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I’ve never liked people in general … mostly because I don’t understand them, and they don’t understand me. They accuse me of things I don’t comprehend, and I fail to see why they like living this way.
Add an accident on top of that, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.
People hate me, and I get it.
I’m dangerous. Wild.
I don’t belong with them.
My father warned me too … that I’d never find a home, and that I shouldn’t even try to escape.
Yet I did.
I didn’t believe him either.
He always treated me worse than the people out there, so I thought I could risk it. When I escaped the compound he kept me in, I was determined never to return.
But damn … the outside world was just as unforgiving.
Still, he was wrong when he said I’d never find a home.
I have two now. The island … and her.
My woman.
She trusts me. Loves me unconditionally. Helps me when I need it the most. And what do I have to give in return? Nothing.
I’m out of my element here. I can’t provide, can’t work, can’t give her what she needs the most. A life like all the other people.
A life that doesn’t involve me.
“They’re here.”
I sigh, and my body immediately grows rigid the moment I catch them walking toward us. The girl is small and thin with pearly blond hair, but the guy walking next to her is like twice her size, with muscles to rival mine. He looks younger than I am but still very strong.
That must be him.
My brother.
But when I take a closer look at the girl next to him, my eyes widen.
She looks a lot like …
That girl who died.
Accompanying Song: “On The Nature Of Daylight” by Max Richter
Jules beckons them to come over, and they do. She greets them by shaking hands and exchanging names.
“Juliet,” she says.
The girl doesn’t respond, but her fingers start to move.
“Her name’s Ella. She doesn’t talk to strangers.” His voice is coarse, like mine. “Name’s Cage.”
“Okay … hi!” Jules responds. “Nice to meet you both.”
Cage then throws me a glance, checking me from top to bottom before mumbling, “Is that him?”
Jules nods and steps aside as Cage approaches. He narrows his eyes at me as he inspects me and so do I. I don’t know if I can trust him. If he is who he says he is.
“Lock …” he mumbles. “You definitely look like the one in the picture.”
I nod slowly, grinding my teeth.
“Tell me what the cage looked like,” I say.
I want to hear it from his mouth. Every little detail.
“Glass in a concrete attic with a bed and a shower. Small lights. A fighting ring underneath. Father made me fight others in exchange for women. For her.” He briefly glances at Ella with a gaze so fierce it reminds me of my love for Jules. “She was in that glass prison with me, but we’re free now, and she’s mine,” he says, pointing at the girl named Ella. “I chose her, and she chose me.”
His words do ring true to my own experience. Just the thought of that glass cage gives me goose bumps. But how does he know the exact thing I lived, yet we’ve never met?
The girl suddenly approaches and starts to make strange symbols with her fingers again.
“We were kept apart,” Cage says, translating for her. “And you’re older than I am, so Father probably learned from his experience with you.”
“Yeah. So?”
“Tell me how you escaped,” he asks.
“Father let me out of the compound sometimes. Showed me around. Taught me things about the world outside. It was my reward.”
“So you didn’t get women as a prize?”
“Sometimes … but not a lot.”
He growls and spits on the ground. “Typical.”
The girl starts to use her fingers again.
“She wants to know if you know anything about me.”
I shake my head. “I just saw my face on the television.”
“We’ve been searching for you for a long time,” he interjects, looking me straight in the eye.
There’s a moment of silence, and then out of nowhere, he jumps me.
Or at least, that’s what it feels like, and I’m just about to hit him when I realize he’s hugging me.
I’m incapacitated. Completely blindsided.
Jules tears up a little as I put my hand on Cage’s back and accept his warm embrace.
I didn’t expect this, but it’s welcome.
“Finally …” Cage mumbles as he releases me. “We meet.”
“Shall we go grab something to eat? You guys must be dying to catch up,” Jules says to make it a bit less awkward.
“Dying?” Cage frowns. Ella makes some strange gestures again after which Cage adds, “Ahh … yeah, sure. Why not.”
But as they both turn around, I stay put.
I can’t stop staring at that girl—Ella—and how badly I want to ask that single question that rests on the tip of my tongue.
