Grace
I lay there for a long moment, the cold mud soaking through my jeans, my body scraped and aching from head to toe. The bike's engine had cut out, leaving the woods completely silent again except for the sound of my own ragged, sobbing gasps.
"Get up," I whispered to myself, wiping the tears and dirt from my eyes. "Get up, Grace. You have to go."
I pushed myself off the frozen ground, my left arm hanging limply at my side, throbbing with a dull, sickening heat. I abandoned the heavy bike, knowing I would never be able to lift it back up. I started to run on foot, stumbling down the dark road toward the boundary line… or where I hoped it would be.
I could see the thick line of trees that marked the edge of Velmore. The highway back to civilization was just beyond those pines. I kn
