The Return Read Online Free Page A

retrieve his phone. After walking for a bit, Max, Nina, and Emily had decided to sit and wait by a group of fallen trees for him to return.
    â€œI bet Mr. Kull is happy the kids are gone,” Max snapped.
    â€œMax!” Nina chastised, putting a hand on Emily’s leg. “I’m sure that’s not true.”
    â€œHe’s probably right,” Emily whispered. “He was always so mean to us.”
    Nina couldn’t disagree.
    â€œI guess that’s true,” she said. “And what is the deal with that woman who is always staring out her window at us? She really gives me the creeps. It feels like she is always looking right at me.”
    Lost in conversation, the time passed quickly without notice until the suns started their descent and the forest began to fill with shadows.
    â€œDo you think he took another way home?” Emily asked.
    â€œWhat other way?” Nina replied nervously. “We’ve never even been out this far before. Do you think he got lost?”
    Max paced nervously back and forth.
    â€œShould we go back to the cabin and see if he’s there?” he asked. “Maybe Rusty and Tim just started talking.”
    It would have been easier if someone else had thought to bring a phone along, but no one did, so they were stuck with the option of going back to Rusty’s cabin—or going forward to tell Tim’s parents. But that would mean explaining why they had gone to the cabin in the first place.
    After a few minutes of discussion, Max decided to head back to the cabin while the girls headed back to town to see if Tim was already there.
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    The phone was gone.
    Rusty had noticed it after the kids had left and shortly before getting the call. It had been on the end table in the front room, and it was quite easy to recognize who it belonged to because of the skateboard stickers on it. Now it was gone.
    For months Rusty had been feeling a wide range of emotions, but overriding it all was an acute sense of anxiety and this situation certainly didn’t help to ease his fragile state of mind.
    One of the kids, or all of them, must have returned to retrieve it while he was on the phone in the other room. Was there a possibility they heard his conversation?
    Walking to the kitchen, he took out his wallet and removed a small photo of his sons: Luke with his jet black mop of hair—and Aidan, who was blonde with pale skin. Aidan had been very weak as a baby, and it only seemed to get worse as he grew. He was always sick, and by the time he reached the age of seven, he was simply unable to thrive any further. Luke was only five when it happened, followed shortly after by the loss of his mother—Rusty’s wife, Lenore.
    It had been a very sad time for them both. There had been no good way for him to explain to Luke why he lost both his brother and his mother so close together. Perhaps one day.
    â€œHello, anyone home?”
    Rusty walked slowly back to the front of the house.
    â€œMax?”
    â€œHi, Mr. Eller. I’m sorry to bother you again but . . . hey, are you okay?”
    Rusty realized he was suddenly sweating profusely.
    â€œMax, are you alone?”
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    Tim couldn’t believe he was looking at the Reef Institute.
    The opening was covered under some brush. He could see he was in some kind of enclosed courtyard. There were two guards close by, so Tim quickly ducked his head down to avoid being seen. He could hardly believe where this door had led him. While it did feel as though he had been walking awhile, it certainly didn’t feel like he had walked this far.
    If the tunnel had a door to this facility, where did all the other doors lead?
    He carefully lifted his head through the hole again and saw that the guards had moved away. He looked around and could see he was definitely inside the gates of the facility in a yard with a bench and a few tables.
    He was inside the