Chapter 57: Chapter Two

Alice

I had no idea how long it had been, only that my family most likely thought I’d died. Then again, they didn’t really care, did they?

That’s what my brother said when he handed me over to the men with the tattoos after being raided. They were the same men my father told me to run from if they ever came close to our house.

“Killers,” he’d said. “Monsters.”

Most little girls grow up assuming that the monsters in their head are fake, that there aren’t monsters in the closet waiting to scare you and steal your scream for energy; that would be silly.

But there were monsters outside my window.

I knew it because my father told me every single night.

And my brother told me if I screamed, they’d hear.

So, I never screamed when he came into my room.

I just closed my eyes and waited for it to be over.

I dreamed about one of the monsters seeing and saving me, because death it seemed would be a better option, wouldn’t it?

I exhaled and looked around the small room. It was draped in rich burgundys and had no windows that I could see. Then again, I was chained to a bed so it wasn’t like I could actually roam anywhere.

Every hour someone would walk in, unchain me, allow me to use the small restroom attached to the bedroom, only to chain me back again.

At one point, my teeth were inspected, and I was told if I bit I would get my tongue chopped off.

They didn’t know that threats fell on empty ears.

I almost asked if they’d take my eyes too, or my heart. I almost asked if they’d take every organ that made me Alice De Lange.

My family was on the run, being hunted down by the monsters outside my window.

And the worst part was that I hoped the monsters in this story.

Would win.

The guilt I carried with me was the very truth that I wished for it to be over. All of it. And yet the nightmare continued, until a few days ago, three? Maybe four?

I shook my head and stared at the metal door in front of me. It had several locks on it and looked like it could survive a bomb going off.

Unfortunate.

I pulled my knees to my chest and squeezed my eyes shut, forcing myself to keep the tears in.

Tears had betrayed me after all.

My tears and screams are what got me in this place.

They’re what made my father finally come.

I tried to cover up.

I wasn’t fast enough.

My brother’s hand landed on my cheek then. “You bitch! You sick bitch! Stop throwing yourself at me!”

I said nothing.

I stared straight ahead.

And then something was thrown over my head as I was pulled to my feet. I heard cursing in Italian; my brother was yelling at my father.

A gunshot rang out.

I closed my eyes and escaped.

And then I was being forced into a car, my brother’s warning in my ear as I was ushered away.

Two more gunshots rang out.

And I’d smiled the first genuine smile since my fifth birthday.

I leaned back against the soft bed and stared up at the ceiling. At least they were feeding me.

At least my door was locked.

How sad, that I had to be captured to realize that I preferred captivity over my own home?

Whatever happened… I would be okay.

Because my door was locked.

And he was gone.