Free A Stitch on Time 5 by Yolanda Sfetsos Page A

Until recently—when she stopped replying.
    “Oh, thank god you answered. I’ve been trying for ages,” she said, paused and added, “I need to make this quick, before he figures out I called you.”
    “Lee, what’re you talking about? Where have you been?” Lee had been good friends with Mara and Daisy, who’d both recently died because of the Council. After finding a bunch of catchers in danger of having their souls ripped out of their bodies, I discovered Lee hadn’t been one of the girls who’d perished. She was on Roe’s MIA-catcher list, and we hadn’t been able to find a single person yet. “I’ve been trying to call, and emailed you heaps of times—”
    “Sorry about that, I’ve been in hiding.” She lowered her voice to a hiss. “I tried to approach you a few weeks ago but you’re hardly ever alone, girl. And now, it’s too late. I can’t go anywhere.”
    “What the hell does that mean?”
    She sighed. “Look, I’m not sure if you know what’s been going on at the Tower, but the shit’s really hit the fan and I need your help. We need your…now—”
    A crackling noise resonated down the line, distorting the sound. “What was that?”
    “That’s why I’m calling.”
    “Lee, just tell me what’s going on.” I was starting to get a really bad feeling about this. The fact she claimed to be hiding, coupled with the distortions and her jumbled words made me nervous.
    “I snuck into the building about three weeks ago to grab my stuff and instead got caught.” Her breathing became heavy, voice sounded distorted—like a dodgy long-distance connection. “Did Henry get in touch with you?”
    “Yeah, he did.” My head was starting to spin. Henry had tried to talk to me about the dangerous spook energy trapped inside the Tower. He didn’t get the chance to reveal much before Vixen shot him in the head, silencing him forever.
    “Why haven’t you come then?” Her words were muffled. “And why didn’t he come back? He was supposed to make sure this didn’t happen to me.”
    “You were working with Henry?”
    “Sure, I tried to help him sort this out, but I’m not strong enough. I got myself…” The crackling swallowed up the rest of her words.
    “Lee, are you still there? Lee? ”
    She continued, as if she hadn’t been interrupted. “Sierra, we’re stuck. And I mean, really stuck. We need your help.”
    “Okay, fine. I’ll come and get you.”
    “Shh,” she hissed. Silence filled the line between us for several moments, before something like the sound of a fax machine cut in. “Oh shit!”
    I pulled the phone away from my ear until the noise cleared. “What’s going on?”
    “These assholes, they keep…” Her voice trailed off.
    “Lee!” This phone call was beyond frustrating.
    “Okay, listen to me, Sierra.” Her voice was suddenly so crisp it felt like she was standing right beside me. “I don’t have time to explain, all I can ask is that you come to the Spook Catcher Council to help us.”
    I swallowed the lump forming in my throat. “I’ll do whatever it takes to get you out—”
    “No,” she interrupted. “You need to get into the building, and go straight to the councilor offices, okay?”
    “What…why?”
    “Just promise me you’ll go straight to the councilor’s office floor!”
    “Okay, okay, I’ll go.” My hair stood on end. I looked around because the prickling sensation made me feel like I wasn’t alone in the hallway anymore.
    “Good. Don’t forget you promised…”
    “I won’t, but I don’t understand why you don’t want me to get you guys—”
    “We do, but before you can help us, you have to help them .” Lee hung up, leaving me staring at the handset in confusion. What just happened? So many questions spun inside my head.
    “Is everything all right?”
    I placed the handset back into its cradle and looked up to find Oren standing in front of me. I hadn’t even heard him approach or shut the front