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  Macy kept turning and running, trying to keep up with Luke. Her legs burned even worse than before, but she didn't let that stop her.

  Eventually, she was sure that they had lost Chester.

  Macy slowed down, breathing heavily. Even that burned, just like everything else. Luke turned and looked at her, appearing out of breath, too.

  She stopped and put her hands on her legs, trying to catch her breath. Had they actually lost Chester? Even if they had, they needed to keep going.

  She thought she heard something come her way, so she jumped up, grabbed Luke's hand and ran. She brushed past more thorns, beginning to wonder if they were only going in circles.

  Leaves rustled behind them, and then she heard heavy breathing. Not only were they lost, but Chester had managed to find them again.

  Macy put more energy into her run. When they got a fork in the path, she tried to remember which direction they came from, but everything looked the same. Luke tugged on her arm, going right.

  They came to another fork and turned left. After about only five steps, she slammed into someone—it had to be Chester. Macy looked up and saw him, the moonlight gleaming against his lenses.

  He reached out and grabbed her. "Finally, I got you, Heather. It's time to go home and discuss your punishment. For your sake, I hope the prophets don't want to get involved. I'll go a lot easier on you than them."

  Macy squirmed, kicking at him. "Yeah, I bet you will."

  Chester dug his fingers into her arms. "You know I will."

  She turned her head and bit into his wrist as hard as she could. She could taste blood, but she continued to bite down even harder.

  "Let go of her." Luke punched Chester across the face.

  He ripped his arm from her mouth and then lunged for Luke, who moved out of the way causing Chester to land on the ground with a thud.

  Macy spit the blood out, wiping it on her white shirt.

  Luke grabbed onto her arm and she ran, stumbling over her feet. She caught herself before falling and ran as fast as she could. But she only got a couple yards before she felt a tugging on her shirt, which made her gag.

  Chester pulled her so close she could smell the strong community soap on him. "Stop fighting me. I lost you once, and that's not going to happen again—ever." He pulled on the shirt again, choking her. She pushed against him, kicking. She was aiming for his crotch, but couldn't reach at the angle he held her.

  Luke ran at them, but Chester pulled a gun out with his free hand and shoved it in Luke's face.

  "No!" Macy begged.

  She twisted her body and forced herself down at an angle that forced him to loosen his grip. She gasped for air and ran. Luke grabbed her arm and they ran together.

  Chester was barely a few steps behind. He kept reaching for her. She could feel his fingers rub against her back, unable to grab onto her shirt.

  Macy picked up her speed, ignoring the pain in her lungs. She still hadn't gotten her breath fully back after his choking her. She gasped for air, not really able to get any decent breaths.

  The path ended right in front of her, so she couldn't turn anywhere. Not having time to process that, she slammed into a tree. Chester pinned her against it, wrapping his arms around her.

  He forced the gun into her temple.

  "Get out of here, Luke, or I'll kill her."

  "You wouldn't."

  "Would you like to find out?" Chester asked. Something on the gun clicked.

  Macy let out a cry.

  "Macy, I can't leave you," Luke said.

  "Go," Macy begged. "Save yourself."

  "No, save her," Chester said. "Get out of here or you'll be wearing her brains, kid."

  "Find a way out and finish our plan," Macy said.

  Chester moved the gun toward Luke. "I changed my mind. There's no reason for me to let you go."

  "Don't!" screamed Macy. "Run, Luke. Please."

  "Oh, aren't you two cute?" Chester asked. He shoved the gun against Macy's temple. "You'd better leave now, Luke. My finger's about to slip."

  Fear covered Luke's face. "I'll be back for you." Luke held her eye contact for a moment and then ran out of sight.

  Macy couldn't move her arms or upper body. She couldn't even reach down to bite him again. However, she could still kick, so that's what she did. She kicked him as hard as she could, screaming at the top of her lungs.

  "Do you really think that's going to help anything, Heather? Like I said, you should hope the prophets don't get involved with your punishment."

