EMILY RUSKOVICH
She rode switly, thinking that as soon as she made it to her car, she would go to Laura. Laura would help her; she would know what to do. They hadn’t spoken in years, but Abby was sure that the moment Laura heard her voice, she would set aside her pain and anger, and she would tell Abby what she needed to know. She understood intuitively that escaping the woods was not enough, that whatever was following her would continue to follow her through her life until— Until Laura. Until Laura could halt it in its tracks. It was Laura, ater all, who had sufered most all those years ago. Laura whose name had seemed to echo inside the creature’s howl. And, Abby realized now, she had felt Laura’s presence even before she recognized Professor Naughton in the stranger’s face, maybe even before she had seen the stranger at all. Hadn’t Laura been there at the edge of her mind early that morning, when she irst started up this path? It was as if Laura had been trying to reach her thoughts for a long time. Several minutes had now passed without a sound
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