Locked Away

Chapter 2: Collin Explains A Bit

"Yeah," I say, trying to get the bright light out of my eyes. "I'm guessing he brought you here too?"

"How old are you? What's your name? Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness...." He said, completely ignoring my question.

"My name's Ansley. Yours?" I said. I wanted to know his name before I went any further telling him about myself.

"Collin," he replied, sounding worried and distracted. He had not once looked away from me since he saw me. "How old are you?" He repeated his other question. Apparently my age was very important to him.

"I'm twelve. How old are you?"

"Oh my goodness. I'm nineteen," he said to me, and then he seemed to break off and start talking to himself. "Oh my goodness, he's done this before but they've never been this young! They've never been this young! Why? Why did he do this? He's ruining the life of a child..."

"Um, excuse me? Sorry to interrupt your little chat session with yourself, but I kinda just got kidnapped and you're making me even more confused. Could you please explain all this to me?" I asked, assuming he'd been here much longer than I have based off of his knowledge of what the man had done.

"Oh, right... One second!" He said, refocusing on me. He went over to a wall that had nine or ten beds line up along the side of it. I looked at the wall opposite it and realized there were even more beds over there. How many children did this man have?

Collin went to a bed that I assumed was his, quickly put on a shirt, and then went back into the bathroom to open a linen closet and pull out some pink sheets and a pink pillowcase. He put those on the bed right next to his.

"Come on, this is your bed," he said. "You might want to sit down while I tell you what's going on." I walked over and sat on the newly made bed. He sat right beside me.

"Now then. About this man," he said. I could tell he had a lot of explaining to do, so I got comfortable. "His name is Ethan. He hates you."

"Whoa-" I said, shocked. If he hated me, why would he have me in his house?

"Oh, wait a minute. Do you have parents?" Collin asked.

"No, they died shortly after I was born," I said sadly. I didn't even have any memory of my parents.

"Oh, me neither," he said, giving me a sad smile. "Anyway, yes, he hates you. He hates our 'kind'. People who don't have families. I don't know what it is, but he just can't stand us."

"Are there others here?" I asked. There were so many beds, we couldn't be the only two.

"Ha, there used to be," he said, clearly bothered by that question but trying to play it off.

"Well... What happened to them?" I asked, confused.

He made direct eye contact with me and said in a cold, hard voice, "He killed them."