“Good morning, Flowers,” he said and walked down the stairs.
“Good morning,” Rose and Poppy replied. They said it so in tune, as if it was their line in a play. That was how I was going to look at it. I was a part in a play. It was all make-believe and I just had to go along with it until we were found.
He stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked at me. “Good morning, Lily.” His voice was firmer—challenging me. He wanted me to say it. His face reddened as he waited.
I stood up. My hands started to shake. “Good morning,” I replied quietly and forced myself to look into his cold, muddy brown eyes. He smiled triumphantly and ran his eyes over my body. I squirmed under his gaze. My skin crawled at the way he looked at me. I didn’t dare look away; I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of making me uncomfortable. If that was even what he was trying to do. Would he even care how I felt? No way. He couldn’t.
“You are a very beautiful young woman, Lily.” My stomach turned. I clenched my fists, digging my nails into the palms of my hands. In the eyes of the law, I was still a child. I felt dirty and violated as he raked his eyes down my body. “Let’s eat then,” he said. “This smells wonderful, girls.”
I let out a sigh of relief that his attention had been turned to something else and sat down. The food did smell good, but I couldn’t stomach anything. He placed something at the end of the table. A newspaper. My heart leaped. Would I be in it? The urge to grab it and see was overwhelming, but I was too afraid.
We ate mostly in silence, answering the odd question. The newspaper was taunting me. I wanted to reach for it and see what was going on outside this prison.
“Well, that was lovely. Thank you. I’ll see you tonight for dinner.” He left without giving Rose or Poppy a kiss. I was glad for them, even though they didn’t seem bothered either way.
It wasn’t until he had locked the door that I reached for the paper. I flicked it over and gasped. On the front page was a recent close-up picture of me. It was taken just a few weeks ago at my aunt’s birthday dinner. Lewis was also in the picture, but he had been mostly cut out so the focus was on me. I wished they had left him in so I could see his face. All I had was a small part of the side of his head, not even enough to see his eye. I could see his styled black hair, though.
I stroked the picture where he should have been and closed my eyes. Tears streamed down my face, making a soft thud as they landed on the paper. As hard as it was to see that picture, to read about myself, at least it meant people were looking for me. People were searching, and it was only a matter of time before they found me. But how much time could I cope with?
“Is that Lewis with you?” Poppy asked, peering over my shoulder. I nodded, not trusting myself to speak without breaking. She put her hand on my shoulder and gave it a little squeeze. “I’m sorry, Lily.” Summer. “We’ll watch some movies tonight. Okay?” Right, for a change! The way she said it was as if that was a treat rather than the only thing we had to do.
“Sure,” I replied.
Poppy smiled. “Clover’s bringing popcorn for a movie night tonight.” Bringing. He was staying down here too? My heart sunk. I nodded and went to get a book from the large bookshelf so I had something to do and so I could fall into another world and leave this one for a while.
I started reading The Time Traveler’s Wife to pass the time as quickly as possible. Every second down here seemed to drag on for hours and hours. As I flicked over another page, I wondered: how many books would I finish before I got out of here? Tens? Hundreds? Thousands?
“Lily, we need to start dinner,” Rose said, placing her hand on the top of the book to get my attention. I looked up, stunned. I had been reading all day. Smiling to myself, I vowed to read my time away every day until I was found.
“Okay,” I replied, placed a bookmark in the book, and put it back on the shelf. If I had been at home I would have slung it on my bed, but he was weird about cleanliness and tidiness, so I was too scared to be messy.
When dinner was in the oven, we cleaned up and made sure everything was perfect. Rose and Poppy were so obsessed with things being perfect it scared me. “I’m just going to brush my hair,” I told them and walked away. I wanted to be in another room when he came down. The anticipation was too much; my heart felt like it was going to explode as I waited for him to come down.
I sat on the bed and took deep, calming breaths. Just play along. That was all I had to do. All. As if that wasn’t already too much. A murmur of voices filtered through to the bedroom, and I knew he was out there. Pushing the fear deep down inside me, I pulled the door open and forced myself to try to smile.
“Ah, Lily, so nice of you to join us,” he said and smiled. “Come and sit. Dinner’s almost ready, right, Rose?”