Free Dark Visions by Jonas Saul

with the support of the car. The effort
caused pain to flare up in her face where he had hit her.
    She knew she couldn't outrun him. He was
watching her and she was sure his minute deadline was looming. No
point in testing him so early.
    She started for the cabin door. How could
the precognition be so wrong? Why was she here?
    She knew she was eighteen, but she felt
small and needy.
    After all the people she had saved, who was
coming to save her?
     

Chapter 18
     
    "I can't get an answer. No one's picking up
the phone," Amelia said as she replaced the receiver. "It's been an
hour since we got the text."
    Caleb got up and grabbed his cell. He
flipped open the cover and started pressing buttons.
    "What're you doing?"
    "Why didn't I think of it before? I don't
know how I missed it. When we sent those replies to the phone where
the text came from, asking them to call us, I forgot that it's
another cell phone. Whoever sent us that message used a cell that I
can call."
    Caleb's thumb worked the tiny keys. "There,
got it."
    Caleb felt his wife watching him as he
lifted the phone to his ear. They both waited. He looked at her and
shook his head back and forth.
    "Machine". He dropped the phone from his
ear. "Dead end."
    "Well, what do we do now?" Amelia asked. She
rubbed her hands together as if she was putting lotion on them. "I
can't sit around. Sarah isn't home and its past midnight." She
stood up and grabbed the phone again. "I'm calling the police. I
don't care what they're going to say."
    Caleb didn't try to stop her.
    The phone rang in her hand. She jumped and
swung her head to look at Caleb. He motioned for her to answer it.
She shook her head and handed the phone to him.
    "Hello?"
    "My name is Jack Bennett. I'm sorry if I've
disturbed you at such an hour. I'm calling every number on my
daughter's phone to see if I can find her."
    "You mean your daughter's missing?" Caleb
asked.
    "She's out past her curfew. Actually, she
was home, but has snuck out of her bedroom. I'm calling around to
see if anyone who knows her would tell me where she may be."
    "What's your daughter's name?"
    "Mary Bennett. Have you spoken to her? Do
you have a daughter who would know where she is?"
    Caleb talked with Jack for a few minutes. It
was assumed that both girls were probably together. Something all
teenagers did, and since the police told Mr. Bennett he couldn't
file a missing persons report yet, they all decided to wait until
the morning. It was agreed that if one of the daughters contacted
any of them, they would phone each other.
    Caleb said goodbye and hung up. He forgot to
ask why Jack hadn't picked up the phone when they'd called his
number over the last hour.
    Caleb tried to talk Amelia into resting on
the bed. She refused to go to sleep with her daughter still out.
Instead she turned on the television and sat staring at it. Caleb
figured she wasn't really tuning in to the retro game show blaring
out how to win ten thousand dollars.
    A half hour later he stepped into the living
room to find her asleep sitting up, her head dangling to the
side.
    He'd been waiting for her to fall asleep. He
had a phone call he wanted to make in private. A certain someone
who would know where Sarah might be.
    He made his way to the basement, and dialed
the number he had in his cell memory.
     

Chapter 19
     
    Esmerelda rolled off and knelt down beside
her bed. She glared along the narrow hallway of her trailer.
    She was sure she heard something; a knock or
a bang of some kind.
    Then it came again. A soft rapping on the
trailer door. A man whispered her name. She looked over at the
digital alarm clock.
    It read 3:14am.
    Who would be at her door at this hour?
    She walked down the hall until she reached a
window, parted the curtains and looked out. She felt reasonably
sure whoever was standing outside wouldn't see her because she
didn't have any lights on.
    It was the security guard from the gate. He
had a teenage girl with him.
    He knocked again.
    Esmerelda