Rose was cleaning the bathroom so I took the opportunity to speak to Poppy in private. It had been nearly five months since I was kidnapped and thrown down here, and I hadn’t given up hope—even after turning seventeen yesterday. No one knew and he didn’t mention a thing, although he would definitely have found out. I didn’t want to celebrate anyway.
“Poppy,” I hissed under my breath when she didn’t look up from her book as I hovered over her. “When did you give up hope of getting out?” It was something I had wanted to ask thousands of times but didn’t dare. She was my only hope of doing something to escape, and I wasn’t ready to hear it if she didn’t want to. Five months was long enough. Five months was too close to the average of six to eight months it took for him to “fall in love” with his “flowers” and rape them. I couldn’t beg her to help me escape too soon—before I was sure I could trust her and knew she wanted to get out—but I was dangerously close to going into that room.
She shifted on the sofa uncomfortably, as if I’d asked her something really personal. It’s a damn simple question and the answer is never. “It’s not about giving up, Lily; it’s about surviving,” she replied. “I don’t know if we’ll ever get out of here—alive—but going along with all this is the only chance we have.” There had to be another way.
“Do you think your family is looking for you?”
She shook her head and dropped her eyes to the floor. I knew she didn’t have a great relationship with them, but surely no one would give up on their child, especially if that child was missing. “I know they’re not. We had a huge falling-out, and my parents said if I left I should never come back. I used to think my brother would look for me. He probably did for a while, but I doubt he would still be looking.”
“I’m sure they didn’t mean what they said. People say lots of things when they’re angry.” I’d said some horrible things to my parents, especially in my early teens. I would give anything to take them all back now.
“Maybe.” She half smiled and looked so sad it made my eyes fill with tears. I couldn’t imagine what it was like to think your family didn’t care. “Your family will be, though. You never know, maybe they’ll find us all.”
I nodded. “Yeah, they’ll be looking. I know Lewis won’t give up until he finds me.” He was definitely too stubborn to. Henry and Theo used to argue over which one of us was more stubborn and take bets on who would back down first in different situations. I used to win, but I still think Lewis is more stubborn. “We will get out of here,” I said to myself as much as her.
She squeezed my hand. “We will.” When? I had to get out before he touched me.
“Why did you leave home?” Poppy swallowed hard, it was obviously still hard for her to think about. “Sorry, you don’t have to talk about it.”
“No, it’s okay. It’s just that I haven’t ever spoken about the details before; everyone else down here seems to respect each other’s privacy,” she teased and winked. I smiled apologetically.
“When I hit my teenage years, I started going out a lot and got in with the wrong crowd. They took me to raves and shared their alcohol. I thought I was so cool at the time, and I loved how confident it made me.” She smiled and shook her head at the memory. I could relate to that—minus the bad crowd thing. I wasn’t confident and was always more outgoing when I’d had a drink, although I only drank a little bit, until I got that warm, tipsy feeling.
“Of course my parents didn’t like it. They tried grounding me, taking things away, getting other family members involved, but I wouldn’t listen to anyone. My new friends understood me, or so I thought. Every time I stumbled in drunk after midnight, my family became even more frustrated. I guess in the end, they’d had enough. We had a big argument and they were telling me I needed to get help and stop going out. I packed a bag and left. I can still remember my mum’s words, ‘You need help, Becca, so if you leave this house now, don’t even think about coming back.’ Those words still haunt me now. I should have stayed. I wish I could turn back the clock and storm up to my bedroom that night rather than out of the front door.” She sighed. “Now I’m here.”
I didn’t want to admit it, but Poppy suited her better than Becca. Maybe that was just because I had only ever called her Poppy, though. Her family must be going through hell, especially after ending things like that. We had to get out; Poppy and her family deserved a second chance too.
“Right,” Rose said as she closed the bathroom door behind her. “All done. Shall we watch a movie?”
What else was there to do? We had already watched every film we had twice. He buys and sells DVDs online once a month. We had about forty movies, but with little else to do, we quickly went through them. I was starting to hate my favorite movies.
“Yeah, whatever,” I replied and flopped back into the sofa, preparing myself for yet another night in front of the TV.