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I should have that helper thrown into the suffering hut for ignoring my calls. He’d better have a fucking good reason.
I should’ve thought twice about bringing a man like him along for this journey. It’s not often people like us get to travel outside the community, and when we do, things can get complicated, as none of us are accustomed to this atmosphere. Usually, my father and I only travel with elders because they’ve been trained to follow strict rules. Contact your patriarchs when you arrive and leave. Explain in detail what actions are being taken. No one leaves without telling a patriarch. The rules work because not only does it keep us together but it also keeps the community intact. So we can all go back home together.
But this man … he’s never left the Holy Land before. He’s never set foot in a world like this with flashing lights and people bustling about. Temptation is everywhere and to give in is to commit sin, according to my father anyway.
I’m glad he didn’t come along because then shit would’ve hit the fan the moment he realized the helper left without saying a word.
I should’ve never told him where Natalie lived because of course he’d go out and try to find the women on his own. All he needed to do was find a map and transportation, and that’s it.
I run my fingers through my hair and stare at myself in the mirror, wondering how stupid I could be to let this happen. I let my emotions cloud my judgment by letting that helper come along just so he could find his wife.
What if that helper finds them first? Will he capture them or let them go out of pity?
There’s a real chance Natalie could convince him to do so. After all, she knows this world better than anyone, and she could spin anyone around her finger if she wanted to. That girl who escaped with her, Emmy … she might’ve already succumbed to the pleasures of this world. Maybe it’s already too late. Maybe, instead of him bringing them back, they’ll kill him.
I close my eyes and sigh. No, they’re not vicious enough to do that. Certainly not a girl like Emmy, who grew up in our strict community. She’d never touch her husband like that.
But Natalie? She could definitely hurt someone if she had to.
The mere thought of her getting away triggers me, and I pick up a glass of whiskey and chug it down in one go.
If I’m going to find out the truth, I’d better go out there and catch her myself.
Natalie
Screaming on the streets is no use.
No one’s listening.
Passersby think I’m losing my mind.
No one would believe me when I tell them a girl’s been taken. All they see is a woman wearing oversized, dirty clothes, shouting at random people like she’s crazy. I feel as if I’m going delirious with fear and grief. No one will help me; not one person I speak to will give me their time.
What can I do? If I go to the police, they won’t believe me because Emmy was never here in the first place. She wasn’t born here, so to them, she doesn’t even exist. And if I told them about the community, they’d wave it off like some nonsensical story coming from a lunatic.
All I have left is a bag filled with groceries toppled onto the ground. The girl who carried them has vanished off the face of the earth.
With tears streaming down my face, I kneel and pick up whatever’s left. What else am I supposed to do? I would’ve run after her. I would’ve chased the guy until my lungs gave out, and I would’ve given it my all to save her. Not because they’d bring back more guards to find me and not because I want to hurt the guy who took her, but because she deserves freedom.
She wanted it so badly that she threatened me over it. She fought tooth and nail and almost died to get what she wanted, to gain her wings and spread them wide … and that man just clipped them as if it was nothing.
He took her, and now she’ll never see the freedom she loved so much.
That smile on her face is one I’ll never forget.
But I’m the only person who ever saw it.
The only one outside the community who’ll remember her … who knows she even exists. And it kills me.
With a heavy heart and tears falling down my cheeks, I go back inside the building and let the door fall closed behind me.
When she saw that man, she turned as white as a ghost and looked completely numb, unable to fight back.
All she’d learned while she was here … gone in the blink of an eye. Just an agreeable, submissive shell of a girl stood where Emmy once was, and she fell back into place as though it came natural to her. It’s all she ever knew and all she was ever taught. What else was she supposed to do?
