ALMOST

NOLAN

**“You can spend your life building walls to keep out the darkness, but it only takes one crack for everything to come crumbling down.”**

The air in the car felt heavy, filled with the weight of what we were about to do. I could hear Alanna’s breathing, steady but strained, like she was trying to keep it all together. I tightened my grip on the steering wheel, my knuckles turning white. Every mile we covered felt like it was taking us further away from safety, deeper into the unknown.

“We’re really doing this,” I muttered under my breath, more to myself than to her.

Alanna didn’t look at me. Her eyes were fixed on the road ahead, her face pale. “We don’t have a choice, Nolan. We have to get them back.”

“But what if something goes wrong?” The question had been gnawing at me from the moment we agreed to this plan. “What if we give them the money, and they still…?”

She cut me off before I could finish, her voice tight. “We can’t think like that. We have to believe it will work.”

I