Chapter Forty-Seven
I Know Why the
Caged Bird Sings
I wake in a cold sweat and realize someone has been saying my name.
Domino…
Turning over in bed, my face bathed in moonlight, I focus on the voice.
Domino, wake up.
When I realize who it is, I pull the covers over my head and groan. Leave me alone, Wilson.
He moves in closer. Why were you thinking about those things? Those things that happened with Mother?
I can’t help it. It’s like she’s dragging it out of me.
Madam Karina?
I don’t respond.
Wilson does something he’s never done before. He lays his hand on my forehead. I close my eyes against his touch as he moves his palm over my hair slowly, shushing me. It’s almost like if I peek, he’ll be standing there, flesh and blood.
But when I do open my eyes, it’s my own hand that’s petting my hair. I rip my arm down and swing my legs over the side of the bed. Poppet is asleep across from me. Watching her, I’m struck by loneliness. It’s been so long since we stayed up late and whispered secrets and wishes for our future and, sometimes, recounted memories from our past.
Pulling on a pair of jeans, I head toward Cain’s place in the basement. I find him awake on the foot of his mattress. When he sees me, he opens the cage door without hesitation and takes me into his arms. It’s a quick hug, like he did it without thinking. And before I know it, he’s put distance between us again.
“Is everything okay?” he asks.
I shake my head. “No. I know where Ellie is. Or at least, I think I do.”
Cain raises an eyebrow.
“Want to take a drive?”
He opens his mouth to answer, and then his brow furrows. He takes my chin in his hand and turns my face to the left, examines my cheek, my neck. “What happened here?”
I pull away. “Nothing.”
“Domino, tell me.” His voice is urgent, furious.
“Madam Karina slapped me. She was drunk.” I don’t tell him the rest. It’s right there for him to see. Cain starts to respond, but I continue. “I have to get out of here. That was my plan for a while, to earn enough to get a place and buy myself time to find a job. But I can’t wait any longer. She’s cracking, Cain. Mr. Hodge is making her crazy, and she’s freaking out about losing anyone else.”
Cain stares at my skin like he can will the bruises away. From between clenched teeth, he says, “She’s always been like that. Afraid that people will run out on her.”
“Will you take me into Pox?”
He hesitates for a beat as if he’s weighing the old Cain, who would never risk upsetting Madam Karina, against the new Cain, who cares enough about someone else to come out of hiding. In the end, he pulls on black combat boots and motions for me to head up first.
Outside, the phantom vehicle waits for us, patient as death. It’s a stroke of luck that the car hasn’t been returned. Cain starts to get in the driver’s seat, but I beat him to the punch and take the keys from his hand.
“You know how to drive?” he asks in a whisper.
I nod. It’s been a while, but my mom taught me before I left home. Slipping behind the wheel, my senses spark alive. It feels like I’ve been asleep, and only now have I thought to wake up and see the world for what it is.
I take the car out onto the road slowly and drive a short distance before accelerating. Glancing back in the rearview, I assure myself no new lights have flipped on.
It doesn’t take long to arrive in Pox’s town square, and never once does Cain question what we’re doing. Once, briefly, he looks over and stares at me in the dark. But that’s it. I navigate down the roads until I find what I’m looking for. The same place we passed on the way to get ice cream.
Pox County Municipal
A town this size probably doesn’t have a separate police station, so I park outside the two-story brick building and kill the ignition. A single light buzzes over the glass door, and moths throw themselves against the intoxicating light.
I get out of the car, and Cain follows me without a word. My palms begin to sweat when we step inside because, in my eagerness, I never thought through how we’d enter the jail area without being questioned. But the woman behind the counter is painting her nails a bubblegum shade of pink to match the teddy bears on her sweater. She hardly glances up as we pass by.
“The jail cells?” Cain asks me under his breath when we’re a safe distance away.
“Yeah, do you know where they are?”
He waves me along. “Follow me.”
We stride down linoleum hallways scuffed black, and Cain pauses outside a heavy door that reads Police in an arch across a glass window insert. Cain peers through and holds a finger to his lips. The we crouch to the floor, and he brings his mouth to my ear. I shiver from the unexpected touch. “There’s an officer on duty. He’ll go in the back at some point.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I’ve delivered stuff to Eric before, and they rarely keep anyone up front at night. Too little happens around here.”
Just as Cain predicted, the deputy sitting behind the front desk eventually moves to a door on his left and exits. We wait five minutes to ensure he’s gone to the lounge and isn’t returning. Then we go inside. Cain pushes a button beneath the desk and the door on the opposite side clicks.
I grab the handle and smile when it opens.
“I’ve always wanted to push that button,” Cain says with a sly grin.
