Read Harbinger for Free Online

oil rigs.
    Of course, Freddy was relaxed. He didn’t have to race after me. I had nowhere to go.
    I looked down into the waves, that hunger growing in me again. Pulling me to it.
    No.
I thought of Nami and backed away from the roaring ocean and the bare, lichen-covered cliff. She’d run, not because she thought she could escape, but because she didn’t want to make it easy for them.
Well, me either
.
    I pushed deeper into the trees where it was darker. My dread of getting lost among these monsters warred with my dread of getting caught. The forest grew denser and I ran blindly, trying to keep myself from sprawling on the ground.
    I almost crashed straight into her. She’d blended right into the trees. The girl, frozen in mid-scream, panic engraved into her metal face.
    Her weathered bronze hands were thrown up in front of her. Her eyes hysterical and huge. The girl reminded me of those statues cast from the ruins of Pompeii. People stuck, for all of eternity, watching everything they loved be consumed by the fires of hell.
    Her pain was too much. Too private. I looked away and saw another statue. And another. And another. Black shapes stark on the hill. All that was missing was the bonfire.
    Six statues stood in a circle, their mouths stretched in horror. One was turning to run. Another was howling up at the early-morning sky. Each of them in silent agony, trapped in some never-ending nightmare. And I was trapped with them.

5
     
    I LOOKED FOR SIGNS of the fire, but there weren’t any. There was no burned patch on the ground. No charcoal. No ash.
    Was it the drugs, then? Did I imagine it?
The flames? The music? My chest squeezed as I realized something else.
    I counted again. Last night there’d been seven figures around the fire. Now there were only six.
    “Sometimes, I think I can hear them screaming.” A soft voice came from right over my shoulder.
    I spun around, ready to run. A girl, a real one this time, stared past me at the statues. She wore a white sundress, and her hair was pulled into a long, blond braid running down her back. I guessed that she was my age, maybe a little older. Another student trapped at Holbrook.
    “What are they?” I kept my voice quiet, thinking of Freddy still in the woods somewhere.
    “The Screamers. Can you hear them too?” Then her gaze shifted toward me, and I saw there was something a little off about her. Even though she was facing me, the girl’s eyes were wild and unfocused.
    I just shook my head, afraid to startle this odd girl. On the other side of the clearing, tree branches smashed and Freddy’s swearing traveled through the woods. But the girl just stood there, her expression far away, as if she didn’t hear any of it. It was unnerving.
    And yet, with guards crawling all over Holbrook, here she was. Wandering around free. This girl might be in her own little crazy-world, but maybe she could help me. The barest shadow of hope traced itself in my mind. “Do you know how to get out of here?”
    Her face pulled tight across her cheekbones, her forehead wrinkling in thought. As she looked out over the sea, the early-morning light etched lines across her almost transparent skin and circles under her eyes. “The path is here. Only I can’t seem to find it . . .”
    Her words faded to barely a whisper. “I’m lost myself.”
    Freddy was getting closer now. “Fa-aye, Faye!”
    His shouting finally caught her attention and the girl glanced in my direction. She didn’t shy away from my gaze, but the eyes that met mine were vacant and clouded. She smiled and held out her hand. “Are you Faye, then? I’m Rita. How nice to meet you.”
    Yep. Crazy.
I almost laughed at the absurdity of the situation.
Some thug was after me and she was making proper introductions? But what did I expect, I was at Holbrook after all.
    Then Rita’s face creased again in concern. “Be careful. The path is hard to follow.”
    There was a crash and I whipped around to see Freddy break