All Chapters of A SISTER’S REVENGE : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Myles hesitated. Then he nodded. "Lead the way."I didn't go back to the dorm. I couldn't. Not with Earl's face still burned into my memory, not with the note still crumpled in my pocket, not with the feeling that someone was watching every move I made.Instead, I led him to the library. It was closed, but I knew a side door that stuck if you didn't pull hard enough. I'd found it my first week, back when I was still learning the campus, still learning who to trust.Turns out, I was still learning.The library was dark, the only light coming from the emergency exit signs and the faint glow of the moon through the tall windows. Shelves stretched into shadows. The air smelled like old paper and dust and secrets.I found a table in the back corner, away from the windows, away from doors. Myles sat across from me, his brown eyes steady, waiting."So," he said. "You're going to tell me why you're sneaking around the BioMed building at midnight? Or should I guess?""It's complicated.""It al

Nobody moved.The handle turned slowly, deliberately, like whoever was on the other side wanted us to hear it. Wanted us to know they were there.Myles stepped forward, positioning himself between me and the door. His hand reached back, pushing me gently behind him. Protective. Stupid. Sweet.Then the lock clicked open. And Derek appeared and there was a heavy sigh of relief from all of us.“Uhmm…did I miss something.” Derek scanned the room and the position we took charging at the door."Why are you back early," Myles asked, letting go of my hand , but his voice shook.Derek shrugged, kicking off his shoes by the door. "Practice got canceled. The coach had a family thing." He flopped onto his bed, completely oblivious to the four hearts pounding in the room. "You guys look like you've seen a ghost.""Something like that," Madden muttered.Ashley laughed,too high, too fast. "We were just talking about... the exam. The psych exam. It's going to be brutal.”"The psych exam isn't for two

The vent was tighter than I remembered. Or maybe I was just more aware of every scrape, every creak, every shallow breath echoing off the metal walls. My knees had gone numb somewhere around the second left turn. My shoulders ached from keeping my arms pinned to my sides. The flashlight beam cut through the darkness like a scalpel, illuminating dust motes and the occasional spider web that I definitely did not scream at, well maybe a little. The voices from earlier had stopped. No more arguing. No more footsteps. Just the hum of machinery somewhere below and the steady drip of condensation from the pipes above my head. I crawled faster. The vent opened into a narrow corridor, the grate hanging loose on its hinges. I pushed it open with my foot and tumbled out onto cold concrete, landing in a heap of limbs and adrenaline. The basement was quiet. Too quiet. I stood up slowly, my flashlight sweeping the space. Pipes ran along the ceiling, thick and rusted, dripping water int

Consciousness returned in fragments.The smell of antiseptic. The hum of fluorescent lights. A beeping sound, rhythmic and insistent, like a metronome counting down to something I couldn't name.I tried to open my eyes. The light stabbed through my lids, bright and unforgiving, and I squeezed them shut again.Where am I?The last thing I remembered was the floor. The cold, hard floor of my dorm room, rushing up to meet me. The pain in my side, sharp as a blade. The darkness swallowing me whole.How long was I out?I tried to move my hand. Something tugged at my wrist. An IV. I was in a hospital.No. Not a hospital. Too small. Too quiet.The campus medical center. The small clinic near the BioMed building, where students went for flu shots and sprained ankles.Someone had found me. Someone had brought me here.Who?I forced my eyes open.The room was small, white, generic. A bed with metal railings. A curtain on a track, pulled halfway closed. A window facing the parking lot, gray ligh

Myles's hand found mine in the darkness.His fingers were cold, trembling. I couldn't tell if it was from the freezer's chill or from what we'd just seen. Maybe both."We have to go," he whispered. His voice cracked. "Alexa, we have to go now."I couldn't move.Natalie Vasquez lay on the metal table like a museum exhibit. Preserved. Frozen. Forgotten. Her dark hair fanned out around her head, frost clinging to the strands. Her skin was waxy, pale, the color of old parchment. She looked smaller than her photographs, diminished by death and time and the indignity of being stored like meat.Two years.She'd been here for two years,or maybe even more than, hidden in a freezer in the basement of a university building, while her family searched and grieved and eventually settled for a settlement and a non-disclosure agreement.And no one had found her.No one had looked hard enough."We have to go," Myles said again, tugging my arm.I pulled the sheet back over Natalie's face. The fabric se