Verwandte Artikel zu Shackled

Shackled - Hardcover

Leveen, Tom

 
9781481422499: Shackled
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 1481422499 ISBN 13: 9781481422499
Verlag: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2015

Inhaltsangabe

From author Tom Leveen comes a taut, suspenseful novel about a girl’s abduction that leaves her best friend emotionally paralyzed, until a chance encounter points her toward the truth…and a terrifying new danger.

Sixteen-year-old Pelly has a master plan. After years of therapy, medication, and even a stint in a mental hospital, she’s finally ready to re-enter the world of the living. Pelly has been suffering from severe panic attacks ever since her best friend, Tara, disappeared from a mall six years ago.

And her plan seems to be working, until an unkempt girl accompanied by an older man walks into the coffee shop where she works. Pelly thinks she’s seen a ghost, until the girl mouths “help me” on the way out, and Pelly knows she’s just seen Tara.

Too shocked to do anything, Pelly helplessly watches Tara slip away again as she steels herself against a renewed spiral of crippling anxiety. But rather than being overcome by anxiety, Pelly feels more energized than she has in years. Determined to track down enough evidence to force the police to reopen Tara’s file, Pelly’s master plan takes a turn for the dangerous.

Pelly decides she cannot be shackled by her past—and the anxiety, fear, and grief that comes with it—any longer if she wants to save Tara. But in seeking answers through whatever means necessary, she’ll come face-to-face with true evil. And not all the shackles are in her head…

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Tom Leveen is the author of Random, Sick, manicpixiedreamgirl, Party, Zero (a YALSA Best Book of 2013), Shackled, and Hellworld. A frequent speaker at schools and conferences, Tom was previously the artistic director and cofounder of an all-ages, nonprofit visual and performing venue in Scottsdale, Arizona. He is an Arizona native, where he lives with his wife and young son.

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Shackled

ONE

Like a heart attack. That’s the best way to describe it. I’ve never had one of those, that I know of, but I’m pretty sure it feels just like that. Dr. Carpenter even agreed with my description. But I hadn’t seen her in a few months.

Maybe that was a mistake.

“You’re late, Pelly,” David said to me as soon as I walked in the door of the Hole in the Wall Café.

I didn’t answer. Couldn’t. When the attacks come, I can’t really speak. Or if I can, all that comes out is muttering, stuttering stupidity.

The Hole was a safe zone for me. A place I could trust. It took a while to attain that lofty status. And there aren’t many such places. But I couldn’t stay inside. I dumped my bag behind the counter before pivoting right back around and rushing outside, panting.

It helped that the sun was out. Nighttime tended to be worse, although I didn’t know why. I guess because it’s harder to see. I pulled a soft pack of Camel Lights and a cheap blue disposable lighter out of my hip pocket and lit up. Most people start when they’re twelve or thirteen. I waited till last year. Because I’m that dumb.

I paced along the sidewalk in front of the Hole, taking long, purposeful strides. Like a soldier on guard duty. Stop, pivot, walk back the way I came. Deep drag, hold, blow out. Stop, pivot, repeat.

It’s almost like OCD at this point. Everything has to be just so. If I can keep walking and be outside, the panic will pass. Usually. Eventually.

After a few minutes David poked his head out the front entrance. “Pel?” he said as I stalked past.

I blew out a harsh breath of smoke. Kept walking. My heart wasn’t beating fast anymore. Instead it beat hard, and that was almost worse. Like my heart wasn’t pumping so much as knocking from the inside, bam! bam! bam! Let me out!

“You okay?” David said as I walked past in the other direction.

My free hand clenched and unclenched of its own accord. The muttering and stuttering began.

“It was a guy, this guy, he was staring, he was just staring, this guy . . .”

I watched the gray concrete beneath my feet as I chanted. A little voice whispered to me that David had never seen me like this. I’d never wanted him to. I never wanted anyone to. Reason number 3,854 I didn’t go to a real school anymore. I’d meant working here to be the first step toward going to school again someday, but—

“Someone hassled you on the bus?” David asked, stepping out into the sunlight. He jerked his head to one side to get his long, splintery bangs out of his eyes.

