Eleanor's POV
The world was a blur of passing streetlights and the frantic thumping of my own heart. I squeezed my eyes shut, then forced them open, trying to anchor myself in the reality of the moving car, the smell of Mira's cherry air freshener, the solid presence of Roxy beside me. This was real. They were real.
"What the heck did you do, Ellie?" Mira's voice was shrill with panic from the driver's seat, her eyes flashing to me in the rearview mirror. "Who did you offend? This isn't a random mugging!"
"You shouldn't have come!" The words tore out of me, raw and guilt-ridden. "I told you not to! You've put yourselves in danger! The police… 911 said they were on their way. They would have been there."
Roxy let out a sharp, humorless laugh. "Police? We didn't see any cops, Ellie. We saw those vans. And the men telling everyone on the street not to panic, that they were private security recapturing a dangerous mental patient who had escaped."
My blood ran cold. "A what?"
