Chapter 1
On the third day of our Labor Day RV trip, Dad got out to fill the water jug, and Mom and I walked over to the market for groceries.
In my previous life, a heavy man in a mask pried the door open and sealed my sleeping sister inside the RV.
Sophia was terrified. She video called me, crying and begging me to save her.
"Emily, help me. Somebody's in the car."
I ran back like a lunatic and came face-to-face with the man climbing out of the RV.
I threw myself at him and bit him, and he shoved me down the steep bank behind the campground and broke my spine.
He gave me a mocking smile and whistled at me.
"Little girl, you want revenge? You're nowhere close.
"By the way, your sister smells wonderful."
The campground said there were no cameras, and the man was never found. They paid us seventeen thousand dollars and closed the file.
Sophia came apart after we got home, and six months later, she went off the roof of a high-rise.
I spent the rest of that life paralyzed in bed, asking myself why I hadn't run faster.
When I opened my eyes again, Dad was standing there with the water jug, smiling, ready to hop out.
"You two go get the groceries. I'll be right back."
Every hair on my body stood up. I grabbed the keys and locked every door.
"Nobody gets out. Dad, get the escape hammer from under the seat."
*****
Dad's face changed at once.
He didn't hesitate, and he pulled the escape hammer out from under the seat.
He asked, "What's going on?"
Mom's heart was in her throat.
She asked, "What's wrong, Emily? Is somebody out there?"
I nodded hard.
Scenes from the last life went through my head, and my throat closed up.
I said, "I saw something a minute ago. There was a man near our RV. He circled it a few times and kept looking in through the glass."
Dad's eyes narrowed, and he pushed for details right away.
He asked, "Did you see him clearly? What did he look like?"
I dug my nails into my palms.
Something helpless went through me.
I said, "He had a ball cap and a mask on, so I couldn't see his face. But he was very tall, and his arms were all muscle. He looked frightening."
My voice shook a little.
Even with a second life in my hands, I couldn't shake it.
Every time I thought about that man, the cold went through me again.
Mom looked out the window.
It was Labor Day weekend, and the campground was louder than it had any right to be.
The RVs sat in neat rows.
There were fifty or sixty of them at a glance.
Tourists were everywhere, laughing and shoving each other around.
Nothing about it looked like a place that could hide a predator.
Mom said, "That can't be right, Emily."
Her brows drew together. "It's broad daylight, and there are people all over this campground. Who would do something like that out in the open? It isn't possible."
Dad let out a small breath of relief. "Emily, is it possible you saw it wrong?
"Or maybe it was a tourist walking past who wanted a look at the RV. It's the middle of the day, and there are people everywhere. Nobody is going to try anything."
Nobody would dare.
That was what every one of them believed.
But in my last life, it happened in a campground exactly this loud.
That man pried our door open with a hundred people around him.
He pulled the blackout shades down first.
Then he had Sophia sealed inside while she slept.
People kept walking past the window.
Plenty of them saw our RV rocking.
Not one of them thought twice about it.
They stood around enjoying it and made jokes.
Every one of them decided it was a couple fooling around inside.
A few of them shot video and posted it to a local camping group online.
The clip went around for a while.
People in the comments joked about it.
None of them knew.
A human being was being destroyed inside that RV.
I bit down on my lip and pushed the red back out of my eyes.
I didn't blame my parents for not believing me.
The version of me from the last life wouldn't have believed it either.
I couldn't lose any more time, so I shook Sophia awake.
I said, "Sophia, wake up. Please wake up."
Sophia rubbed her eyes, still half asleep.
Her face was blank.
She asked, "What is it? Are we leaving?"
I nodded hard, and my voice caught. "Mom, Dad, we have to go. Right now. We can't stay here. You have to trust me."
Dad's chest tightened, and his voice filled with worry.
He asked, "Emily, what's really wrong? Talk to me. What happened? Everything was fine, and now you want to leave?"
Two lifetimes of fear came out of me at once.
I couldn't hold any of it in.
I broke down and sobbed, "Mom, Dad, I'm begging you. We have to go. If we don't go now, it's going to be too late."
My parents had never seen me come apart like that.
They looked at each other.
They were confused, and neither of them asked me anything else.
"All right. We're leaving now."
Dad didn't waste a second.
He put the RV in gear.