Free White Space Season 2 by Platt + Wright Page B

cruel, dark world, with no hope of reply.

    TO BE CONTINUED…

::EPISODE 8::
    PROLOGUE — Sarah Hughes
    (Age 10)

    Hamilton Island, Washington

20 years ago

    “I think we should go, Cass,” Sarah said, trying not to sound whiney. “If we’re late, Mom’s not gonna let us out tomorrow.”
    “One more game,” Cassidy said. “Don’t be such a goodie-goodie.”
    “I’m not a goodie-goodie,” Sarah huffed, knowing that if they didn’t get home soon there was no way they’d be able to play chase again tomorrow. Mama had said so three times.
    Tommy and Eric laughed. Cassidy cringed, giving Sarah the same look she always gave when embarrassed to be with her. They were identical twins, but that rarely stopped Cassidy from making her feel like a stupid little sister.
    Sarah wished Cassidy wanted to play with her as much as she wanted to play with Cassidy, and wondered how much of her sister’s embarrassment was because Cass had a crush on Jonny Conway and didn’t want Sarah around to point out how differently she always acted around Jonny.
    Cassidy didn’t wait for Sarah to agree, assuming she would, since she pretty much always did. Cassidy leaned against the home base tree, set her forehead against her arm, closed her eyes, and started loudly counting.
    “One … Two … You all better run!”
    Sarah glared at her.
    We better not get in trouble!
    Sarah tore off into the woods, running as fast as she could. Like usual, she would wait until she heard Cassidy go after one of the boys, then sneak back and tag home. Or at least try. Sarah didn’t care if she got caught and was “it,” but knew it would be harder to get Cassidy home if she was supposed to be it next. Cassidy would make her feel like it was her duty to play another round.
    Sarah found a spot where she had successfully hidden a few times before. It was a bit far from home base, but felt safe — a thick cluster of trees she could easily circle around if she heard someone coming, and put immediate distance between herself and whoever was it. No one had ever found this particular spot. It was probably her best one, and definitely her favorite.
    For the most part, Sarah figured the spot was probably too far off for most of the others to consider checking. Usually she could hear what was happening over by base enough to let her know when she should start creeping back toward home. This time, however, several minutes passed with nothing but silence.
    The longer Sarah sat waiting for someone to find her, or to hear some sort of warning, the more she felt like maybe she made a mistake coming out so far, at least at the end of the game when they should have been getting ready to call it quits and go home. What if everyone but her reached home base safely? Then she’d be up against her sister. And while Sarah was faster than Cassidy, at least by a little, Cassidy was usually clever enough to find a way to catch her.
    Suddenly she heard laughter, Jonny loudly guffawing.
    “Good God, girl! You playing football?!”
    “You’re it!” Cassidy shouted, sounding proud to have caught Jonny.
    The rest of the group added their laughter to the chorus. Relieved, Sarah went to join them, but suddenly, her legs were frozen. She couldn’t move.
    What the?
    Sarah tried moving her feet, arms, anything, but couldn’t, as if her body had decided to ignore her. She was somehow paralyzed, or something . She wondered if she had been bitten by a poisonous spider, or perhaps a snake and had somehow not felt it. She could have touched a poisonous plant. The forest was filled with poison oak, maybe it was filled with something worse.
    Though Sarah couldn’t move her limbs — her hand just sort of hovered midair, almost mocking her — she could still feel twilight’s cool breeze as it brushed her body. And she could blink, and turn her head ever so slightly.
    Sarah opened her mouth, desperate to scream for the others, but it, too, betrayed her.
    Oh, my God, I can’t talk or