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Fractures
(Echoes #2)
By Alice Reeds
YA Thriller
Paperback & ebook, 300 Pages
June 2, 2020 by Entangled Teen
Summary
They survived a plane crash.
They survived life on a deserted island.
They survived being hunted.
Now they must survive the truth—they are not who they think they are.
One minute they’re in Poland, subjected to gruesome tests they keep failing. No friends to support them. No family to claim them. No hope of ever living a normal life again.
Then suddenly, they’re trapped on an abandoned freighter in the middle of the ocean and forced to fight for survival. No food. No drinkable water. No way to get home. And strange memories of another life they don’t understand.
But how can they be living two separate lives, trapped in two separate places, at the same time? They’ll have to find the connection and uncover secrets that someone went to great lengths to keep hidden...if they’re going to survive long enough to find out who is behind it all.
Excerpt
With our backs against the wall, we stood there as motionlessly as possible while footsteps came down another hallway. My heart was beating hard in my throat, and I begged every deity I could think of to not let us get caught. The footsteps grew louder, closer, someone hurrying along. Please let them not go down this hallway.
A scream—loud, panicked, terrified—ripped through the air. Fiona flinched, her hand wrapping around my wrist, while my heart nearly jumped out of my chest. What was that? Or, more importantly, who? What was going on?
The footsteps picked up pace, a hurried walk turning into running, a nurse soon rushing past us, her eyes looking ahead and missing us. That was good; we were still good. But my feeling of victory lasted only a few seconds. The person screamed again, even louder this time, the sound freezing me to my bones, fear rushing in like an icy tsunami.
“We have to see what’s happening,” Fiona said, her voice a whisper, her eyes meeting mine. There was curiosity and determination in them. She really did want to know, and while I did as well, I was also scared of what we’d find.
“Okay,” I said, then swallowed hard.
Every part of me protested as we followed the screaming. It happened more frequently, loud but also quieter, some of it so high-pitched it left a ringing in my ears, others wet like the person was crying. What were these monsters doing? If Briola wasn’t above psychological torture, why would they shy away from physical?
A door stood ajar, the gap just enough to let us peek in. Inside was what looked like a hospital room, white walls and floors, a hospital bed, and beeping machinery. On the bed was a girl, her hair wild and messy, her face red, puffy, and twisted in agony, her eyes opening so wide it looked like they might fall out of her skull. Next to her stood a guy, his hands on her arm and shoulder, tears on his face but a dazed look in his eyes, his body swaying.
“Make it stop!” the girl screamed. “Please, make it stop, take it out. I can’t take this any longer!”
“Just a little more, you can do it,” Doc Bowie said and stepped into our view, his hand on her wrist while he looked at something in his other hand. A small tablet or phone perhaps. Another woman appeared next to him, one I was sure I’d seen somewhere before, but I lacked the time to figure out where, or who she was.
The girl screamed again, and the boy flinched, his eyes clearing just long enough for him to look at her, tears streaming down his face, before going back to that absent expression. Haunting, twisted, and terrifying. Was this what hell looked like?
Nurses walked in and out of view while saying something too quietly for me to hear, especially when the girl screamed again. Whatever they were doing to her, I would rather let them kill me than allow them to do it to Fiona, or myself. My hands shook, and my knees turned weak, my heart beating so incredibly fast. I wanted to run, hide, dissolve, anything to not be here anymore, to erase ever having seen this or heard those screams.
Fiona snaked her arms around my middle, her chest against my back, and pulled me away from that room and whatever horror was happening to that poor girl. I hated that we couldn’t do anything to help her and couldn’t stop them. At least not yet. Even if I were brave enough to try, once they knew we were there, chances were the same thing would happen to us. That wasn’t an option.
“Are you okay?” I asked Fiona once we put some distance between the room and us down another empty hallway. She shook her head and met my eyes, hers glassy and her cheeks a little wet. I hadn’t realized she’d been crying.
“I will be once we get out of this place,” she said. “Let’s find this -------’s office. How much time is left?”
“Eighteen minutes.”
The screaming turned quieter the farther we went, and then it finally ceased completely. Not because we got out of earshot, but because she stopped screaming. Had they killed her? Finished whatever they were doing? How could they treat her this way in the first place, just stand and watch as she writhed in pain?
Other Books in the Series
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About the Author
Alice Reeds was born in a small town in Germany but spent her first eight years in Florida, USA. Later on, she moved back to Europe, where her family moved around a lot. She was raised trilingual and has a basic understanding of Russian, read and spoken. After getting her International Baccalaureate Diploma, Alice is studying English Language and Literature at University. In her free time Alice mostly writes, reads, figure and/or roller skates, or watches countless let's plays and figure skating videos.
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