“Yeah, okay.” I turn the flashlight on and run down the trail that leads into the woods. It’s so dark that I can’t imagine Lilly coming back here. She’d be way too scared.
My heart is breaking just thinking of something bad happening to her. It makes me think of Garret’s comment about kids. If he ever had kids, is this how it would be? Always having to worry they might be kidnapped? Always having to watch over them, even in their own house?
“Lilly!” I continue to yell her name as I zigzag through the trees. I hear rustling in the leaves and stop briefly to check it out, but it’s just a squirrel. I wonder what other wildlife is out here. Crap! I forgot all about that. What if I run into a skunk? Or a raccoon? Or step on a snake? The thought makes me shudder. I take a deep breath and refocus on the task at hand. To find Lilly.
As I continue to search, images flash in my mind of her trapped in the back of a van, scared to death, wondering who has her and where they’re taking her. I quickly wipe the images from my brain. I’m not going to believe that. She has to be here on the property. That’s all I want to believe.
CHAPTERTWENTY-SIX
I’ve been searchingfor 15 minutes without any sign of Lilly. No pink mittens. No candy wrappers. No stuffed animals.
“Dammit, Lilly, give me something.” I say it aloud as I scan the ground with the flashlight. “Give me a sign that you’re out here. Anything.”
I yell her name even louder. I’m so scared for her. So worried that someone bad has her and that we’ll never see her again.
My voice is getting hoarse, but I continue to yell her name. I’m starting to lose hope as reality sets in. There’s no way she’d be out here. It’s way too cold, and way too dark and scary.
“Lilly! It’s Jade. If you hear me, yell really, really loud!”
I can’t see very far ahead, but I’m guessing I’m only halfway to the end of the property. I’ll keep going, but I really don’t think Lilly’s tiny legs could even make it that far. I get my phone out to call Garret and see where he’s at.
“Jade.” I hear my name but it’s very faint. The voice sounds far away.
“Jade.” It’s the same voice, still very faint. I put the phone in my pocket and start running toward where I think it’s coming from. The crunch of dead leaves under my feet is making it difficult to hear, so I stop for a moment. I hear it again. It doesn’t sound like Garret. It sounds like a little kid voice. It’s gotta be Lilly. It has to be.
“I’m coming, Lilly! Keep yelling, okay?”
I hear my name again and again as I get closer. As the voice gets louder I run faster, because I know Lilly’s here somewhere in front of me and I have to get to her to make sure the voice isn’t just my mind playing tricks on me.
Just as I hear my name again, my foot catches on something and sends me crashing to the ground, my knee banging and sliding against a large rock and my head hitting a fallen log. I see stars for a few seconds and my knee is seething with pain that shoots up and down my leg.
“Jade?” I hear a tiny voice as a little hand touches the side of my face. The hand is icy cold.
“Lilly!” I flip over on my back and the pain in my leg grows even worse. I sit up and pull Lilly into my arms. She has a sleeping bag wrapped around her but she’s shivering. “What are you doing out here? Everyone’s been looking for you.” I hold her close to my body, trying to give her my warmth. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“I’m scared.” She shivers in my arms. “It’s too dark. And there’s monsters out here and they—”
“There’s no monsters. They all left. I told them to go home and never come back here again.”
“You did?” I see her looking up at me in the light of the flashlight which landed on the ground when I fell. She looks relieved, like she actually believes my monster story.
“Why are you out here, Lilly?”
“I’m running away.”
“Why?”
“Because Mom and Dad fight all the time and I don’t like it.”
“I know, but you can’t run away like that. You can’t—” I stop because it’s not the time to lecture her. We both need to get inside. I lie back slightly to get my phone from my pocket, still holding on to Lilly.
“Garret, I’ve got her,” I say when he picks up.
He lets out a huge sigh of relief. “Where are you?”
“I’m not sure.” I reach over for the flashlight and move it around. A few feet away I see a clearing and the top of a small hill. “We’re by the hill where we took Lilly sledding.”
“Okay. Wait in the clearing. I’ll meet you there.”
