Contained by Love

Chapter 8 - Igniting The Flame

   The small notepad I had nicked from Madame’s teacher desk was tucked away safely in my belt, hidden by my blazer. I knew she wouldn’t miss it. After all, she probably had dozens of them. I wouldn’t be surprised if she stole those as well.

  A brief image of forty neglected notepads being whisked away from the store dominated my thoughts  for a split second before I pushed it away.

  As I walked to my cooking class Thursday morning, I went over the new thought I had been working on. After I realized Eli wasn’t going to show up and finally fell asleep last night, I awoke with an epiphany strapped to my mind like a seatbelt on the world’s most adrenaline pumping roller coaster.

  The broken feeling reminded me of after Madame’s men had beaten me to a pulp. I remember thinking about organizing a riot and taking down Madame. The second my eyes had opened this morning, it was all I could contemplate.

  I planned on using the notepad to get everyone’s name and age. I needed to know exactly who Madame kept captive besides Gwen, Eli, Maya and I. I could bet my left arm at least one of them knew something about Madame the rest of us didn’t. And I was intent on finding out.

  After walking through the double doors into a room that resembled a science lab, but with sinks and cabinets instead of vials and chemicals, I sat at my assigned seat with my partner, a bubbly, blonde girl named Charlotte. From what I gathered by the time I spent here, she was nice and harmless, though a bit of an airhead.

  The kitchen lab was split into eleven parts, one of them being bigger than the others and meant for Madame. The rest included a sink, stove, and microwave, with a number of cabinets. There was an entire room in the back the size of a walk in closet filled with ingredients such as spices and salts. Since there were twenty girls, everyone had a partner. Something about teamwork.

  Madame’s station had a blackboard instead of a cabinet. In big letters, the name of some French dish was underlined.

   The girls were chattering quietly about their knowledge of the food. I, on the other hand, had more important things to deal with. I turned to Charlotte, who was puckering her lips in the reflection of the faucet.

  “Hey, Char. Can I talk to you about something?” I asked, trying not to let on the fact that she already irritated me.

  “Yeah, of course. But before that, can you tell me if my lips look just pink or glossy pink? Because I’m trying to go for that subtle, schoolgirl look but I just can’t tell from this faucet. Dang it, I know I should’ve checked back at my dorm. Oh, you wouldn’t believe this one mirror I had back home, it had this sparkly thing on the-“

 “Okay.” I cut her off, silently cussing at her. “That’s nice, but this is a little more important. Can’t you tell me later?” My voice went up an octave.

  An innocent look crossed her face. “Sure. What’s wrong?” She focused her attention on me instead of her reflection.

  “Well first things first, what happened to Maya? I mean, she’s not here today and she looked horrible yesterday.” My eyes lock with hers. She dramatically looks to the left and right then leans in. After a moment, I lean in too. A cute smile drapes her face. She looked like a child that just found out a juicy secret.

  “You didn’t hear this from me, but Maya’s roommate Leah, mentioned to Stella, who let it slip to Chloe, who told me because she’s my roommate, that Maya seriously needs her meds.” I furrowed my brows in confusion.

  “Huh?” I finally give up. Charlotte sighs in exasperation.

  “Basically, before Maya came here, she was extremely dependent on some anti-depressant called Xanax, for her anxiety or something. And she didn’t have it on her the day she was kidnapped, so she’s been going cold turkey ever since. Once in a while, she gets these horrible panic attacks. I even heard her screaming in the middle of the night three doors down a couple times! You wouldn’t imagine the horrors it does to my beauty sleep.”