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I saw her again that morning. She looked beautiful as ever, but also painfully thin. Her skin was stretched over her bones, and I wondered whether she ate at all.
Just like I always did, I sat down next to her in the bay window. She never acknowledged me, but for some reason, I found her presence soothing. We stared out at the sea together, and I asked myself whether I’d ever be able to go out there, to feel the ocean and the sand between my toes. I didn’t know how to swim, but I was excited to learn someday. I’d have to get out of my prison first, though…
Still busy staring outside, I barely noticed the girl next to me. It took me a couple of seconds to realize she’d turned toward me and was staring at me intently.
I returned her gaze, the intensity of her eyes making me wonder what she was going to say. Yet she didn’t speak a word, just kept looking at me in that way, which was almost a little disturbing.
“What?” I whispered, surprised by her sudden interaction. She’d ignored me for months – what had changed now?
She held out a hand and I reached out to her. She took my hand in hers and placed a small object in my palm. I realized we were alone in the room, nervously looking around us only to find no one around. It was very early, and while I heard the chatter of the girls in the hall, there was nobody in the living area.
“For what?” I asked her, and she motioned towards the hall.
The main door.
She’d just given me the card that unlocked the main door.
She stood up and walked over to the hallway leading into the hall. I followed her, too entranced to say a word about what she was doing. Maybe she was like the maid, maybe her tongue had been cut out and that’s why she was unable to speak.
We walked into the main hall together. I noticed there was only one guard this early in the morning, and he looked at us with desire in his eyes as we walked in. The girl next to me seemed to be aware of his attention, and she stroked her body with slow, tantalizing motions as he watched her. He cleared his throat and looked around to make sure we were alone, then approached her slowly, already forgetting about me.
The raven-haired girl winked at me, and I walked away, stunned. Was she really going to help me escape? And get herself into big trouble in the process… If she was distracting the guard, there was no way she’d be able to escape with me. So, she was sacrificing herself for someone she barely knew.
I didn’t have time to wonder about it.
I just walked towards the main door, glancing over my shoulder to find the guard kissing her neck while the girl watched me. As I was walking, I stumbled, and the card fell from my grasp. My heart was beating a million miles a minute when I bent down to get it, but there was someone else faster than me.
An elegant hand reached down, long lacquered fingers wrapping around the card and picking it up.
“Lost something?” she asked, and my cheeks burned with fire as I looked up at her.
Pia.
She’d just ruined my one chance of escaping this place, the best one I’d gotten so far. And she was wearing a serene smile as she did it, twirling the card between her fingers.
“Someone must have dropped it,” I replied calmly. “I was just about to return it. It looks like your guard is preoccupied.”
I motioned towards my new friend and the guard that was now openly kissing the girl’s breasts. But Pia didn’t look away from me, her gaze harsh as she stared me down. She wasn’t going to go down easy. She knew I was trying to escape, but she didn’t have any proof so she couldn’t do a thing. Still, I worried about a possible punishment until a fake as fuck smile lit up her stunning face.
“Not a bother,” she said. “We’ll deal with him. And we’ll make sure she doesn’t get out of her cage again.”
Cage?
Who was the dark-haired girl? And had I just doomed her to spend the rest of her time here in a cage?
She took my arm in hers, her long talon-like nails digging into my skin as she led me away, up the stairs. I looked over my shoulder and saw the dark-haired girl looking at me intensely. Her eyes were apologetic, even though she’d done nothing wrong, and I hated myself for letting her down like that. She was the closest thing I had to a friend in there, despite the fact we’d never said a word to one another.