I almost snarled a laugh at him. The bus? Right. One isolated girl among crowds of people I didn’t know, in a vehicle I could not control? Not happening. I walked everywhere—which wasn’t many places—or got rides from Mom. I should’ve had a license by now, and instead I got carted around like a pathetic loser.

“Seven-Eleven,” I said to David, and stopped walking. Stayed a few feet away from him. I hadn’t gotten control of my breathing yet. The exercise and adrenaline and nicotine were making me nauseated. I’d all but run here from the store. “I was buying a pack and there was this guy, he just kept staring, and I thought . . . I mean, he just . . .”

I took a drag. Blew it out. Took another. Held it.

“So, are you okay?” David asked again. Like he didn’t know what else to say.

I took my last puff and pitched the butt into the dirt parking lot.

“Doesn’t matter,” I said. “Forget it.”

“Okay, well, that was bitchy, in case you were wondering.”

“I dunno, I dunno, okay, I just, he was looking and he wouldn’t stop looking and I can’t deal with that . . .”

David took one step toward me. Slow. Like I might cut him. My fingers dug into the coin pocket of my jeans, made sure my pillbox was there. I knew it was. Never used the blade inside it while at work. But maybe today. I wondered if David knew about it somehow.

“Did he say anything?” David asked. “Did he do something to you? You want me to call the cops?”

Cops.

The word acted like a switch thrown at the base of my neck. My hands froze into fists. I stared into David’s hazel eyes, which he shaded from the early afternoon sun while he looked at me.

“No.” My breath shuddered as I sucked in fresh air. “No. He didn’t. Nothing happened. He just, he freaked me out. Is all. I’ll be okay.”

“Nothing for nothing, but you don’t look okay.”

I tried to ease my panting down to a slower rhythm. Force more air into my lungs.

“What’s that even mean?” I said.

“What, ‘nothing for nothing’? I don’t know. It’s probably just a corruption of ‘not for nothing,’ but come to think of it, I don’t know what that means either.”

“Splendid,” I said.

David looked like he didn’t know whether to laugh or be pissed. I didn’t know which I wanted him to be. God, my brains were like scrambled eggs.

“Just need a minute,” I said before he could respond. My knees shook, urging me to keep walking. Walk off the fear. Walk off the panic.

“I’m not punching you in,” David warned.

“Fine.”

David kept his eyes on me for another second. “But I guess I could cover for you. We’re not exactly slammed.”

“Yeah, sure,” I said, and began pacing again. I couldn’t stop myself. I could pace, or I could scream. One or the other.

“Or ‘Thank you, David’ is another option,” he said, and went back inside the café.

“Thank—” I started, but the door closed.

Again: splendid.

And David is the coworker who is nicest to me.

I rested my hands on my hips as I paced again. My heart finally eased up, stopped throwing its elbows against my rib cage. I wanted another cigarette but forced myself not to. Maybe I hadn’t been doing it long enough to really be addicted. I hoped so. I wanted to stop. But nicotine was my only medication. At least I could think when I smoked.

Maybe I shouldn’t have flushed my pills. I couldn’t get another scrip without Dr. Carpenter’s permission. Five years with her—you’d think she’d make it so I could get a refill or two without her, but no.

I went ahead and smoked another cigarette but snuffed it out halfway. By then I felt like I could go inside. Not a single customer had come and parked in the dirt lot during that time.

I found David reading a book at the service counter as the door closed behind me. That’s how not-busy we were on a Wednesday afternoon.

David let his paperback book whisk to a close. The cover read Tai Chi Classics.

“That seemed pretty epic out there,” he said. He narrowed his eyes cautiously, trying to figure where my mood was. I knew the look. He did it several times per shift. God. I belong back in the hospital. Or a zoo.

I came around the counter, passed him, and grabbed my blue...

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Verlag
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Erscheinungsdatum
2015
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1481422499
ISBN 13 
9781481422499
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
224
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Simon and Schuster Netherlands BV
info@simonandschuster.nl

Herculesplein 96
Utrecht
3584 AA
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