Page 45 of The Claiming

The first thing I do is rip off the hood before turning my attention to Siri and as I crawl after her, she squeals when I touch her. “It’s me, Siri,” I remind her and whisper, “Okay. Keep a clear head and keep crawling until you reach a dead end.”

It doesn’t take long before she collides with one of the others and a muffled voice yells, “There’s nowhere to go. The bastards have sent us to a dead end.”

I call out, “Whoever is at the front, reach to your right.”

“I’m not touching any part of this place. Ew, it’s rank.”

I roll my eyes as I whisper, “Let me through. I’ll do it.”

I move as quickly as I can. Edging past the other four girls until I reach the dead end and as I fumble against the wall for the loose stone, I push it aside with racing breath.

“Follow me.” I yell, “Keep up with the girl in front of you!”

As I crawl through the narrow hole, I reach up, noting the head clearance, and as I stand, I help each girl through the opening, helping them off with their hoods so they can at least see where we are.

“Where are we?” Kennedy asks, her voice edgy and afraid, and I whisper, “There are five tunnels that lead off this room. Four lead nowhere and one leads to the river.”

“Fuck that.” Kennedy snarls. “I’m not getting wet. It’s frigging freezing, and I didn’t enter this thing to end up without the prize and right where I started.”

Abigail and Autumn agree, and I sigh inside.

“Then take the tunnels to the left. They lead nowhere.”

“How do you know?” The accusation in Kennedy’s voice registers with me.

“I cased the joint, obviously.”

“Why?”

Siri interrupts. “Because, unlike you, we want to get the hell out of here.”

“We’re wasting time.” I interrupt and grasp Siri’s hand as Kennedy says with excitement.

“There’s a door! It could be the way out of here.”

I say nothing. We don’t have long because movement in the tunnels we came from is too damn close for comfort.

I tug Siri toward the fifth tunnel that lies to my right and as I touch the damp edge, I whisper urgently, “Crawl through until you reach the end.”

As she disappears down the tunnel, I am soon following behind and then a loud scream behind me alerts me of danger. One of the girls has been caught already. They are close.

Siri gasps and crawls faster and then cries out. “Fuck, that hurts.”

“What?”

“Something tore at my arm. It’s fucking painful.”

Another scream from down the tunnel means they are closing in and Siri gasps, “It’s so painful, Cass. I feel sick.”

“Take a deep breath, Siri. You’ve got this. It’s not far.”

“I can’t breathe.” She is sobbing as she gasps deep ragged breaths of stale air and I’m afraid she will faint.

“Please, Cassie, leave me. I can’t make it to the river. I won’t be able to swim.”

“I’ll help you. It’s not far.”

I sense danger closing in behind me and as a hand grasps my foot, I yell, “Go, Siri. I’ll hold them off.”

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