.

Then they could punish me properly.

Still, when hours passed and the lamp across the yard remained lit, desperation pushed me toward the window.

I climbed.

My ribs scraped wood.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

I failed, fell, tried again.

At last, I got my head and shoulders through.

The night air touched my face.

I almost cried.

Then I saw the room across the yard.

The lit window faced mine at an angle.

Inside, Garrick stood beside a bed.

Tessa—the crazy woman—lay on it, eyes open and empty.

Caleb sat in a chair nearby.

Garrick was speaking.

Not loudly.

But clearly enough.

“Watch.”

My stomach turned.

He was not just hurting her.

He was teaching Caleb.

Showing him what men in Wolf Hollow believed husbands could take.

“See?” Garrick said. “When the new girl is yours, this is what you do.”

The world narrowed.

Sound vanished.

My hands went numb on the window frame.

New girl.

Me.

I pulled back too quickly and hit my head.

Pain flashed white.

When I looked again, Tessa’s eyes had changed.

They were focused.

Clear.

And staring straight at me.

She had seen me.

I dropped from the window.

My legs almost gave out.

Run.

Not later.

Now.

I waited only until the lamp went dark.

Then I climbed through the window again, landed in the yard, and moved barefoot across the dirt.

Every sound felt too loud.

The rustle of my clothes.

My breath.

The blood pounding in my ears.

I found the narrow passage behind the house and reached the back gate.

Still unlatched.

Still waiting.

I should have questioned that.

I did not.

I opened it and ran.

Across the wildflower slope.

Into the trees.

Branches cut my arms. Stones tore my feet. I did not slow down.

I ran like an animal.

Like prey.

Like every second behind me had teeth.

The forest at night was not silent.

Leaves cracked.

Insects shrieked.

Something moved in the dark.

At first, I thought the footsteps were mine echoing.

Then I realized they were behind me.

I ran harder.

My foot caught on a root.

Pain shot through my ankle.

I fell.

The footsteps came closer.

Heavy.

Fast.

I tried to stand.

My body refused.

A hand clamped over my mouth.

I thrashed with everything I had left.

“Quiet.”

A woman’s voice.

Familiar.

“Do not scream.”

I froze.

The hand loosened.

I turned.

Tessa crouched behind me, hair tied back, eyes sharp in the moonlight.

Not crazy.

Not empty.

Completely awake.

For a moment, neither of us spoke.

Then she said,

“Girl, come back with me.”

The words were so cruel I almost struck her.

“No.”

“You won’t get out tonight.”

“I’m not going back.”

“You will die if you don’t.”

“I’d rather die running.”

Her face changed.

Something like grief passed through it.

“I said that too,” she whispered.

I stopped struggling.

Tessa looked toward the dark trees.

“I have lived in Wolf Hollow eighteen years. I have run through every road, every riverbed, every ridge. I have written letters. I have begged drivers. I have climbed into a police car.”

Her voice lowered.

“And every time, I woke up back in that shed.”

My skin went cold.

“The roads are watched. The patrols are family. Even some officers are theirs. You have been here less than a month. They left the back gate loose because they knew you would run.”

I could not breathe.

“If they catch you tonight,” she said, “tomorrow you will not be whole.”

The forest seemed to lean in around us.

For the first time since waking in the straw, I believed I might truly never leave.

Tessa took my hand.

Her fingers were cold and thin.

“Come back,” she said. “Not because you are giving up.”

She looked at me then.

Really looked.

“Because if you want to escape Wolf Hollow, you must stop running like prey.”

Her grip tightened.

“You must make them run first.”