Page 47 of Monster's Edge

“They’re going to kill me once you’re gone, anyway,” she tells me. “I stayed to take care of you, Rose. I stayed to protect you. Your Mama would have wanted that.”

“But Lucas...”

Lucas was the love of her life. She’s loved him forever. As long as I can remember, the two of them were meant to be. When he disappeared last year, I didn’t know why. I thought he’d just left. Nobody wanted to talk about it and I didn’t press.

Now I know, apparently.

She places her hand on my cheek and smiles. “You’re a beautiful woman, Rose. You’re more wonderful than I could ever possibly believe. When you get to the woods, keep running. Run until you can’t run anymore. Then run more. Just don’t stop. If you stop, you die. Understand?”

I nod.

I understand.

She gently opens the door at the bottom of the stairs. It’s the servant’s staircase – the hidden one she and Lucas used all of those years ago. We creep out, but nobody is here. I don’t see my dad or Mr. Ricci. The guard is probably still upstairs. He’sgotto be upstairs.

We both know that leaving through the front door isn’t going to happen, so Georgetta and I slowly tip-toe through the house to the backdoor, and then we pause. It seems so far to the woods. So very, very far. We’re just about to put our hands on the door when I hear a man clear his throat.

“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?”

When I turn around, my father looks pissed.

7

“Irepeat, where thefuck do you think you’re going?”

I stare at my dad. Georgetta unlocks the door. We’re going to make a run for it. We have to. First, though, I’m going to say goodbye to the monster who raised me, who doesn’t seem to think getting rid of his grown-ass daughter is a big deal. If he didn’t want me, he should have just kicked me out. He shouldn’t have fuckingsoldme to the highest bidder. I’m not a porcelain vase. I’m a real person. A girl. I have feelings.

“Go fuck yourself,” I say firmly, and then we run.

Georgetta and I burst out of the backdoor and start racing across the perfectly manicured lawn. An alarm blares. I realize my dad must have pressed an alert on his phone to let everyone know that someone is trying to escape from the estate. When he put in those alarms, they were supposed to be for notifying him when someonesneaks in– not when they sneak out.

Still, I hold my breath as we run. I finally risk a glance over my shoulder and I see Dad, Mr. Ricci, and the guard who took my phone. They’re all screaming at us, and then the guard raises a gun.

“Gun!” I shout out, but it’s too late. He fires. The shot rings out. Georgetta and I both keep running, though. He must have missed. He fires again and this time, he almost gets me. The bullet grazes my skin but doesn’t hit anywhere it matter. We keep moving as fast as we can and finally, we’re under the cover of the trees, but we don’t stop.

I remember her words from earlier: keep running.

---