This was happening.
She was leaving.
Layla paced the bedroom as she waited and tried not to think of who she was leaving behind. It was better to concentrate on what she had to do once she left, how she would stay ahead of Jackson if he tried to look for her and protect her sister. It was the only thing that mattered now.
She didn’t recognise herself anymore, and that was all because she was in this strange place, living among beasts. Once she got away, she would return to normal.
She would no longer hear things she wasn’t supposed to hear. She wouldn’t smell things she wasn’t supposed to smell. She wouldn’t fight people with such horrific violence.
And she wouldn’t speak or behave like another person was thinking and speaking for her.
That was terrifying. Her school counsellor woul
