The Altar Girl: A Prequel

CHAPTER 32

Nadia hung upside down over the man’s shoulder. She’d patted her pockets in search of her whistle, but it was gone. It must have fallen out when the man threw her over his shoulder, or when she got dizzy and fell by the stream earlier in the day. It wouldn’t have mattered if she’d found it. No one would have heard the sound over the thunder and the rain, and either the man or the woman would have taken it away within seconds.

Blood pressed against the skin of her forehead as though her insides wanted to spill out. A bitter taste filled her mouth.

Blood? Was that blood in her mouth?

She stuck her tongue between her lips.

Not blood. Aspirin. Regurgitated aspirin leaking down her throat.

Nadia bounced off the man’s body with each step. When the lantern swung forward, it illuminated the path in front of them. When it swung backward, however, it lit up the area directly beneath her.

Ferns, leaves, a dead branch.

The woman’s orange high-top Converse All Star sneakers.

Nadia had already replayed Mrs. Chimchak’s lessons in hand-to-hand combat ten times in her mind. She knew what she had to do. What was the problem?

It was so gross, that was the problem.

She had to reach around with her hand and yank the man’s eyeball out. He’d fall to the ground. The woman would freak. Nadia would kick the lantern with her boot and kill the lights. She’d do it all so fast these assholes wouldn’t know what hit them.

So why wasn’t she doing it?

Mrs. Chimchak had taught her that the person willing to do anything was the one who had the advantage in a fight. The one who would survive.

Nadia repeated the mantra Mrs. Chimchak had taught her for such a situation:

There are no rules in a real fight.

There are no rules in a real fight.

There are no rules in a real fight…