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Chapter 14

I woke up late in the morning. Every inch of my body was sore as hell, and I could barely move an inch. I resorted to staying still to alleviate as much pain as I could. The task was difficult, though; even breathing caused the cuts on my skin to become agitated. I then realized that I was alone in the bed, and I had no idea where Otis was. I decided to try to go back to sleep in hopes of feeling better when I woke up again.

When I woke up for the second time, it was by Otis nudging my shoulder. I opened my eyes and looked at him, and he shoved a large glass of water in my face. I took it from his outstretched hand and started drinking it.

While I quenched my thirst, he explained to me why he was gone in the morning. "Me 'nd Cutter had to go out and get any of 'em that escaped. That shithead down in the tunnels somehow always manages to fuck it up and let some get away." He took the empty glass from my hand. "But it's all taken care of now."

Otis dug around the room for some clothes for me to wear. I was still naked, with the exception of the gauze bandages wrapped around me. Before handing me the clothes he picked out, he led me back into the bathroom and grabbed more of the bandages.

The bathtub was emptied of my blood, but there was a faint rim of red around the very bottom revealing what had once been there. I sat down on the toilet while Otis got to work removing the bloodied bandages. I bit my lip in a vain effort to silence my cries from the crusty bandages being ripped off of me. Despite the pain, the fresh air felt good on the wounds after being covered all night.

The old bandages were replaced with new ones, and I felt just a bit better. None of my wounds were freely bleeding, and some of the smaller ones had almost completely healed. Otis handed me the clothes he grabbed, which were a pullover hoodie and a pair of thin sweatpants. Both were very big on me, since they belonged to Otis, but they covered every part of my skin where I had been cut. Thankfully, the typical cold-weather attire hopefully wouldn't raise any questions since the temperatures were beginning to drop. Although, in Texas, they normally didn't drop too low.

After Otis made sure my wounds wouldn't be visible to the family, we made our way downstairs. My stomach growled at the thought of getting food; losing so much blood had made me a lot hungrier. The second we stepped into the kitchen, Mama was shoving plates full of food into our hands. Before turning away, she looked at me with a very concerned look on her face.

"You okay, honey? Ya look as pale as a ghost!" she exclaimed.

"I'm fine, I think I just got a cold or something," I tried dismissing her worries so she wouldn't ask more questions.

"Well how 'bout I whip up somethin' nice for ya. What would ya like?"

"I appreciate it, but really, I'm fine. This breakfast is all I need," I said, indicating the plate that was nearly overflowing with food.

She continued to insist that I needed more food, but Otis eventually shut her pursuits down. Before he pulled me away to go to the living room, I saw Mama's disappointed face looking back at us. Even though her perseverance could be annoying at times, it warmed my heart to know that she cared about me so much.

Getting the food into my system helped me immensely. I felt more energized and less sore than I did earlier in the morning. Halfway through the breakfast, Mama walked into the living room and handed me a steaming bowl of tomato soup. Her face was relit with joy as I took the bowl from her.

The rest of the family gave me somewhat odd looks on account of both my paleness and my reluctance to show any skin, but they never vocalized their thoughts about it.

"I just don't get it," Otis said to me when we returned to his room.

"What?"

"Why the hell ya've stuck 'round here this long. I'm surprised ya haven't run for the hills by now." He was looking at me with a furious expression, as if he was angry that I hadn't tried to run away.