Last Christmas (Private 0.60)

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152

THE LEAP

***"We have to take the window."

"Are you crazy?" Ariana blurted. "We're on the second floor!"

"So what are we gonna do? Just give up?" Thomas demanded.

"No," Ariana said. If there was one thing she would never do, it was give up. Her mother had given up. And

as much as Ariana loved her, she had promised herself she would never be like her mother.

"Then help me," Thomas said.

He slipped his fingers into the grooves at the bottom of the window and Ariana did the same. With a deep

breath, they threw their weight against it. The warped wood stayed frozen in place.

"Shit." Thomas turned around and eyed the doorway nervously.

"Come on! Let's try it again."

He rejoined Ariana. "Okay. One, two, three!" he shouted. Together they strained at the window. Ariana held

her breath and pulled until she felt as if her fingers were going to break off backward.

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Then, just when she thought she couldn't take anymore, the window finally gave.

"Let's go!" Thomas turned away as a blast of cold air swept into the room.

Ariana moved cautiously to the window. The blizzard had almost subsided, and only a light, translucent

curtain of snowflakes tumbled to the ground below. The snow-capped evergreens at the edge of the woods

loomed thick not far from the back door of Ketlar. She took a step back, nearly tripping over Thomas. The icy

ground below her looked far, far away.

"I can't." She shook her head. "It's too much of a drop. We have to get out some other way."

"There isn't another way," Thomas said harshly. He gripped her wrist so tightly she winced. "And there's all

that snow to break our fall." He straddled the windowsill, bending at the waist to fit through the small

opening. "I'll go first."

"Thomas! Don't!"

But he pushed away from the building and fell. Ariana stared after him, imagining his body lying broken and

dead on the ground below. But instead, he landed in the soft cushion of snow piled beneath the window. He

was fine.