chapter5

Leah awoke, breathless and scared. She had been dreaming again. This time she was being chased down a corridor that seemed to go on forever. In her dream, she had no idea where she was going or whom she was running from. All she did know was that, despite her best efforts, she was getting slower and slower. Looking down, she'd been astonished to discover that she had no legs—she was just a floating torso, clawing the air in her desperation to escape her pursuers.

She buried her face in the pillow and breathed out. Her nightmare had been so vivid that her heart was racing and a thin sheen of sweat clung to her forehead. Shrugging off these dark thoughts, she pulled the blanket up around her, determined to snatch a few hours’ sleep before the day began. But as she did so, she froze. The blanket refused to move, and Leah realized that the rhythmic breathing she could hear was not her own.

Someone was sitting at the end of her bed. Leah closed her eyes, praying that she could banish this dark vision, but still the sound of the breathing intruded. In, out, in, out. Leah wanted to scream but instead she remained still. She knew that what she did in the next few minutes would decide if she lived or died.

By playing dead she could buy herself some time, and, turning fitfully as if in half sleep, she tucked her right arm under her body. It was hidden now, and slowly she slid her hand toward her pillow. This was where she kept her shiv—an improvised knife made up of a razor blade and a toothbrush handle. It had saved her life on more than one occasion and she grasped gratefully for it now.

Except it wasn't there. Abandoning all caution, her fingers groped frantically, covering every inch of the cold mattress. But even as she did so, a measured voice said, “Looking for this?”

Leah didn't want to, but she couldn't help herself, turning now to find out who had spoken. The locked cell was gloomy and swathed in shadow—she couldn't make out the figure sitting at the end of her bed, but she could see her trusty shiv gripped in the intruder's hand, its lethal blade winking at her in the moonlight.