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“Keri?” Leah pleads, but there's nothing I can do now when yet another car pulls up on the side of us, boxing us in.
I push Leah towards the smallest space between two cars.
“Run, Leah! Run!” I scream.
But she's shaking her head, sobbing. Then a guard grabs her, and I rush towards him, nails raking down his face.
“Don't fucking touch her!” I screech in a voice I barely recognize as my own.
But everything goes dark as something is shoved over my head and I'm yanked away from Leah. I can hear her wail, high-pitched and hysterical, begging for me to help her. I can't. I can't even help myself as my hands are wretched behind my back, tied together with something that cuts into my skin.
“Let her go!” I cry out anyway. “You have me. Just let her go.”
“You brought this upon yourselves,” a voice grits out before I’m tossed head-first into a backseat.
“It'll be okay, Leah,” I call out blindly.
But all I hear is a car door slamming shut, muffling the sounds outside as I struggle to break my hands free.
“No, no, no, no.” I desperately cry. “No.”
We can't go to prison. We can't. We were so close. Just two more blocks and we'd be at Murphy's, handing Edwin the money so he could get us out of here. We were practically right there, but we'll never make it. My body falls awkwardly to the side as the car takes off.
Where is Leah? Will they keep us separate the whole time? Will they take us straight to the prison? Will they bring us to the same prison? They normally place the entire family of the woman who was supposed to be the sacrifice in the same prison, an additional punishment for her, I assume, but I can't be sure that they'll do the same with Leah and I. Something feels different this time starting with the fact that they never released that I ran. They didn’t even make a spectacle out of arresting me. It felt more like they wanted us in the cars and behind tinted windows as quickly as possible. Something feels wrong, and it's sitting like a rock in my stomach. And only a little bit further up is my broken heart.
What am I about to subject my sister to? Grace would be so ashamed of me for putting us in this situation. She went to her fate with her head held high to save us from exactly this, and I couldn't do the same. How could I have been dumb enough to think that they wouldn't catch us? I ran so Leah wouldn't be alone, wouldn't let herself fade away to nothing without me, and now look at us, being hauled off to prison where we will face an even worse fate. I will have to watch Leah suffer worse than she ever did at the hands of our father, and I’ll be just as helpless to stop it.
Five years. That’s how long people usually survive in prison. I traded my sister's future for five years of hell. I don't think of my own pain and suffering that’s surely to come. Maybe I deserve it now, for being so selfish. For being so foolish.
I want to cry so badly, the hopelessness overwhelming me as anxiety and anger rush through me more with each beat of my heart. But I can't. I can't. I need to try to figure a way out of this. I need to figure out how we're going to survive in prison.
“We've secured the sacrifice,” a man says from somewhere in front of me.
“Bring her here immediately,” another man replies through the radio or walkie talkie. “Her and the sister.”
I sit up straighter at hearing that, at least knowing we're going to the same place. Or, the same prison, more likely. It’s only once I stop focusing so much on waiting to see what else the man says do I notice how badly I'm trembling. It makes me admit to myself that I am terrified. Of what's to come. Of what will meet us when we get to the prison. Of the cameras capturing our downfall, warning any other woman from following in my footsteps.
I rock from side to side as the car goes, arms aching from being pulled behind my back, mind racing with all the horrors that await us. The money I had is still in my pocket. Maybe if they somehow don't take it from me, I can use it to…To do what? What the hell would anyone in prison use money for? Images of other women sent to prison come to mind, them in their dark jumpsuits with tears running down their cheeks. They’ll strip me and Leah, put us in those same jumpsuits. I refuse to fucking cry, though. And I'll shield Leah from the cameras as much as I can.
The car comes to a sudden stop and my anxiety skyrockets into dread. The door beside me is opened and the fresh air barely hits me before I'm roughly pulled out. A hand clutches my shoulder, pushing me forward.
“Let's go, traitor,” a voice snarls.
“Where's my sister?” I ask.
“You don't get to ask questions. Walk.”
I try to take in the sounds around me as I'm directed forward, but all I hear is the wind, and then another car approaching. I stop short and turn my head to see if it's a car with Leah in it like I can see anything all.
“If I have to make you walk again, it will be with a limping leg,” the man threatens me.
I turn my head and begin walking again, listening to a car door open and close.
“Where's my sister?” Leah cries.
My shoulders loose some tension, even though the fear in her voice guts me. But then I remember that, even though we're together, we're going to a place where neither of us belongs.
“I'm here!” I shout out.
