They spent the rest of the night hiding in Mrs. Schulman's house, watching the road for Samantha and Joseph to return. They never did. "Maybe they've decided to change their plans," Prudence said. Which meant they could be anywhere by now.

"No, he wouldn't do that," Wendell said. "He'll go through with it no matter what."

"How do you know that?"

"Call it a gut feeling," he said. Then he realized what he said and rubbed Prudence's back. "A hunch, I mean."

"I know," she said, but still let one hand slip down to her stomach. She left it there a moment to make sure it wouldn't start growing again like her nightmare. "What do we do?"

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"We'll have to find a way to stop them at the bank without alerting the police."

"But how? There's no way we can stop them on our own."

"Come on, didn't what we went through teach you anything? If we can drive a car as a pig and a baby then we can stop these two from robbing a bank."

Prudence wanted to believe Wendell. She wanted to believe after all they'd gone through they could do anything together, but she knew Samantha. Samantha had destroyed Jonas Pryde, Reverend Crane, and Hector Delgado. What hope did they have against her?

"We'll find a way. We'll save her," Wendell said.

The passion in his voice stirred something in Prudence's heart. "And then I suppose you and her-" Her voice trailed off as she thought of Wendell kissing Samantha the way he had her earlier. "I'll understand if that's what you want. What happened with us earlier, that didn't really mean anything. We were both so happy to be alive."

As Wendell studied Prudence's face in profile, tears threatening to cloud her eyes, he understood she would not understand. "It did mean something," he said.

She threw her arms around him, pressing him so tight against her chest he thought he heard bones break. "You mean it?" she asked. He nodded, unable to get enough air to speak. He was still trying to breathe when she kissed him. Before he could return the kiss, she shoved him down to the floor. "Someone's coming," she said.

They lay on the ground, hand-in-hand as a pair of headlights swept past. "That must be them," Wendell said.

"They're going to figure out we're gone. They'll find us," Prudence said. Her body began to tremble as she imagined being dragged back into that bedroom and fed another terrible potion.

"They'll never think to look here," he said. He ran a hand through her hair, trying to soothe her, though he wasn't convinced himself. "They'll think we went into town."




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