I Become Shadow by Joe Shine Read Free Book Online Page A

couldn’t be serious.
We’ll be safe here as long as we obey—
    BANG!
    Katie crumpled to the ground.
    Crimson blood began to pool around her lifeless body. I stopped breathing. This couldn’t be real. It was a trick, an illusion. I looked at Cole. His eyes were blank behind the wisp of smoke still creeping out of the barrel of the gun.
    Now here is something that I’ve never told anyone. To my fellow snatched tweens it looked like I charged Cole, ready to attack him for what he’d done. But the truth is that I knew that somewhere behind him was the hidden door. It was that simple. I wanted out of that room. My only thought was to run. It was pure panic, nothing more. I never told the truth to anyone because after that they all thought I was some crazy brave girl. It gave me a dangerous reputation I would carry through my time at the center, a certain level of totally undeserved respect.
    So here I was, charging Cole (wink). His eyes narrowed as I barreled toward him, and he looked confused, then oddly amused. The last thing I remember before everything went black is Cole’s grinning face. That, and terrible pain.
    WAKING UP AFTER PASSING out was becoming a regular thing in my life now. It was strange that I had been knocked out more times in the past twenty-four hours than I’d brushed my teeth.
    I was back in a hospital gown and lying in a pretty comfy bed, but my head was killing me. I guess you can’t lose consciousness without consequences. I’d only been drunk once when Beth’s older sister had given us some gin so my hangover experiences were limited, but this seemed pretty similar. Curtains were pulled around me, but I could hear other people out there. Moans of pain and anguish, mostly. There was also hushed chatter, the beeping of machines, and someone snoring not too far away, but mostly it was agony. I saw the shadow of a pushcart pass my curtains.
    I took a deep breath but choked. My throat was killing me from where I think Cole had rammed his knee. It was all a little fuzzy. His sadistic smile popped into my head. And then, just as suddenly, Katie’s face was all I could think about. I remembered her confused face as she looked at me, then the image of her body. I could feel her warm blood spray across my face. Here came the waterworks. I tried to be quiet about it, but everything I’d been fighting since minute one of my kidnapping came pouring out. I was a blubbering mess. The scales had tipped; I was no longer in control of my emotions. I covered my head with my pillow to muffle the sounds, but that did very little.
    “Are you okay?” came a soft, sweet voice.
    “Yes,” I barely choked out.
    There was a snort of laughter. I tried to collect myself and was able to control my gasping and sniffling, but the tears kept coming.
Better than nothing
. I removed the pillow, expecting to see a nurse, or maybe even Not-Beth. I was not expecting to see Katie’s face grinning back at me.

CHAPTER 7
BACK FROM THE DEAD
    A sniffled and shocked, “What?” was all I could muster.
    Katie arched an eyebrow. She was actually quite pretty when not confused, terrified, and dead on the floor.
    “May I?” she asked and motioned toward my bed.
    I nodded and scooted over. She sat next me, and we looked at each other for a moment.
    “Those aren’t for me, are they?” she asked, pointing at the tears.
    “Not all of them,” I said as I sat up. “I saw you die. Am I imagining this?”
    “Ha. No, I’m really here. Never assume you know everything in this place,” she said. “That was part of my final test.”
    She pulled down the collar of her own gown to show a strange, hard patch to the right of her heart.
    “Show no fear in a situation that could mean death,” she said. Her eyes twinkled. “I passed!”
    “Does it hurt?”
    “No. Fire acted pretty quickly on me. Been pain-free for about six months now. But feeling no pain and having no fear aren’t quite the same thing. This showed I was capable of