AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Orion felt the acid in her stomach crawl up her throat. A memory forced itself from the depths of her soul.
“I need you to do something for me,” Mary Lou said. Her voice was low. It didn’t have the same hope and cheer it had when Orion had first arrived all those years before.
It slowly drained out of her, that hope.
“Want me to run to McDonald’s and grab some burgers?” Orion deadpanned. Her legs ached, her insides roiling with hunger.
Mary Lou laughed hollowly. “Maybe later.” Her chain rattled as she moved so slightly. Orion knew she was trying to find a way to sit so it didn’t feel like knives were jabbing into her uterus. She had been the latest victim. It had been rough, by the way she’d limped back into the room.
“I’m getting older,” she said.
“I’ll get you some wrinkle cream while I’m out,” Orion said.
No laugh this time. “Too old,” she whispered. “For them. I know my time is coming up. When I’m of no use.”
Orion stiffened. “The only time coming is for us to get out of here.”
Jaclyn snorted. “Keep dreaming, girl.”
“Just in case,” Mary Lou said, ignoring Jaclyn. “I need you to make a promise. Because one day I know you’ll make it out of here.”
“We’ll make it out of here,” Orion said through gritted teeth.
“Can you just make me a promise or not?” A little steel in her voice now.
“No,” Orion shot back.
“I have a little girl,” Mary Lou said, little more than a rasp.
Orion jerked. Mary Lou had told them many things about her life. About her preacher father, her mother who liked to bake apple pies and judge her daughter if her dress was wrinkled. Her family didn’t sound real. Orion thought they seemed like assholes, but Mary Lou loved them.
She’d told them about her boyfriend. Quarterback, all-American handsomeness. Good family.
Orion had heard every detail of her pastel life. Or thought she had.
“I didn’t say anything about her because . . .” Mary Lou trailed off. “It hurts to think about her,” she whispered. “My parents weren’t happy, to say the least. They wanted to send me away at first.”
She paused. “Well, my mother did. I thought for sure my father would’ve agreed, clutching his Bible. But he didn’t. He sided with me. Didn’t even force me to marry Johnny like Mom was trying to. Of course, he would’ve preferred I didn’t have his granddaughter out of wedlock, but he wasn’t going to hold a shotgun to my or Johnny’s back.”
She sucked in a rough breath, then coughed. Orion didn’t like the way it rattled in her chest.
They often got sick down here. They weren’t given blankets or enough water. Never enough food. They were kept alive, but not healthy. Somehow, cruelly, they always recovered.
Orion wasn’t so sure this time. Mary Lou had been coughing like this for weeks.
“I was allowed at school until I began to show,” she continued, her voice rougher than before. “Then I was homeschooled. Mom said it was mono.”
Mary Lou rolled her eyes like a teenager would. It surprised Orion. She always seemed older than she was, wise beyond her years. Orion understood why now.
“Everyone knew, though. I was so mad.” Mary Lou looked down at her hands. The nails were bitten down to the skin. “Embarrassed. Johnny was distant. He tried to be supportive, but he was a teenage boy with dreams of leaving our town in his rearview and I was giving him an anchor he didn’t want.” She looked at her ankle, fiddled with the chain.
“He was bound by honor his parents instilled in him.” Her eyes went to Orion. Glassy. Tears ready to be shed. “I secretly hated her the entire time she was growing inside me,” she whispered, shame saturating the words. “I wanted an escape of my own. To see the world. To truly live. In my darkest moments, I stood at the top of the stairs, hovering my foot in the air, planning on falling.”
She stopped talking for a while. A long while.
Orion waited. She’d learned how to do that. It was all they did now. Waited for the next torture. The next horror. Waited to die.
“But I didn’t,” Mary Lou continued, puncturing the silence. She smiled sadly. “I had her two weeks early. She was perfect. But she cried all the time. She wouldn’t latch onto my nipple. I was sad. Missed my prom. I loved her with all my heart, but my heart was tired. I knew my parents saw that. I needed a break.” She paused again to cough.
“That’s when they took me. The Things. I had a fight with my parents. About finishing high school. I wanted to go back, my mother wanted me to be a housewife and mother. I lost it. Screamed. Then I packed a bag, walked out. I had only intended on going away for a few hours. Making a statement. But . . .” She trailed off.
