The Missing- Volume II- Lies (6 page)

It’s what happened to horrible people.

People like me.

I rolled onto my back coming fully awake. The incoherent remnants of my dream starting to fade away. And I was glad. The images and voices terrified me. Like a nightmare that went on and on and on.

I tried to swallow but couldn’t. I was so thirsty. How many days could a person survive without water? I was on my second day. At least I thought so. I couldn’t be sure.

I had gone longer than that without food.

I barely had enough energy to sit up. I thought about lying on the floor for a while longer. I noticed that the air around me seemed hotter. The pungent smell of smoke filled my nostrils, and I coughed to try to clear the taste coating my mouth.

Smoke. Heat. Fire.

I remembered something . . .

I watched the building burn and burn. Ashes flying in the wind. No more. It was gone. Rosie cried, her eyes wide. My vision blurred and I had a hard time staying in the present. I lost track of everything.

Matches scattered on the ground.

This was all her fault. She knew it. I knew it.

I could hear the distant wail of the fire trucks. I wiped soot from my hot cheeks.

“What did you do?” I whispered to the pretty girl beside me. Appalled but so happy. She ignored me. Her fear vibrated in the air between us. Rosie was scared. So scared. But I wasn’t.

Mother’s perfect child wasn’t so perfect after all.

Was it a memory? Or was it some sort of delusional fantasy? It didn’t feel real, like it had actually happened. But then why couldn’t I shake the feeling that there was something I needed to focus on?

I was too tired. I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Exhaustion settled over me so I drifted back to sleep, finding it better to be unconscious than to be awake.

And in that place between nightmares and reality, I heard the song. The soft, urgent words whispered to a melody that I knew so, so well.

The dark has eyes,

The shadows have teeth.

“Always doubt the truth underneath,” I sang, smiling. It would be so easy to lie there, on the hard, hot floor and drift away. To wait for a rescue that would never come. To remember everything that I had loved and lost.

Loved and lost.

Dead, green eyes. A smile that had never been mine. He gave it so easily to someone else.

“You’ll never learn, Nora,” I chastised myself, tapping my fingers on the concrete beneath me; staring up at the ceiling that I couldn’t quite see.

“Do you love her?” he demanded, his lips pursed tightly.

“Do I love her?” I repeated. He wanted me to tell him the truth. It was the only thing he had ever asked of me. But I could never give it to him. Honesty wasn’t an easy thing to hand over. Not even to Bradley.

Bradley squeezed his eyes shut. I touched his cheek and remembered others touching him softly. It made me sick. It made me want to hurt him. To hurt everyone.

“I love it when you’re like this,” I told him.

Bradley refused to open his eyes. He snatched my fingers from his face and held them tightly. “I told you that I would always protect you. I’ve tried, Nora. I’ve really tried. You have no idea the things I’ve done.”

He pulled the ring from my finger. The one I had only recently reclaimed as my own.

“Why do you still wear this? Why do you hold onto it when you should just let it go?”

What was he asking? I didn’t understand.

“It’s mine,” was all I could say.

Of course it was.

I had made sure of it.

Bradley shook his head. He was agitated. I tugged my hand free and touched him again. Because it was my right to do so. Because I did it so infrequently.

“Do
you
love her?” I countered angrily.

Bradley’s green eyes flashed. “Maybe it’s finally time to run, Nora.”

I hummed under my breath and waited for the next line of the song.

Lies are like raindrops

No two are the same.

I grinned. High and true. “Bind you, deny you, wrapped up in chains.”

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

The song stopped. I woke up. Consciousness came crashing into me like a bullet. I gasped and sat up, barely registering the pain in my joints and the agony in my empty stomach.

I scrambled to my feet and hurried to the hole in the wall. Dropping down to my knees, I pressed my face to the wood.

“Maren!” I called out.

She still laid there, her face turned away from me. Did I see her fingers move? Maybe she heard me!

I banged my fists against the wall. “Wake up! Maren! I’m here!”

I’m the last person she’d want to see.

The thought came unbidden and out of nowhere. But deep down I knew it was the truth. I heard her angry voice. Her words hurt as they hit my heart.

