Of course Pryde would have killed her and made her a part of his bone collection in the cellar, but sweet, innocent Miss Brigham intervened on her behalf, suggesting to Reverend Crane that Samantha could be of use. So instead of dying, her memory was wiped and she woke up in Eternity as a ten-year-old girl.
She opened her eyes, no longer able to hold back the tears. She couldn't go back to Eternity now. Someone with her past shouldn't be in charge of other people. She was too dangerous.
The automobile wound its way down the road to the waterfront. She had to escape now, before the curse following her did any more harm to Prudence, Wendell, and the rest. She unfastened her seatbelt and then turned to face Prudence. "Goodbye," she said.
Samantha opened the door and dove out of the moving automobile. She rolled to her feet and then took off running along the waterfront. She heard the automobile stop and Mr. Pryde shout at her, but she couldn't make out what he said. It didn't matter.
Through teary eyes she cut across the waterfront and into a line of trees. She kept going uphill, trying to concoct an escape plan. If she got back to the highway, then she could find someone to give her a ride away from this place. She didn't care where she went from here, so long as it was far away from Eternity.
At the top of the hill she ran into a metal fence. Samantha scampered over the fence without difficulty, landing on a vast field with rows of benches rising on the far side. She hurried across the field, hoping Mr. Pryde hadn't brought the automobile up here to find her. She didn't relish the thought of hurting him, but she would to keep from going back.
Behind the benches, she found a square building with ivy crawling up the brick walls. What was this place? she wondered. "You there, what are you doing out here?" a man's voice called out. Samantha turned to find a bald man in a blue uniform similar to Sheriff McCovey's glaring at her. "Well, go on kid, the bell's going to ring in a minute."
Samantha started to protest, but the man added, "Get in there or I'll have to write you up." He pointed to a pair of wooden doors along the ivy-covered walls. Samantha didn't understand why he wanted her to go in there, but she didn't want to get in any trouble.
The doors opened onto a wide hallway lined with narrow metal doors, each with a combination lock. Lockers, she thought. This is a school. As she thought this, a shrill bell sounded and the hallway suddenly filled with teenagers. Samantha threw herself against a bank of lockers to avoid the stampede. She watched the children hustle by, hearing snippets of conversations about a wild party somewhere and an unfair teacher assigning too much homework before a big game.