  Macy squirmed and twisted, barely able to move. She twisted and swayed, finally getting a little room. She elbowed him in the stomach, and he let out a gasp, momentarily loosening his grip. Macy ran away from him, but when she looked back, he was already running after her.

  Turning her head back around, she picked up her speed. As soon as she felt a tug on her shirt again, she ran faster, but his grip made her stumble, and she found herself falling straight for the ground. She put her hands out to protect her face from the impending dirt.

  Dirt flew into Macy's eyes as her face hit the ground. Chester landed next to her with a thud. She wiped at her eyes frantically, the dirt burning them.

  Chester wrapped his arms around her so tightly she could barely breathe. She struggled against him while still trying to get the painful flecks out of her eyes. Unable to see, she shoved her hands in his face, hoping to throw off his glasses again.

  "It's not much fun when you can't see, is it? Funny how fast karma acts at times."

  Macy threw her weight against him, kicking and clawing at him, hating him all the more for that comment. Somehow the last piece of dirt finally flew from her eye, but she still couldn't see because her eyes watered so much.

  "Oh, did I make you cry? Or do you actually have remorse for running away?"

  "No!" She fought back harder, but he just laughed and then somehow managed to stand up and pull her up, too.

  "It's over, Heather. You need to give up."

  "I'm not Heather." She kicked, hit, and squirmed more. Her feet weren't touching the ground, making it all the more difficult.

  "We're back to that again, are we? You know you're Heather. I don't know why you keep fighting me. You must have learned disobedience from your first mom." He stopped and stared into her eyes. "Do you want to know what that got her? She's dead. Heather, your mom isn't in Paris, living the high life with some guy named Jacques. That's what happens to people who refuse to obey me. Don't think you're immune, either. You'd do well to learn from your true mom."

  "I knew it! I knew you killed Karla, too." She kneed him in the crotch and he let out a yell, loosening his grip.

  Macy stumbled as her feet hit the ground. Anger flashed over his face, but she ran away from him while she had the chance. Her only hope was finding her way to Luke and then getting out of the woods.

  Macy took a few turns, pretty sure that she was going the way she came, but it was hard to tell with the paths being worse than a maze. She went a while without running into any intersecting paths. Finally, she ran into another wall of trees, too thick to get through. She stopped, gasping for air and listening for Chester.

  If she couldn't get away from Chester, would this be it for her? Was it really over?

  Macy heard running. She froze. Where was Chester? She walked down the path until she reached another one and then she looked around. Chester was nowhere to be seen. She could still hear fast footsteps somewhere close, but she couldn't see anything. Macy knew she had to keep moving. If she didn't, he would definitely find her again.

  Still breathing deeply, she walked down the path. She could still hear the running, but it sounded far enough away that she was safe, at least for the time being. She couldn't get out of the forest on her own. Hopefully Luke was close by.

  The footsteps sounded closer. Did they belong to Luke or Chester? Macy stopped again. She couldn't even tell where they came from. She held her breath.

  She couldn't hear anymor
e running. It was her only chance. Macy burst into a run, not giving herself the chance to over-think anything. Maybe her instincts would take her where she needed to go. She ran, not seeing anyone.

  As she passed two intersecting paths, she saw Chester from the corner of her eyes. Her stomach twisted in knots, but before she even had the chance to pick up speed, he leaped toward her and grabbed at her again. She could feel his fingers brush against her side, but he didn't get her or her shirt.

  Macy ran faster, but tripped over something. Stumbling, she regained her balance, but she could sense Chester behind her. He wasn't going to give up. She felt his fingers again. Then a tugging on her shirt. He had managed to grasp it again. Macy picked up speed, feeling the resistance.

  She had layers. Let him rip the shirt off. At an intersection, she turned without warning. Macy could still feel his hold as she took another sharp turn.

