Ida ReturnsCassie lies on her bed waiting, her arms coiled around her chest. She is a rubber band, stretched tight. She imagines herself walking down a street, a mad gunman shooting her down, just because she was there. The wrong place at the wrong time. She would lie still on the ground, pretend to be dead. She would have no control over what happened next. She could let go.
Alex speeds down the hall, his sand-shoed feet making dull thumps as he yells to her, ‘They’re back.’
Cassie digs her nails into her arms. Her skin curls from her body like wafer-thin potato peelings.
Alex throws her door open. ‘Didn’t you hear me? They’re here.’
Cassie sits up, sees Alex’s smiling face. ‘Get out of my room!’ she screams.
Alex pokes his tongue out at her and retreats. Cassie’s feet find the floor
