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"I'm ready," she whispers, her voice as light as the wind blowing around us.
Gently, I sit back and pull out a box of chocolates and a necklace with a guitar pick on the end. “It’s not much, but I wanted to give you a present. You deserve so much more than this, but it’s the best I can do right now.”
“Dec,” she gasps, setting the chocolates beside her to focus on the necklace. “It’s beautiful. You didn’t have to get me anything. My birthday isn’t for a couple months still and we’re way past Christmas.”
“I know, I just want you to remember me. Our birthdays’ are coming up soon and that means we get to leave here, but it also may mean we need to leave each other. I want to make sure you remember me if that happens,” I explain shyly, brushing my hands through my messy curls.
“We’ll stay in contact, no matter what. You know how I feel about you, Dec. The way we’ve grown up has made it hard for us to connect as much as we both would like, but we’re getting there. Even if we get separated, we’ll always find our way back to each other.” Allie looks up at me with big, hopeful eyes, linking her fingers with mine. “We’re both shattered, but our pieces compliment each other. That makes us coming together, inevitable. No one else’s pieces will fit.”
Tears well up in my eyes as I stare down at the face of this hopeful, beautiful girl. We’ll be separated far sooner than she knows, but if I tell her what I know, it could destroy everything. Instead, I lean down and brush my lips softly against hers, careful not to push it any further. There’s a fine line we’ve drawn in the sand of what types of intimacy we’re both capable of handling and both of us are careful to not cross it.
“Inevitable,” I repeat back to her, twisting a piece of her hair between my fingers. “You will forever be in my heart, Allie Cat. After all, you’re the reason it’s still beating.”
Allie looks down, blushing and bumping my shoulder with her own. Lately that’s been her go to response when the emotions get to be too much between us. It’s hard for either of us to know how to express ourselves when we’ve never been taught. Fuck, we’ve never even beenshownhow to properly show love and affection. It makes whatever is between us that much harder to navigate.
“Eat your chocolate, Allie. We should head back inside soon before we’re caught,” I remind her, placing a chaste kiss on the back of her hand. “Mr. Jennings seemed extra tired tonight, but I don’t trust their son not to find us and tattle. He’s be watching us a lot lately and it’s making me uncomfortable.”
“He’s just a kid, Dec. I don’t think we have much to worry about with him. He’s as much a pawn in that asshole’s games as we are.” Allie lays her head on my shoulder, popping a chocolate into her mouth then offering me one. “I left the almond one for you.”
“You left it for me?” I laugh, grabbing it from the box. “It has nothing to do with the fact that you despise nuts, right?”
“Nope,” Allie jokes, dramatically popping the p and smiling. “I just know you love nuts so I made sure to avoid it.”
Laughing together, we eat the chocolate and watch the stars twinkle in the sky. The truth is, I’m not huge on nuts, but for her, I’ll eat all of them. They are growing on me more and more, especially in chocolate. Before her though, I would have avoided them as well. I just know that by eating the nut ones she feels like she’s sharing which makes her happy, and I don’t feel like I’m taking anything from her. It’s a win-win situation.
One more night, that’s all the time I have with her until I flip this house on it’s fucking head. The board is set, the pawns are in place, and checkmate is the next move. The evidence I’ve collected recently has been sent to the special investigator on this case and I’ve been told that they’ll be moving soon. The CPS worker that I’ve been talking to assures me that they will be getting us out of here by the end of the week. That happens to be tomorrow.
Being saved is all I’ve ever wanted, it’s what I’ve dreamt about for years and years. Yet, it took needing to save Alayna to make me figure out a solution. If only I could care about myself half as much as I care about her, but then, I probably would have never met her. What a fucked up turn of events.
“We should head inside,” Allie whispers, pulling back from me with a sad smile. “Mrs. Jennings will probably be up soon to force us to clean the house before school. I wonder what she’ll deem important enough to teach us today.”
“Probably the history of how dumb and fucked up we are and how they’re saints for taking us in. The usual,” I joke, a sarcastic, hollow laugh following. “I think we may even get to hear about how worthless we are.”
“Awesome, I missed that lesson last week after her husband beat me and bled me to make me atone for being a whore.” Allie stares into the darkness, her face and tone so devoid of emotion it makes my chest tighten in worry.
That was probably one of the worst days, the cuts and bruises still healing on Allie. Mr. Jennings has been escalating lately, his abuse getting worse and worse. It’s why we’ve been held back from school so much that they had to convince the social workers that Mrs. Jennings was homeschooling us instead. It’s when the opportunity came up to finally get us out of here.
Calling CPS, I got in touch with a social worker to help us out. Behind the scenes, I gathered the evidence they needed to help us while they continued investigating under the rouse of us missing school. When they finally take this house of horrors down, I’ll finally feel comforted that I did what needed to be done to save her, my Allie Cat. It’s the only thing I care about even if it tears us apart sooner.
Chapter Two
Scrubbing the disgusting kitchen floor, I wince at the cheap linoleum digging into my knees. I push the falling apart sponge harder, trying to get this done before I can’t take it anymore. With how little they feed us, my knees are extremely bony and can’t handle the weight from my body on the hard ground for very long. Allie cat quickly glances over at me, checking on how I’m doing and if I need her to try and pick up some slack.
Mr. Jennings catches her, snapping his fingers and barking at us to get our job fucking done. He’s been watching us like a hawk today, his beady, bloodshot blue eyes following our every move, just waiting for us to fuck up so he can drag us to the torture chamber of a basement. He looks like a fucking addict waiting for his next fix. That fix is our blood and pain, sometimes our bodies as well.
That’s okay, he can watch and wait all he fucking wants. Today is the day that Mr. Jennings finally gets what’s coming to him. The amount of kids he’s abused, tortured, and punished all in the name of some fucked up righteousness that he thinks he holds. If only I could tell Allie that the nightmare is almost over.
The words have been at the tip of my tongue all day, but it’s impossible to tell her without possibly giving the entire thing away. On top of that, Mr. Jennings is in a foul mood for some reason or another, so he’s been watching us closer than ever, like a predator waiting to strike.
“That’s not fucking clean, you worthless piece of shit!” Mr. Jennings snarls at me, pushing my face down into the dirty water on the floor. “You can’t do anything right! You’re a waste of fucking space. It’s no wonder no one ever wants you.”
He slams my face down before releasing me. Pains shoots from my cheek to my head, causing me to visibly wince. Allie is watching from her peripherals, clenching her jaw so tightly, I fear she’s going to hurt herself. Laying my hand flat against the ground and flexing my fingers three times, I let her know in our own way that I’m okay. There’s no way I would ever let Allie step in for me. She gets more than enough of the abuse, she doesn’t need more on my behalf.
“That’s fucking it.” Mr. Jennings slams his hands down on the kitchen table, rattling the empty glasses littering it. “You two have gotten on my last fucking nerve today. I think you both need a reminder of how worthless and pathetic you both are. You’re sinners, and I’m here to make you fucking pay for all of it.”
Allie’s face drains of colour and the falling apart yellow sponge drops on the old, puke green kitchen tiles. My head whips to Mr. Jennings, the sick, sadistic smile on his face telling me all I need to know about what’s going to happen next.
“You’re really calling us worthless,” I sneer, standing up and using my height to block Alayna as much as possible. His ire needs to be focused on me, not both of us. “You work a dead end job and get your fucking rocks off by being a fucking psycho and torturing children. If anyone is fucking worthless in this house, it’s you.”