  Chester yanked on her shirt. Macy pulled the other way and somehow ended up landing on the ground again. She closed her eyes, not getting anything in them. She could feel the ground scrape against her face as she slid, stopping only inches from a large boulder.

  He landed on top of Macy, knocking the wind out of her. He grabbed a chunk of her hair and yanked her head back. "You need to make a choice, and you need to make it now. Stop fighting me. It's your only choice, really. Unless you actually want to join Dorcas and your first mom."

  Macy couldn't answer. She still couldn't get a decent breath. She felt the gun pressed against her head again.

  "Silence is not an option, Heather. Either you're on my side or not."

  Macy refused to speak. He couldn't make her.

  "Do you need some convincing, Heather?"

  Macy didn't say anything. She heard a horrible popping sound and then felt a searing pain in her leg.

  "Want me to break the other one?" He moved off her.

  This was her last chance. She got up and ran, but as soon as her sore leg hit the ground, she felt an even worse pain. Macy lost her balance and fell into a patch of pricker bushes.

  Dark

  Macy opened her eyes, but still didn't see anything because of the darkness. She felt around. Softness surrounded her. She had to have been in a bed.

  She couldn't still be in the community. It didn't feel like that hard, uncomfortable bed. That one had been stiff and the bedding smelled like that awful soap they used for everything. She pulled a blanket up to her face. It had a light, pleasant scent. She didn't recognize it, so she couldn't be back at the farm house or in her own bed, either.

  Where was she?

  Macy tried to move her legs, but only one would comply.

  A fire came to mind, and then the escaping in the woods only to be found by Chester again. She couldn't remember anything after that. Had Chester caught her?

  Macy looked around the room, hoping that her eyes would have adjusted, but she still couldn't see a thing. She sat up. She hadn't gone blind, had she?

  She felt her eyes and they were fine. Macy breathed a sigh of relief. She felt her left leg. Something hard covered it. It had to have been a cast. Had she been in a hospital? She couldn't be in one, because she knew they never kept rooms pitch black.

  Leaning back down, Macy decided not to worry about it. She appeared to be safe, at least for the time being. The bed smelled clean and was comfortable. Even more important, Chester didn't appear to be nearby.

  Feeling sleepy, she closed her eyes. She thought of Luke. Had he been able to get out of the forest? He wouldn't have returned to the community, would he?

  She felt tears gearing up. Why had she insisted on leaving the community that night? Dorcas would still be alive, and she would at least have been able to see Luke at school. And what had happened to the kids at campsite?

  The light came on, assaulting her eyes. Macy covered them with her arm. She heard someone moving around in the room. Did they know she had woken?

  Macy moved her arm away from her eyes, but the light was still too bright. She blinked several times. The light finally felt normal so she looked around.

  Rebekah stood folding clothes with her back to Macy.

  "Where am I?" Macy asked.

  Rebekah turned around. She wore plain but colored clothes and had her hair down, making her look even prettier than she had with the white garb.

  "Your dad said you might not recognize it here since it had been so long. This is your old room, Heather."

  Macy looked around. They weren't at the farm house. It had to be the house that Heather had been in when her mom had gone missing. Could this be the room where she had written her diaries before being taken to a mental hospital?

  She looked around at the furniture. The dresser was the one that had been in her room in the farm house. She had found one of Heather's diaries in there. Macy recognized the shelf full of books and DVDs where she had found another diary.

  "What's going on?" she asked.

  "I'm folding your clothes. You're supposed to rest." Rebekah sounded mad.

  "Is my leg broken?"

  Rebekah continued with the clothes. "I wouldn't know. We wrapped it up, but aren't taking you to the hospital. It'll have to heal on its own, whatever's wrong with it. Your knee swelled badly, so my guess is that it's sprained."

  "Why are we here?"

  She turned and stared at Macy. "Because of what you did."

  "What?"

  Anger covered her face. "I did everything I could to help you feel at home in the community. I even kept your friendship with Luke a secret, but I never would have if I had known what you two were plotting."

