I froze. The sound had carried through the entire gym. Mr. Weston had made it to the exits where I’d started my journey under the bleachers. His taunting stopped as he listened for a followup sound. I held my breath, pulling my backpack to my stomach and sliding through the final frame. “You can’t escape, Cassie. If not today, I will find you. It’s only a matter of time.” He laughed, trying to hide the fact that he moved my way. Of all the places I could be hiding, I’d eliminated every single one of them but where I was. A terrible game of hide-and-seek. The man moved fast and before I could get out from the maze of bars criss-crossing each other, he stood before me, trapping me, caging me in. His husky laugh sent a spattering of zings down my nerve endings. I pulled back under the bleachers, further in. He wasn’t encumbered by a pack, but he had a good foot or so on me in height and he had to weigh twice what I did.
