Wilder Girls

“You’re gonna be okay,” Reese whispers, and I let it push me further into sleep. “You saved me. Now I’m gonna save you.”

I don’t know where we’re going. I don’t know what’s next. But Reese’s heartbeat is steady in my ear, and I remember—I remember how it was. The three of us together, and I’ll make it that way again.

We keep so many secrets, and we make decisions we shouldn’t have to, and I can’t do that right now.

“Is there a way out?” I say. “You didn’t tell Headmistress, but tell me, Reese. Can we leave here?”

She looks at me for a long moment, and then she sighs. “I think so, yeah.”

Is she serious? I pull her even farther away from the others. “Why the hell wouldn’t you use it before now?”

“At first I didn’t think I could get past the fence,” she says, avoiding my gaze. “And then I could, but this place is my whole life.”

I swallow hard, blink back a flicker of Mr. Harker’s face in the dark, empty eyes and blackened teeth. “And now?”

She shrugs. “You asked me to.”