Page 256 of Ruin Me Gently

Every cell crystallised into ice.

No, no, no.

I should’ve answered.

The phone slipped from my grip, clattering against the floor as I shot to my feet, but I didn’t stop to pick it up.

I was moving, bolting for the door, shoving it open so hard it ricocheted off the wall.

I barely registered Finn’s voice as I barrelled past him in the corridor.

“Graves? Where the hell are you going?”

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. I just ran.

The corridors blurred past in a smear of dim light and cold tile.

Freezing air slammed into my face as I shoved the door open.

I was running. Barefoot.

Sharp slivers of glass and jagged pieces of gravel sliced into my feet, each step a fresh burst of pain.

Didn’t matter. I knew where she’d be.

She always took the same route, cutting through the side streets to get to my dorm. I’d walked it with her plenty of times before.

But now? Now the streets felt wrong.

Too dark. Too empty. Too still.

A coil of dread wrapped tight around my ribs, squeezing me, suffocating me.

“Katie!”

No response.

“Katie, answer me!”

Nothing.

The only sound was my own ragged breath, the slap of my bare feet against the pavement.

I scanned the streets, eyes darting from one dim pool of flickering light to the next. Shadows stretched long against the cracked pavement. Empty sidewalks. Empty roads.

The silence was deafening and a weight in my chest cracked wide open, terror flooding in like ice water.

I pushed harder. Legs burning. Lungs seizing. Heart trying to escape from my ribcage.

“Si?” A faint whimper.

Coming from the alley just ahead.

I ran faster, breath breaking apart.

“Katie?”

She lay crumpled, tucked behind a dumpster.

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