The Missing- Volume II- Lies (10 page)

Beep. Beep. Beep.

“I’m here, Nora, and I expect you to snap out of it! This is not appropriate. And it is not suitable behavior. How dare you make me look a fool! I should have gotten rid of you when I had the chance! Now look at you!”

I didn’t want to hear her voice. Her words hurt. That’s why she said them.

I kept my eyes closed and tried to drift away. Away from her and her angry, angry words.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

“I should have drowned you that first night. When I saw your horrible face, I knew you were no child. You were a demon! My sin brought to life! He hated you. He wouldn’t stay because of you! And now I’m stuck with the thing that I despise the most!”

Stop it!

I tried to scream, but I couldn’t.

I wanted to cry, but the tears were gone.

She didn’t deserve them anyway.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

I sat up with a start.

Something was different.

I tried to pull myself up to my knees. It took a few attempts given how weak I was, but I was finally able to after a few attempts. I looked at Maren through the hole in the wall. Still. So very still.

But wait.

Had she moved?

Maybe?

Had her arm been outstretched like that before?

I could have sworn her hair had been brushed around her and not over her shoulder.

I was pretty sure her head moved slightly, even though I still couldn’t see her face.

“Maren?” I called out.

Nothing.

I slid back down the wall and pulled my knees up to my chest. My stomach growled and I tried to swallow. My parched throat burned. I was so tired. So hungry. So very, very thirsty.

But I didn’t have time to think about my thirst or my hunger. I had to think about a way to get out of here. A way to get free.

For me. For Maren.

“Where’s Bradley?”

“I don’t know, Maren. He has to be looking for me. He’s probably going out of his mind.”

“Where’s Bradley?”

“Stop asking me that! I don’t know!” I screamed at her. It was a simple question with an equally simple answer, yet it enraged me. Mostly because I
couldn’t
answer it. It stirred up doubts that I didn’t want to think about. Dark, dangerous thoughts about the person who had locked us away.

“I’ll do whatever I have to do to keep you safe, Nora. Even if you hate me for it.”

There were so many memories. Bits and pieces that were starting to come together like a gigantic, messy puzzle.

I had wanted to remember that night. The one that brought me here. I had been so desperate for it. But the longer that I remained trapped, the harder it was for me to hold onto the reality I had lived
out there
at all.

The snippets that had played in my mind came with so much anger and betrayal that I knew something horrible had happened. Something that I had blocked out. Something that once remembered, would destroy what little sanity I had left.

I itched at the burning skin on my foot. The tattoo. Bright red against pale skin.

It had seemed like such a good idea at the time. I thought of Maren’s similar design and my gut twisted into complicated knots.

I remembered . . .

“What is this?” Maren pointed at my bandaged foot. I grinned, excited to show her what I had done.

“Do you want to see?” I teased.

Maren rolled her eyes. “Stop playing around, Nora. Either show me or don’t.”

She sounded exasperated. I frowned. Maren’s patience was running thin lately. Particularly where I was concerned. I wasn’t sure what had changed. What I had done. But I was determined to get things back on track.

Starting with this one thing that would bind us together always.

I slowly peeled away the bandage and watched her face for her reaction.

“What do you think?” I asked eagerly.

Maren’s mouth thinned and her eyes narrowed. “When did you get this?”

I swallowed, my throat feeling tight. My eyes burned, but I wouldn’t cry. “Uh, yesterday after class. I thought—”

“I don’t understand what you’re doing, Nora.” Maren sounded sad. So sad. And troubled too.

I lifted my hand and softly stroked her cheek. “How can you not know?” I baited, trying to lighten the mood. I covered the tattoo with the bandage again. The tattoo just like hers.

Maren seemed angry. “What did you think would happen because you got this? Please, make me understand!”

I clicked my tongue. “You have one and I have one. It’s ours.” Why was she getting so upset? I thought she’d be happy. She cared about me. She said so.

“Did you think that by doing this we’d be together or something? That it meant we were a . . . couple?” she seemed to spit out that last word as though it were dirty. My heart split open. A deep chasm.

“I th-thought—” I began to stutter.

Maren quickly rose to her feet, her soft brown hair blowing around her. I wish my hair were that soft. I wanted it to be lovely as it blew in my face.

She seemed so angry. So disgusted.

For the first time since we met, I hid my face from her. Ashamed.

“You can’t force love, Nora! You can’t demand affection! You’re squeezing me to death, and I just want you to let me go!”

The air left my lungs and I almost collapsed.

“It’s just a tattoo—” I tried to make it insignificant.

Liar!

“No, it’s not. It’s not just a tattoo,” Maren whispered, her fury disappearing and turning into something that looked like fear.

I rubbed at the infected skin, scratching it with my nails. I wanted to get rid of it. I wanted it gone!

I scratched and scratched but still it remained.

I was branded with a deep, impenetrable love. A love that was killing me.

“Maren,” I moaned.

“Where’s Bradley?”

“Stop asking me that!” I shouted, covering my ears with my blood coated hands. “Just stop it! This has nothing to do with Bradley! I just want to go home! I want to get out of here!”

“It has everything to do with Bradley.”

The heat became overwhelming, and I was incredibly lightheaded.

“And you’ll never be able to go home. Never again . . .”

“Please, just don’t!”

“The dark has eyes, the shadows have teeth. Always doubt the truth underneath.”

She sang me the song. It was ours. I should have known.

The voice. The melody. That’s why it was so familiar.

“Those words were the most honest thing about you, Nora.”

“Why are you being so cruel, Maren? What did I ever do to you?” Why was she hurting me? All I had ever done was love her. All I had ever wanted was for us to be together. If I was guilty of anything, it was that I adored her completely.

Bradley had been right. Love was every painful, horrible thing in life. I should have listened to him.

“You let this happen. You won’t get us out!”

“I will! I will get us out of here! I promise!”

“But where’s Bradley?”

I crawled to the door and felt around the cracks, looking for a way out. I would get free if it was the last thing I did.

And it just might be.

The Past

Three Months Ago

I
stood over my mother while she slept and watched her breathe.

She smiled slightly in her dreams and I wondered what made her happy behind closed lids.

Carefully, so as to not wake her, I held a lock of her aging blonde hair between my fingers. Cold. Not warm. Brittle. Not soft. Dead follicles.

Cold. Brittle. Dead.

I smiled.

It was just how I wished her to be.

I pulled a pair of scissors from my pocket and snipped the strand.

Then I left the room with my prize.

I placed the hair underneath my pillow and fell into my own dreams of a love I’d never have and a life I’d never escape.

“This place is sort of strange,” Maren said, making herself comfortable on the floor. She pulled out a notebook and laid it on her lap.

I settled myself beside her, opening a bag of bar-b-que potato chips that Bradley had left behind. For me.

We were at the barn. My special place. Full of memories and lingering smoke. It felt good to be here with her.