He saunters smugly to a door. Jane slowly closes the fridge, making the room black for us both. When his hand rattles the door and the lock I stiffen, holding myself so tightly I strain my muscles. But it isn’t my door he opens. It’s Jane’s. I back from the corner just slightly; we don’t want him to know about the crack we have picked open so we can see each other.
The light in the hallway outlines my door, making it seem as if something supernatural is there, lighting up the space behind it. In the crack, with my one eye I refuse to tear away, I see him walk into her room, casting a shadow like a monster on her.
“My prince, you’ve found me,” she mutters weakly, smiling and staring right in his eyes.
He walks forward. “My beautiful princess, I have found you at last. I’ve searched high and low.” He walks to her, sweeping her up into his arms. He doesn’t do the needle with her or Lacey, not always. They’ve earned his trust. Their rooms are nicer too.
She’s small and weak compared to him, but only for a second. Then she’s savage. She bites his throat, stabbing something I haven’t ever seen before into his shoulder. He screams and backs up toward the light in the hallway, but she kicks the door closed, making the room dark. She flings open the fridge, flooding light into the dark space as she snatches the key from his hands when he reaches for the wood stabbed into his shoulder.
Her eyes meet mine, and in slow motion I watch as she tosses the key at the crack. I reach my hand through as he pulls the thing from his shoulder. I realize then it’s splintered wood, no doubt from the wall in her cell.
When the key lands in my hand, his hand drives the spike of wood into her back, changing the look on her face from hopeful to something else. Perhaps it’s the end she knew she would meet. “RUN!” she shouts, and falls, tripping him as he tries to reach for me and the key.
The fridge closes and the light is gone. She opened it to save me, to throw me the key. She had a plan.
I back away, pulling my hand out through the crack, slamming my back against the wall of my cell as he punches the thing. I think he breaks it open enough that he reaches through, maybe with his whole arm. I can feel the wind and motion of him swinging it, and yet just missing me. Rage and screaming join the swinging arm and reaching fingertips. But it is all my imagination, for I see nothing.
I stand, clutching the key, shaking and sobbing. The other girls are screaming, he’s losing his shit, and Jane is dying. Hot tears slip from my cheeks as slowly my hand lowers to the lock. I turn the key, clicking it once. It’s so loud to me, even over their screams, that it echoes in my mind. I am accustomed to the sound being horrid.
I open the door a little, letting light flood the small room from the hall. I glance up, gasping when I see I am looking him right in the eye. I open the door wider, blocking him with it and slipping into the hallway as he screams, “Don’t you dare, Princess! Don’t you dare!” I pull the key from the lock and close my door again, locking it. I can’t help but wince with the sound of the clicking metal inside of the door.
When I turn, there are so many doors and bright lights, I don’t know which way to run.
So I start turning keys in locks. When I open a door to a blonde girl with a crazy look in her eyes, I toss the key at her. “Free the rest; I’ll find the way out.” I know she’s Lacey.
I turn again, running for the main entry as far as guessing will get me.
One door is a closet, with clean linens, the ones we change our own bedding with once a month.
Another door is the stairs to the bathroom. I have been carried up it many times.
I turn and open the last door on my left to find a set of stairs I have never seen before. So I climb until I find a hatch. I push on it, my poor feeble arms failing me. Just as I am about to give up I feel a switch next to the latch in the ceiling. I press it, sighing as the lid that is the ceiling lifts and the floor of a garage, the barn next to the cabin, is revealed.
I pull myself out. My legs are weak from limits to workouts and walking, and my skin instantly tenses, maybe afraid of the elements that might be out here.
My feet are cold and bare, but I don’t bother acknowledging the sniveling my addled brain is attempting.
Jane has died to free me.
When I get outside, the air around me is crisp and cold. I pause, taking in the breathtaking view of the mountains.
I glance back at the hatch in the floor, but no one is coming. I nearly walk back to see what they’re doing, but something inside of me screams for me to run, just the way Jane said it. So I do.
I turn and flee from the barn, running down the driveway and across the street to the woods. I push myself hard, until the woods cover me.