  "Why aren't we back there?"

  "Why? Because we got kicked out. All of us. Because of you."

  "Even you? Couldn't you have—?"

  "No, I couldn't. Marriage is forever. Where my husband goes, I follow. So, here we are. Back in the world. But you're staying in the house for a while. Even if you weren't stuck here because of that leg, he said you're to stay in the house. You're not going anywhere for a long time, Heather."

  Disagree

  Chad published his latest post, this one a regular sports post. As much as it had killed him, a couple weeks before, he had to stop the daily postings about Macy. There were only so many ways he could spin the same thing, and it had been weeks since there was anything new to report. Not only that, but his page views were going down, which meant that people had either lost interest or given up on ever finding her.

  He wasn't going to give up on her, but at the same time, he had to find a way to move on with his life until she returned. And part of that meant taking care of the rest of the family. Alyssa had become more distraught as time went by. It was nearly spring, and Macy had been gone since before Thanksgiving.

  Chad checked for new comments and responded right away. His heart wasn't in it, but he wrote with his typical humor on the sports posts. The comments on his Macy posts had moved from sad condolences to theories and people sharing what clues they thought they had found. His response to the clues was telling people to contact the cops if they thought it was real.

  Chad picked up his phone, looking for any missed calls or texts. Detective Fleshman was supposed to get back to him that morning. They still didn't have any results from the DNA of the young Jane Doe in the morgue. The first set had been compromised somehow and the next batch had come up inconclusive. Chad certainly didn't understand the medical mumbo-jumbo he and Alyssa had been told. All he knew was that they didn't have the answers they desperately needed.

  Would they ever have the results? The body had to be decomposing, even though they probably had ways to slow the process.

  The screen in front of him was blurry. It was time for a break. He got up and stretched before going upstairs.

  Alex and Zoey sat at the kitchen table with text books, papers, and laptops spread all over the table.

  "How's the studying?"

  Alex scowled. "I hate history. How is it relevant? Math at least makes sense."

  Chad patt
ed Alex's head. "They say those who don't learn history are doomed to repeat it."

  "Whatever." Alex went back to his work.

  Zoey looked up. "Any word from the police?"

  "Not yet."

  Her face fell. "When are we going to know?"

  Chad pulled some leftovers out from the fridge. "Wish I knew." He scooped some food onto a plate and put it in the microwave. "I keep checking my phone. They have to get some results this time. The third time's a charm, right?"

  "I hope so. Or we'll have to wait even longer."

  Alex got up and grabbed a pop. "Maybe by then she'll be back home and it won't matter. We all know that dead chick isn't Macy."

  "We hope it's not her," Zoey said.

  "It's not." Alex sat down, twisted the cap off and drank.

  Zoey rubbed her stomach, looking sad.

  Chad tried not to think about what was under her over-sized shirt—his grandchild. He was barely past forty and he had to think about being a grandparent. It was crazy, but nothing was harder to believe than his thirteen year old becoming a dad. He still couldn't wrap his mind around that one.

  "When do your parents get in, Zoey?" asked Chad.

  She made a face. "Don't remind me. I wish she'd just stay in Japan with him. Maybe they'll get into a big fight and he'll decide not to come here. Why do you ask? You trying to get rid of me?"

  "What?" Chad asked. "No. You're always welcome here. Just like always." Why did he feel like he was digging himself into a hole? "Do you want anything while I'm up?"

  "No, but thanks." Zoey went back to her studies. They were both doing an online homeschooling program because they couldn't deal with the social pressures and everything else.

  The microwave beeped and Chad got his food and then escaped to the bonus room. He turned on the TV and the news came on. After about fifteen minutes, he realized that they hadn't once mentioned Macy. That made him almost as upset as when they wouldn't stop talking about her. He wasn't sure which was worse.

  Alyssa walked by the doorway and then doubled back and sat down next to him. "Did you hear from Fleshman yet?"