Read Worth Dying For for Free Online

don’t you ever talk about it?” he said, pressing his lips into her hair. She turned to stare into his eyes, trying to figure out what he could mean. Then his words hit home.
    Amber jumped to her feet. “You know ?” Stunned by his silent nod, she moved to the other side of the tent, dropping to her knees. “Who told you?”
    David avoided her gaze. “I don’t remember.”
    “Bullshit,” she snapped, her anger making the colour to drain from his face.”Who was it?”
    “Everybody,” he said in a rush. “Everybody knows. It’s not like it’s a secret or anything, at least not amongst the faculty.”
    “Oh my God.”
    She didn’t know what else to say as she absorbed what he had told her. How long had people been talking about her? They’d been discussing her private life in hushed tones and whispers all this time and all the while she thought she’d been fooling them? Only one person knew the details of what she’d been through. She would kill Richard Snell when she got hold of him, and she didn’t give a good goddamn whether he’d meant well or not.
    “Calm down. It’s old news as far as I am concerned. Anyway, I thought you had a grip on things?” David’s conciliatory tone had disappeared. “Look, I’m sorry okay? I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
    “No, you shouldn’t have.” Amber could handle his anger—she could anything but pity. “It’s none of your business.”
    The question appeared in his eyes long moments before he got up the courage to ask it. She steeled herself, trying to take her mind to a neutral place where she could handle giving her practiced reply.
    “Why did he do it?” David didn’t look her in the eyes as he waited for her to speak.
    “Maybe I drove him to it.” When she vocalised her worst fear in a pained whisper, the honesty of her answer surprised her. David winced. “I mean, that’s what everybody is thinking, isn’t it?”
    “He could’ve just left if he didn’t want to be with you any longer Amber. He didn’t have to kill…himself—” His voice drifted off as his brain caught up with his mouth.
    She scrambled to her feet, needing to get away, unable to deal with the conversation or the damage it could cause her. Running from the tent, she headed into the forest, her earlier fear forgotten as she stumbled through the undergrowth with her brain screaming accusations at her. The reason Tom had thrown his young life away and scarred hers forever was a mystery to everyone. An enigma in both life and death, he hadn’t bothered to leave a note or say goodbye. Amber guessed he felt she didn’t need to know why.
    “Amber!”
    Ignoring David’s shout, she ploughed her way up the hill, feet slipping on the soft mulch below. Amber’s heart began to pound from the exertion, and the sure, certain knowledge she was running towards whatever it was in the dark forest which caused her such fear. Her stomach lurched as the now familiar jolt of terror twisted to life but she welcomed it with open arms and a ragged cry of relief. Even the cold dread surging through her chest seemed safe compared to the despair thoughts of Tom could unleash. Amber simply couldn’t go there. Not again.
    David’s voice became distant and weak as the sound of her racing heart throbbed loud in her ears, until that too disappeared behind another much louder noise. The ground beneath her feet began to shift like sand, each step she took pushing her further down the hill rather than up it. Confused, she turned towards the beach. Had David felt it too? His reaction left her in no doubt. His gaze seemed fixed on the hillside above her. David eyes widened and he pointed upwards as he shouted something to Amber that she couldn’t hear above the growing roar. David gestured for her to move his way, even as he began staggering away from her. He fell to the sand as he stumbled, his feet pushing against the beach as he tried desperately to put more distance between himself and whatever it