AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I blow out a breath that feels like it might be my last and nod. “Okay.”
Quick as a hummingbird, Timofey presses his lips to mine. It’s so fast that I almost don’t believe it happened. Then I’m stepping into the dark, narrow closet while Timofey pushes the door closed.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he says through the crack. “I’ll always come back for you, Piper. I’ll never leave you.”
When the door closes, I think I might have imagined his words of comfort. Still, I cling to them as I slide down the back wall with Benjamin in my arms.
“We’ll be okay,” I whisper to the still sleeping baby. “Timofey will come back for us. He’ll take care of us.”
I hope to God I’m telling him the truth.
89
PIPER
I hear Timofey’s voice in my head.
Breathe, Piper.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Over and over again, I fill my lungs and release, hoping some of the tightness in my chest will ease. But it gets worse.
There isn’t enough oxygen in here. Every deep breath is stealing what little there is for the two of us, and if I hog it all, Benjamin will suffocate.
I take short, shallow breaths until darkness creeps into the edges of my vision. Until I squeeze my eyes closed and lose track of where I am.
Noises come to me, muffled and distant. Is that a gunshot or a car backfiring? Did Benjamin whimper or is someone moaning?
“It’s okay,” I whisper to myself. “You’ll get out. This will end. You’ll get out.”
The words echo back to me, but they’re in a child’s voice. My own voice, decades younger.
I can smell the dusty upholstery of the rusted-out car’s trunk. When I open my eyes, I think I see a flash in the corner, the red glow of a taillight viewed from the inside. I feel the warm putter of the engine clunking along somewhere in the guts of the vehicle.
I shouldn’t be in here. I’ll die in here.
“I’m not in the trunk anymore; I’m in Timofey’s house. I’m not a little girl anymore; I’m grown. I’m okay. I’m okay. I’m okay.”
The words beat against the door of my logical mind, but trauma has slid the bolt home. There’s no getting through.
So the memory opens its jaws and swallows me whole.
I’m ten years old again, huddled in the trunk of a car. I can hear voices a foot away, maybe less. But the sounds are lost somewhere in the cushion of the backseat between me and them.
I feel the swaying, though. The rocking that always makes me seasick. Like I’m trapped below deck on a ship, sailing out into the endless expanse of the ocean. Never to be seen again.
My arms tighten around myself, but there’s something in my arms.
I blink and I’m holding a baby.
A baby.
I have to make sure you and Benjamin are safe.Timofey’s voice is a baritone siren song. I reach for it, desperate to ground myself on something real, something solid.I’ll always come back for you, Piper. I’ll never leave you.
“Now,” I plead, tears rolling down my cheeks. “Come back now.”
