The sister in the dark

Chapter 23

Luckily, when Emily arrives, it's not bad news. Just months of hate in one look. She drops some food, shuts the door, locks it and leaves.

"Rose?"

"Yeah?"

"You and Emily... the way you looked at each other, it made me think that something was wrong."

"Well, yes. She hates me, I hate her, that's all there is to it."

"Mhmm."

I walk to the window and make sure Emily has truly left the building.

"Well, just before Emily came in, I noticed something. That tile," I point to the loose tile in the ceiling, "Is loose. And if we can knock it away, we have a free route out of here."

"But how am I going to? I can hardly walk, so how am I going to climb out of that hole?"

"I... we'll find a way. I'm not leaving you here."

"Don't worry. It's getting dark, so we'll figure something out tomorrow."

I smile at my sister and try to bury my fears deep down where she'll never see them. The last thing I want now is for Rose to break down now. But I think she can still see my worry because she takes me into her arms and embraces me, and we both let our tears fall, crying for the ones lost and the ones we might never see again.

I give her a little nudge, in an attempt to cheer her up.

"Come on Rose! We have food so we may as well eat it."

"I guess."

She starts nibbling non- committally at some of the bread, but eventually stops. I eat everything she's left, which is quite a lot. Sometimes I'm just so worried about Rose, especially now, when I found her, brought her back to health, and am now trapped here.

We will get away soon. We will, in fact, we must. As soon as Rose can walk again, we will leave, via the roof. We will get away, I can't let us stay in captivity for much longer.

"Tomorrow, Rose, we'll get away. When they're in morning school. At lunch, one of them might come and check up on us, find that we're missing, but what can they do?"

"Look for us?"

"But remember, they have to be back in time for afternoon school. After school they have time, but we will have long enough to get away."

"You seem very certain," Rose remarks.

She has a point. The chances are that the plan won't go how it should, or we get caught, or one of us dies. Chances that I don't want to take, but probably will have to. One of us could die trying to get away, and if it's me, Rose probably couldn't get away without me.

I sit in front of the window and watch Rose's reflection walking around the room, trying to strengthen her knee for running. The sky grows dark very slowly, leaking into sunset, dropping the room into darkness. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. Tomorrow.