A missing girl. A world of secrecy. A quest to expose the truth.
Jayne knows they’re gone, but no one else will acknowledge what’s happening.
One by one, they’re systematically erased from existence. No explanations. No missing person’s reports. No search parties.
Something sinister is afoot. Jayne can feel it in her bones. But uncovering the truth will prove difficult, especially when she discovers who and what is behind the devious plot.
As she searches for answers, she grapples with the lingering effects of a head injury, an unexpected forbidden romance, and a strange new reality that changes everything.
Will she uncover the truth, or will she be the next innocent victim?
My lungs are on fire. My heart hammers. Muscles burn with fatigue, and my ankles threaten to twist and throw me sideways onto the muddy grass.
But I must keep going. Up and up, dodging the mounds and dips which almost got me last time.
My running suit feels cold against my chafed, swollen legs. The blood pumping through me reverberates in my ears, almost drowning out the residual pitying whispers which accompany the sidelong glances. They greet me everywhere I go now.
Except here.
My solitary wilderness.
One stupid mistake, and I’m Jayne, reduced to cold and judgemental gossip at the school lockers. Not front-page news but not forgotten either. Never. Forgotten.
I stamp harder into the soft ground with each thought and push onward. The sky is a menacing grey on the hill’s horizon.
I look up and take a fresh icy gust to the face.
I’m not what they think I am. No way will I let them relegate me to town freak before I’m even eighteen. I’m so much more than that, and everyone will see. I’m sure of it.
I gasp against a razor-sharp breath. My chest finally refuses to open to full capacity. My lungs don’t feed my muscles the oxygen they need for my next step.
Thunk.
The refreshing grass embraces my tired body with a sweet scent of approaching summer, and I roll onto my back, heaving for air. The blurry stopwatch ticked over my previous record nine seconds ago, and I’m not even at the top yet.
A scream wants to rip out of my chest, but I hold it in, too tired to think, let alone shout at the wind. I’m alone on this barren hill. Windswept and almost dark, no one comes here but me and the occasional blackbird. But I resent showing my weakness even to the birds.
I lay for a few seconds and then stand on wobbly legs. A blanket of lights stretches out flickering ahead of me, all the way to the harbour on the other side of town. My pulse slows a few paces, and I inhale deep again, in through the nose, out through the mouth. First thing I learned in cross-country running. That and don’t lose.
I swipe a wet smudge of dirt off my knees and take tentative steps down the hill. So, I didn’t beat the record I set for myself eight months ago. I’ll still trash anyone who tries to race me. Let’s see the condescension on their faces then.
I’m on the steepest part of the slope. It can be perilous even in daylight to descend it without knowing exactly where to place each step. A tiny tug on the pit of my stomach dares me to jump. I almost smile at the thought, but instead, I scramble down the steep, slippery bank.
The wind flattens my bangs across my forehead and whips the ends into my eyes. I rub the water out of them. Freeze.
My first instinct is to duck down as the tail end of a voice carries across on the wind. Somewhere near the bottom, out of sight. I don’t know what it’s saying, but it’s female, and it’s getting closer.
Tucking my long hair back behind my ears, I strain to listen above the wail of the wind. Can I catch a word or two of the approaching conversation? Hunkering down in a small dip, my black running suit camouflages against the darkening foliage. My mind lurches with paranoid thoughts.
The walls of my anxiety close in until I’m crouching so low, I’m almost embedded in the grass. My hair flicks up in the wind, and I grab it back down, though the coloured streaks will probably signal my location anyway.
“You can’t force me to do anything!” The last word tapers off, shaky and weak.
I recognise the voice. It’s Laura from school. I crane my neck and squint over the top of the nearby scattered boulders. But where is she? And who is she talking to?
Are they here because of me? Laura knows my running route – she’s been vocal of my attempts to scramble up this hill – but this can’t be a follow-on to what happened in school today? What will they think if they see me hiding?
The urge to stand up tugs at me. To carry on down the slope and mind my own business. But what if Laura sees me? How could I pop out of nowhere and continue along my way, pretending I don’t notice her? I don’t need even more hushed conversations and lowered eyes in the corridors of Hill Derry tomorrow.
I’m also not in the mood for another run-in with her.
I wipe away a lone, wind-induced tear on my cheek. The howl of the wind is picking up and carrying away Laura’s words.
All I hear is the despair in her voice. “Why are you doing this?”
The fear. “Please, wait. Let’s go back–”
Who is she with? I’ve seen her hanging with a lanky fella with white hair after school, but… should I go after her?
Do I want to find myself in another argument and fight?
The feet and voices grow faint and are replaced by the whistle of the wind. Billowing clouds chase across the dark sky. Peering down from my hiding place, an urgency compels me to follow Laura, as a gust of wind echoes with her voice.
Wait a minute, was that a shout? A scream? I’m on my toes as I move forward quickly but warily.
I search the street around me, but I’m alone. There’s nobody to ask for assistance. Even if there were, would I bother asking? Probably not.
There, another shout. I should leave them to it, but a worrying curiosity sweeps me along, following Laura’s voice. I can’t make out what she is saying, but it’s an angry, albeit shrill tone. I know Laura, and that is a scared voice. She’s hiding fear behind a veil of angry words.
I stop at the corner to an alleyway. They’ll see me should I turn the corner, and all the anger will become aimed at me. A bus charges past and almost erases the shouting, but between the sounds of heavy wheels and metal, I catch a snippet of Laura’s words.
“Why don’t you just jump in your stupid sh… and …-off to another galaxy!”
Whoever she is with has not uttered a raised word. All I hear is a male mumble of sorts. He’s obviously trying to calm her. But then an unwitting cough escapes me. I grasp my mouth, but then it happens.
My knees buckle, and my head spins as my vision darkens. What’s going on? It’s as though my head has been dipped in water but then comes a flash. I can’t see where, but I’m sure it came from the alleyway.
Has Laura spotted me and has taken a picture of me, cowering here in the darkness, with her cell phone? I’ll be a laughing-stock in school tomorrow. Before the night’s out even.
She’ll upload this to her digital landfill of social media with me the victim. Oh, why did I follow her? Have your stupid argument, but leave me out of it.
What’s that? Footsteps.
My head stings and buzzes with the dark, thickness of the air around me. I’m paralysed, but I’m aware of someone crouching over me. My mouth won’t form words. I can’t raise my gaze towards whoever is looking at me. Leaden lifelessness pins my arms to my sides.
Then the darkness is broken by a voice. Hushed and distorted by the giddiness ebbing through my head.
“Stupid human.”
A boy’s voice.
It could be seconds or minutes, but the wave passes, and my head clears as the chilly air slaps me back to attention. My lungs burn as I gasp through chattering teeth. I must have been holding my breath.
Did I pass out?
I scan around me. Alone again. I push myself to shivering legs and peer down the dark, lonely alleyway. Empty. Laura and the boy are gone.
Where did they go?
What has just happened?
My tired legs hobble along the street and past the hill.
Dense trees, arcing from the top to the bottom of the hill, and to the left of me sway. Their leaves play eerie music of their own.
Shadows from the thicket stretch out long across the open grassland, threatening to reach me soon.