I head down the narrow hall, jail cells lining the right side. They’re the old-school kind with actual bars and rusting toilets and steel benches that serve as beds. Not sure what else to do, I quietly call out her name.
“Ellie? Are you here?”
When no one responds, I tiptoe past the first cell that lays empty and move to the next, but there’s no one here. I was wrong. I figured, with Eric’s involvement, that if Ellie were being held anywhere, it’d be here. I look at Cain and shrug, shaking my head. He lays a soft hand on my upper back, ready to guide us out, when the air kicks on. The breeze rushes out through floor vents, and a soft thump sounds from behind us.
I turn on my heels, narrow my eyes. And though I’m staring right at it, it’s Cain that really sees it first.
He strides over, surprisingly quiet on his feet, and spiders his fingers along the hardwood floor. Near the grated air return, his hand finds purchase. He lifts a flap in the floor and glances at me, his features twisted with concern.
I dash toward him but, when I make for the descending stairs, he blocks my path, holds up a wait hand. We listen, and then Cain takes the stairs before me.
Uh, we totally could have gone first, Wilson says.
Below the floor of the jail cell is a buzzing light, concrete floors, and second set of jail cells. I swallow, my throat thick. When I spot a thin girl lying on the bench, her back to me, I’m sickened but not surprised. I steal a glance at Cain, wet my lips, and say, “Are you Ellie?”
There’s a long pause that wraps around my throat. Finally, the girl says, “What does she want now?”
My stomach touches my feet, and the wind is ripped from my lungs. It’s her. This is Ellie, and Madam Karina put her here, and maybe I’ve known all along but was too afraid to admit it. Most girls leave and become like Angie, forever toiling for their master until they are one day, maybe, released from servitude. But Ellie tried to escape. And now she is here.
“How long have you been here?” I ask, choking on panic.
Ellie turns and faces us. When I see her, I have to look away. Cain brushes my arm, but I recoil from his touch. It’s too much to be comforted when she’s the one who needs help.
Her face is shallow and bruised, and her skin has a sickly pallor. A light sweat coats her upper lip and forehead, and blood cakes her bottom lip. “As long as I deserve. And I’ll serve the remainder of my time and debt to Madam Karina with gratitude. Being here has given me time to reflect on my mistakes.”
My entire body goes numb when I understand why Ellie is talking this way. She’s consumed by fear. “We’re on your side. You don’t have to be scared.”
She stands up, greasy brown hair falling over her left eye. Her body shakes from the exertion, and bile rises in my throat. “I love Madam Karina,” she insists, shuffling toward me. “I wish only to return to her home and make her happy for the rest of my days. I was wrong. Can you tell her I was wrong?”
“Screw this.” Cain spins on his heel and searches the space, no doubt looking for a way to open her cell.
“It’s no use,” a new voice says from farther down. A girl’s arm appears from between the bars of the next cell. It’s gut-wrenchingly thin, with blue veins rising to the surface like earthworms in the rain. “She won’t tell you anything useful. But I will.”
I race to where the second, older girl stands and stumble upon seeing her. She’s in even worse condition than Ellie.
“My name is Viviane Roth, and I was caught by Eric and his pigs thirteen hours after I ran away.” She raises her head as if she’s proud of what she’s about to say next. “I’ve been here for one year and forty-seven days.”
Disbelief and horror crackle through my body, and I find it takes everything I have to keep my legs beneath me. “Tell me what I can do to help you.”
She laughs and digs a finger into her ear. “You can’t. And if you’re one of Madam Karina’s girls, you better get out of here.”
“How did they catch you?” Cain asks, startling me.
“We’re not sure. But one way or another, they always do.”
“Paula made it the longest, I think. Three days before they found her.”
“Four,” a quiet voice says at the end of the aisle.
“Okay, whatever, four.” Viviane continues talking, but my ears ring so loudly that I can’t absorb what she’s saying. Because now I’m moving down the cells, one by one, and trying not to lose control of my breathing. In each cramped space is a female, some young, some old. Their faces are shadowed and accusatory. Some are like the first girl, their bodies turned away, and all of them look broken, their spirits long buried. That doesn’t stop a handful from announcing the time they’ve spent imprisoned.
“Fifteen months,” one says.
“Two years and two months,” says another.
“Four years, four months, and thirteen days,” declares the winner.
My heart hammers against my rib cage, and my fingers fly to my temples. Wilson tries to speak, but I push him down with everything I have. I can’t think beyond what I’ve just learned. I can’t think beyond three simple truths.
I am Domino Ray.
I am afraid of nothing more than being alone with my mind.
If I try and escape Madam Karina’s clutches, that is exactly what will happen to me.