Chasing Shadows Read Online Free PDF

horrible sight to see someone in that kind of panic. Her face was twisted in terror, and the more frightened she got, the more she thrashed around. This caused the bridge to move wildly, which just increased her fear.
    Derek looked pretty scared himself, by that point. I guess I shouldn’t blame him for what he did next, and maybe it was for the best because if Betts had kept on, she might have ended up capsizing the whole thing. Still, it seemed kind of cowardly and selfish.
    What he did was wrench himself away from her and take off to the other side. Betts immediately dropped to her knees and then flattened out against the floor of the bridge, which is made of slats of wood roped together. Her screeches turned into low sobs and moans as she clung to the edges with white-knuckled hands.
    â€œBetts?” I said tentatively, hoping to calm her. “It’s okay. We’re coming to get you.”
    â€œI can’t let go,” she yelled angrily, though no one had suggested she should.
    â€œNo need to,” Greg said softly as we inched toward her, moving slowly so as not to make the bridge sway anymore. “You can hold on as tight as you need. No one will make you let go.”
    â€œWell, I
have to get out of here
,” she yelled, as though he’d been encouraging her to spend the next few years there.
    â€œAre you okay, Betts?” Derek called from the other side.
    I managed to keep from saying anything nasty to him, even though he’d abandoned her right in the middle of her panic attack and I was pretty ticked off about it.
    Betts didn’t answer either, though I’m not sure if she even heard him. Mostly, she was concentrating on holding on as tight as she could.
    It was Greg who answered. “She’s fine,” he said with a calm assurance that would have fooled anyonewho wasn’t watching. “We’re going to get her back on solid ground. Stay where you are until then.”
    â€œI think I’m going to throw up,” Betts said. She was shaking and very pale.
    â€œBetts,” Greg said, still speaking in an even, calm voice, “close your eyes and take a deep breath through your nose. Then tell me what you smell.”
    At first she didn’t do what he was asking, but after a few moments, with him repeating it slowly and softly, she actually went ahead and did it.
    â€œNow, what do you smell?” he asked, before she’d even fully exhaled.
    â€œTrees, I guess. Why?”
    â€œTrees. Good. I think there are other things too, but we’ll get to that in a minute,” he said, kneeling as he spoke. “I’m almost to you now, Betts, so if you feel something touch your hand, it’s just going to be me. Is it okay if I put my hand on yours?”
    â€œYeah, it’s okay.” Her voice was still tremulous, but a little less panicked than it had been a few moments before.
    â€œNow, getting back to the trees and stuff, I want you to concentrate really hard and see how many things you can identify only by smell. No peeking.” He’d reached her by this point, and I hung back just a little as he slid his hand over hers.
    â€œI smell water, and flowers, probably,” Betts said. It was clear that she knew what was going on — that hewas distracting her — and she seemed determined to force herself to go along. I suppose anything that kept her from thinking about the situation she was in was more than welcome to her.
    â€œGood, good. Can you take my hand, Betts?”
    â€œI don’t think so.” She clutched harder at the edge of the walkway as though to prove that she was telling the truth.
    â€œOkay, that’s okay,” he said quietly. Then he talked to her for what seemed ages, not about her present predicament, but about things like movies and music and stuff like that. Just as he’d done by getting her to identify smells, distracting her seemed to relax her a little. Once she was a