ONE
“When do you think they are going to take us out of here?” Ella whispers.
I lean against the railing of the cage, my head feeling heavy as I try to keep it up. Leah and Isla have both been gone for who knows how long. I have lost all sense of reality and time since being brought to this room and put into the cage. The huge mysterious men have only walked into the room twice so far.
Each time, they grabbed a girl, they haven’t been seen since. What are they doing with us? Are they killing us off slowly and using the little meat on us for food? Or are they killing us, taking out all of our organs, and stuffing us so they have something to look at all the time?
I shiver at the thought and wrap my arms around my waist. I can’t think about it. I need to believe that they aren’t killing us and are just using us as maids instead.
“Nora?” Ella calls out my name.
They moved us to a different room after they took Leah and Isla. One where they don’t check on us as much.
“I don’t know if we want to be taken out of here,” I tell her. “I don’t know what they are doing to us. We haven’t heard anythingor seen any of the girls since they left. We don’t know what they are doing to us.”
“Headmistress Helena said we wouldn’t die,” she informs me.
“Did she tell you that?” I ask. “Does she actually know what is going on, or did she just say that to comfort you because she knew we would put up a fight if we knew the real reason?”
“Headmistress Helena wouldn’t do that,” she rebuts. “She wouldn’t lie to us.”
I shrug and close my eyes, taking a deep breath. This is not how I imagined I would spend the rest of my life, stuck in a cage and about to die.
“We aren’t going to die. They probably just want us in here so we don’t wander off and die or get hurt,” she tries to reason.
“You don’t know that,” I whisper.
I wince as my stomach grumbles and aches, begging for food. I don’t know how long I’ve been here, but I do know that I’ve only gotten fed once. I’m starving; I begged them when they came to grab Leah, but they didn’t pay any attention to the other girls or me.
“You saw how they treated Leah.” I look over at Ella. “They dragged her out of the cage, and she injured her foot. They didn’t care one bit that she was hurt. Did you not see that?”
She shakes her head, and I take a deep breath in. Of course she didn’t see it. While Leah made noise, the other girl had just arrived and was exhausted.
“They hurt her and didn’t seem to care. I don’t think they are going to treat us kindly when they take us out of here. We need to be prepared and try to fight back as much as possible,” I tell her. “We have to show them that we won’t go down easily and will fight until we die. We need to show them why they shouldn’t kill us.”
I don’t know who I am trying to convince, her or me.
“They’ve only given us food once since we got here. We don’t know how long we have been here, but I know it’s been more than two days. I think they want us weak so we can’t fight back, but we can’t give up that easily.” I mumble towards the end.
“Nora, are you okay?” she asks.
I open my mouth right as my stomach twists in pain, and I shake my head. I am not okay. My stomach has been cramping off and on for a while now. There is nothing I can do about it. I have called out several times to gain their attention, but they never come.
“Nora? What’s wrong?” she asks once again. “Talk to me. What is happening?”
“I don’t know,” I mutter, closing my eyes.
I know exactly what is going on, but I don’t want her to worry about it. Hopefully, she leaves before I do, so she won’t have to go through this.
“Let me see if I can get their attention. You don’t look good at all.” Her voice holds concern.
“How do you know?” I ask, my voice growing weaker as I keep my eyes closed. “You are so far away from me. You can’t possibly see me. I really am fine. I’m just tired and a little hungry. It will pass once I get some sleep.”
“I don’t think you should fall asleep right now. What if you don’t wake up?” she asks. “I can’t let you do that. Stay awake and talk to me until someone comes in here and helps you. They have to help you.”
I let out a sigh and grip my dress even tighter, pulling my knees up to try and ease the ache in my stomach.
Is this how I am going to die? I never imagined I would die from starvation. But as I sit here in this cage, I can’t help but think that this is how I am going to go.