“You can’t tell me who to love, Nora! You can’t control my life!”

“But you love
me!”

Her eyes widened and her lips trembled. Tears fell and my heart bled . . .

“Let her out of here! You can keep me, but just let her go!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. I would trade my soul for Maren’s freedom. I would give up anything and everything just so I knew she was okay.

I hurried to the locked door and kicked it with my bare feet, wincing as I made impact. “Just let her go! She hasn’t done anything wrong! Maren could never hurt anyone!”

Liar.

I beat my fists against the door until the scabs reopened and blood made my skin slick.

Then I collapsed to the floor in exhaustion. Where I found myself at the beginning. Where I found myself now that I was here, at the end.

“She’s kind. She’s wonderful. She loves completely. She has the best heart. Why would you lock her up?” I sobbed.

You’re speaking nothing but lies!

I shook my head frantically. “Throw me away! I deserve it! But not Maren! Please, not Maren!”

Silence.

Deathly, constant quiet.

I crawled on hands and knees back to the wall where I could be closer to Maren.

“Maren, I’ll get us out of here. I promise! You can believe me. I’ll never let you down. Not now. Not ever,” I whispered, wishing I could touch her. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. Smoke and cotton candy. Coffee and almost kisses.

I smelled
home.

“Sing me a song, Nora. Your lyrics were always better than mine.”

I laughed. “But there’s no music. Do you have your guitar in there with you?” My voice was barely a whisper, but I knew she heard it. Words straight to her heart.

“You don’t need music. Just you and me and your amazing words.”

I smiled, not able to help myself. Maren always thought better of me than I really was. How could I not love her?

“Okay. But if it sucks, it’s because you’ve put me on the spot,” I warned good-naturedly, enjoying our usual game.

I lightly tapped my forehead against the wall and tried to think. I tried to formulate something that would be pretty enough for my pretty girl.

“You told me to let go,

I held on tight.

You told me to run,

I kept you in my sights.

You told me to leave

and I wouldn’t move.

You told me it wasn’t love,

but it was mine to lose.”

My song drifted off into the still, still air and I felt like crying. Why had I sung her such a sad song? Where had it come from?

She didn’t say anything.

“Maren?”

Nothing.

I peeked through the hole and could still see her. Arm outstretched, fingers curved slightly upward. Face looking anywhere but at me.

“Look at me!” I commanded sharply.

“I can’t . . .”

“Maren, please! I can’t bear this without you! I told you that I had been waiting my whole life for you and it was the truth! Even here in this awful place, it’s better now. Because we’re together!”

“But what about Bradley?”

“What does he have to do with anything?” I shrieked, feeling my anger flair to life. Bradley. Bradley.

Beautiful, horrible Bradley.

“Mine,” I whispered, more to myself than to Maren.

“Is he?”

I ran my fingers along the ground. Over dark, encrusted stains that looked a lot like blood. Small splashes of darkened crimson marking the surface.

Who bled here?

Why?

Did it even matter?

“Why would you ask me that?” Was she moving? Her fingers twitching just a bit?

I continued to run my fingers over the old blood. Wondering. Forgetting. Wanting to hear her voice in my ears.

“If he loves you, where is he? Why isn’t he breaking down the door? I thought he would always protect you?”

I ran my tongue over dry, cracked lips, refusing to answer Maren’s pointed questions.

Because they made absolute sense. They were the same things I had been asking myself for days.

Where, oh where was Bradley Somers?

More memories that I couldn’t quite grasp.

His smile lit up his face.

I felt sick inside.

I had never seen him smile like that before.

That smile should have been mine.

It was supposed to be.

His tenderness. His protectiveness. His love.

Those were mine to keep. Forever and ever.

How dare he throw them away on someone else!

How dare he give them to
her!

I twisted the ring around my finger.

Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine.

“He’s looking for me. I’m sure of it.”

No, I wasn’t.

I wasn’t sure of anything.

“Maren, will you look at me? I just want to see your face.” Then everything would be a little bit better.

Just a little bit.

She remained silent. Her face turned away.

She wouldn’t look at me.

I hated her.