Free Chills & Thrills: Three Novel Box Set by A. K. Alexander Page B

very well.
    Was she feeling my energy at all?
    Moments passed like this. I don’t know how many. And then, a whisper...
    “Mom?” I heard her say. “No. You’re not my mom. Who are you?”
    At first I thought she was talking to someone in the room.
    “I said who are you? I know you are listening. I need help.”
    Oh my God. “I’m here to help,” I replied both in my mind and out loud. “I am. I know where your mom is. Can you tell me where you are?”
    “Who are you ?”
    I could her the distrust in her “voice.”
    “I’m Kylie and I am an audial. One of my guides is the dolphin and another the hawk. How about you?”
    “I like the tiger moth.”
    I smiled. “Good. Me, too.” Having this information would help if we lost contact. “Can you tell me where you are? I am on my way to help you.”
    “I don’t know. The room is big and fancy. It’s pretty, too.”
    “Are there windows?”
    “Yes, but they’re a funny shape, like a pointed arch. The ceilings are painted and tiled. I am tied to the bed.”
    My heart broke at hearing this.
    Hope continued, her words fading. “There’s something else.”
    “What? Stay with me Hope. I am on my way.”
    “The room is like a room in a movie. It’s like something out of The Adventures of Tintin .”
    “What else can you tell me? Hope?”
    She didn’t respond, and I had lost the rhythm of her breathing.
    I tried to contact her again and got nothing. I would have to try and work with the tiger moth, but needed to share this with the guys in case they had any ideas. I stood up and headed to the front of the plane to join them. “I got something.”
    “We got something, too,” Noah replied.
    “Ladies first,” Ayden insisted.
    “I was able to converse with Hope. She claims she’s somewhere fancy, pretty, and it looks like a movie. She says the windows are oddly arched and there are tiles on the ceiling. She said it reminded her of The Adventures of Tintin .”
    Ayden snapped his fingers and stood up, going to the cockpit door. He opened it, and I heard him say, “We need to go to Morocco.”
    He turned back to us and shrugged. “In 2011, Spielberg did an animated movie of The Adventures of Tintin . The kid and dog wind up in a port in Morocco. Good news is that I know that town like the back of my hand.”
    “Oh, holy hell,” Noah blurted.
    I started laughing. “Now, your turn. Do tell...what do you have?”
     
     
     
    Chapter Seventeen
     
     
    Hope sat up in bed, confused.
    Only occasionally had she had a remote conversation with another audial. Truth was, most audials were not powerful enough to communicate long distance. Sure, they could listen long distance—and often not accurately—but most were not able to establish a long-distance connection.
    Although their connection had been lost, Hope still sensed a hawk nearby, sitting vigilantly on a branch, watching out for her, waiting for her. She saw the hawk in her mind’s eye. A beautiful red-tailed creature protecting her. Hope, for the first time in many days, felt just that, hope .
    Whoever had communicated to her was powerful...almost as powerful as Hope. That made her smile. Hope wanted to meet such a woman...and she had sounded so kind, so sincere, so strong.
    Yes, Hope very much wanted to meet her audial equivalent.
    Back at the School, a place that Hope hated, she had quickly surpassed that of her fellow students...and most of the teachers. There was one who could still match her, but Hope was certain that with each passing day she was leaving him behind. She didn’t like him. He was mean and had cold eyes. If anything, Hope was glad to be away from him.
    Mr. Simms was kinder, but he’d changed recently. He went from being friendly and kind enough, to...distracted. Moody. Hope quit wanting to be around him, too.
    Which is why she had planned her great escape.
    She had planned it carefully, down to the last detail. She had even drawn a map of her escape route. A lot had hinged on