The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan Read Free Book Online

was aboveground. Here I’m trapped.
    I keep the knife in front of me, running my other hand behind me along the bars until I find a gap I can slip through. I swallow, trying to steady my erratic heart.
    “I’m not going to hurt you, Annah,” he says. “You don’t have to be afraid of me.”
    I laugh at him. “Why should I believe you?” I ask, swiping my arms out in front of me until I find the cool tile of the wall again. I fumble along it, sliding my feet over the ground as silently as possible. It falls away beneath me and I teeter for a moment before I regain my balance. My heart thunders in my ears, making it impossible to hear if he’s following me.
    Cautiously I feel through the air with my toes until I find a step and then another. As I descend the air grows even thicker, wrapping me in its embrace.
    “Annah, I know who you are,” he says, his voice closer.
    I say nothing, just continue to grope my way down the stairs, putting distance between us so that I can think.
    He releases a puff of air in what sounds like frustration. “I know who you are because Elias told me about you.”
    I freeze, all words trapped in my chest. It’s odd to hear a stranger say his name and a little tremor of pain flutters through my chest at it. I clench my teeth, swallow the emotion back down.
    It’s so quiet I can hear as he shifts in the darkness. “He told me to come find you,” he adds.
    “How do you know Elias?” My voice trembles, making me sound weak. I bite my bottom lip, needing to regain control over my body, my thoughts.
    “You can trust me,” he continues, taking another step forward. But he must not have realized that he was standing on the edge of a staircase. He must not have known that the ground drops away, because I hear the surprised gasp as he starts to fall. I hear him scramble to catch himself.
    And then he tumbles into me, and our bodies tangle around each other as we careen down the rest of the steps. We land hard on a cracked concrete floor, lights exploding in my head as it smacks against the wall. Catcher falls on top of me and I feel the knife still clutched in my hand slice through his skin. Feel the wetness of blood on my fingers.
    “Oh my G-God,” I stammer, choking in the darkness. Catcher grunts and slides off me and I drag myself out from underneath him, our legs still snarled.
    I drop the knife, feeling the slick of blood coating my skin. “Oh my God,” I say again. “Are you okay?” There’s so much blood I’m terrified I’ve killed him and my stomach twists with a frantic dread.
    I reach for him, grab him and run my hands over his body, searching for the wound. “Oh my God, I didn’t mean to. Are you okay? Catcher, are you okay?”
    He doesn’t say anything and the realization that I may have murdered someone starts to make me dizzy. I don’t know whether I should leave him and go to the surface for help or stay here. I skim my hands up his legs and over his hips, trailing them along his chest that thankfully still rises and falls.
    “Catcher,” I shout at him, needing him to be okay. His skin’s hot where I touch him and he winces as my hands slide over his forearm, blood dripping from his wrist. I fumble in my pack for the quilt, shredding a strip from it and pressing it to the wound.
    He grunts and rolls away from me but I keep my hands locked on his arm. “You’re hurt,” I tell him, relief rushing through me that he can move.
    He pushes at me but he’s still disoriented from the fall.
    “You’re hurt,” I explain again. “Just hold still and let me stop the bleeding. I don’t know how deep the cut is. There’s too much blood.”
    He jerks up and swings at me, throwing me back from him. “Get away from me,” he roars. My ears ring with the sound of his voice that still echoes up and down the staircase. I sit frozen, my hands grasping at the darkness.
    My breath hitches. I’m confused and don’t know how to respond. I reach for him, just slightly, and