Read Online The Inn Between by Marina Cohen - Free Book Online Page B

black.

 
    12
    â€œE MMA!”
    Quinn stands at the edge of her driveway, yelling into the dark street. The front door is wide open. She hears her mother’s frantic voice drifting out from the living room. She’s on the phone, speaking to Quinn’s father, who is late at the law firm as usual. Quinn catches bits and pieces, though she’s only half listening.
    â€œâ€¦ heard from Emma? Did she call you?… not home. No, they didn’t come home together … worried sick.”
    They didn’t come home together. Home together. The words rise and fall in Quinn’s mind like an echo.
    â€œCall family,” says Quinn’s mother. “I’ll try friends. Neighbors. Come as fast as you can.”
    It’s a new moon. The sky is black. Quinn searches up and down the street but there is no sign of her sister. Quinn wants to run one way, then the other. Instead she is paralyzed, frozen to the spot, while her mother is driven into motion.
    â€œQuinn!” her mother yells. “Get back inside!”
    But Quinn can’t move. She can’t leave the driveway. Fear, like black ink, has seeped inside her, pooling in her bones. The wind slashes her cheeks and hands. She barely notices.
    Quinn’s mother calls more people—all of Emma’s friends. Emma has lots of friends. Everyone loves Emma. But no one has seen or heard from her. Not since school ended.
    â€œâ€¦ Yes … Yes … Come. You can help. Please.”
    Quinn can barely breathe. Her heart has stopped pumping. The blood has stopped flowing in her veins. She has turned to wood and grown roots.
    Emma is okay, she tells herself over and over. She’s gone off somewhere. She’s hiding. She’ll show up in a few minutes smiling her brightest smile and asking what all the fuss is about.
    â€œQuinn!” yells her mother a second time. “Come inside!” She’s holding her cell phone. She reaches for Quinn as she dials 9-1-1.
    â€œMy daughter…” she huffs, “… she’s missing…” She gives them a description. Fair. Auburn hair. Hazel eyes. Tall for her age. She gets lost in the details of Emma’s beautiful face.
    Everything is happening in a blur of sound and motion.
    Quinn’s father arrives. So do the police. Friends and family prepare to search. Everything whirs in and around Quinn as though she’s not there, as though she’s slipped into another dimension—one that moves at an entirely different pace, one that is deaf to the sights and sounds of this world.
    Kara arrives. She takes Quinn by the hand, dragging her back to the real world. She walks Quinn inside.
    The police question Quinn. She answers them mechanically. She tells them how she had to stay late at school, about the copied assignment. She says she’s a thief. A word thief. She tells the story over and over so many times she loses count. She tells them everything—every last detail—but one. She can’t bear to tell anyone that. Not even Kara.
    The neighborhood is alight with flashlights. Police and neighbors and friends are searching. Quinn watches through the front window. She wants to be out there searching, too, she begs to go, but her parents force her to stay behind. Mrs. Cawston and Kara have to practically hold her down.
    â€œLet me go,” she says, struggling. “I should be out there. I have to find Emma. I have to be the one.”
    Kara talks quietly. She calms Quinn, tells her everything will be okay. Emma will be home soon. Kara is so positive, so reassuring, Quinn almost believes her.
    Each second passes like a thousand eternities. Quinn sits, just breathing, trying to make sense of what’s happened. What is still happening. It’s like everyone and everything is slipping and sliding away from her. If only she can sit still long enough, if she can just keep breathing, she can hold it all together.
    A policewoman enters