Free Falling by J Bennett Page A

pull
the lock back slowly on the window and catch it behind my hand. My muscles are
all clenching hard to my bones. This is probably a bad idea. I can’t really go
back, I know that. Ryan isn’t waiting for me. Doctors can’t stitch up these new
tears in my hands. Tarren might be working on a cure, but Tarren also wants to
kill me. He and his brother spend their days running around murdering people. I
will go out into the night, and I will run. I don’t care what happens after
that.
    I tug on the glass panel, and it slides open with a squeal
of protest. Tarren raises his head and blinks. Our eyes meet.
    In the second it takes his tired mind to realize what’s
happening, I leap through the window.
    Land.
    Run.
     

Chapter 16
    The humid night air moves grudgingly into my lungs as I tear
through the empty back roads of this town and cut into a wooded field. I can
hear the faint hiss of the highway in the distance. This feels like flying. My
strides are long and graceful, and I feel, really feel my new body in motion. I
am giddy with fear. This is some kind of mix between dreaming and reality. The
song is playing, always playing, but now it seems to be encouraging me. I feel
strong.
    I pause, pulling air into my lungs and try to regain my
bearings. The night is dark, but my eyes cut right through it. I’ve run at
least a couple of miles, and the highway is close.
    “Don’t move.”
    Tarren comes up behind me, gun leveled. He is gasping for
breath, trying to hide it. His long-sleeved shirt is soaked with sweat and
clinging to his body. He is spent; I can see it in the wavering energy field
that hugs close to his body. The pained scarlet is more prominent.
    “You’re coming back. Now,” he says, but his words melt away
in the glow of his energy. I know that I could outrun him, but suddenly I don’t
want to. The run has drained me; I need fuel.
    “You won’t shoot me,” I say. “You promised Gabe.”
    “Gabe isn’t here,” Tarren replies.
    “On your mother’s grave,” and this is becoming fun. He’s
trapped, but he doesn’t know it yet. Something dark and cruel is uncurling
inside of me. I want to break his calm. I want to see him afraid. “But she
isn’t here either is she?” I say.
    “Don’t you dare…” he whispers. I take a step closer.
    “Does it comfort you to think she’s in Heaven watching out
for you and your little brother? Keeps you going, huh? She’s not anywhere
Tarren. Or your father. They’re both worm shit rotting in…”
    “Shut up!” His face is taunt with rage, and that’s how I
win. I leap. He fires. His concentration is off, and he is a second too slow. A
second is an achingly long time. The bullet hisses by my left ear just as my
knee catches his shoulder. We hit the ground together. The gun skitters away.
Tarren lands on his back, me on top of him. I hear the air kick out of his
lungs, see the scarlet pulse around his body. He twists under me, gasping for
breath and throwing a protective arm over his ribs. Now I know where he’s
injured. I put my hands on his chest and slam him back, hard into the ground.
He shudders in pain and lays stunned, red crackling all around him.
    “I know what you are,” Tarren rasps. “Go ahead. Prove it.”
    There is a strange glint of relief in his face. He closes
his eyes and waits, and the shame comes like a sudden rain soaking right
through me. I feel sodden with it. Cold. Ryan, hiding in the trees, shakes his
head, and I see myself as I must look to him in this moment; the precipice I am
traipsing.
    I fight against the hunger, but it’s like trying to push
away a tidal wave.
    Tarren opens his eyes. “Do it,” he says. It almost sounds
like a plea.
    “I am in control,” I tell him through gritted teeth. This is
where I should finish with a noble speech about inner strength and the power of
belief, but I can’t think of anything more. I’m too damn hungry, and this isn’t
a B horror flick after all. I stand up and take a wobbly