[Del]'s Diary

ENTRY THIRTY-FIVE

I woke up to the sound of whimpering. It must have been early yet because I could see where Logos was – untouched on the corner of the bed where I had left him.

I sat up and tried to source the cries. The sound reminded me of a baby rabbit I saw once, paralyzed from a broken neck and crying for a swift death. And a fat indolent calico cat too lazy beside to finish off the job. I don’t know whose memory this was. Only that whoever it was didn’t have it in them to put it out of its misery and I remembered feeling a particular loathing at that cat for it.

I soon realized the sound was coming from behind the wall to the left of my bed. I don’t know what lay in the room beyond this one. Only that it wasn’t part of the hallway.

I slid out of bed and the floor felt cool to my feet as I walked slowly to the wall. I pressed my ear against the wall and it felt like a slab of ice.

“Hello?” I called out while knocking gently against the plaster.

The cry hesitated for a moment. And then resumed.

I knocked again. “Hello?” I said.

“Hello?” a woman’s strangled voice replied.

“What’s your name?” I asked not knowing what else to say.

“Eve. What’s yours?” she replied in between heavy sobs.

I hesitated and then swallowed. “I don’t know.”

Silence for a moment as Eve must have been considering the implications of this statement. Then the whimpering restarted. “I need a way out of here,” Eve choked. “You know the way out?”

“I’m trapped here too,” I answered.

Another silent chill. And then: “For how long?” Eve’s voice ventured.

“I don’t know.”

Eve resumed her chore of tears. I wanted to comfort her. Give her a hug. I wrapped my arms flat against the wall and squeezed. “Don’t cry.” I soothed.

My head jerked at the sound of keys jingling at the door. I looked just as it swung wide open and saw Fill standing there, his arms folded across his chest.

“Get back to bed,” he commanded.

I puffed out my chest to him. “No,” I retorted.

Fill stared me down for a hard minute.

He took a step toward me.

I held my ground.

Then his shoulders dropped and he quit the room.

I felt a surge of victory course through my lithe body.

It only lasted a moment as I heard the door in the next room swing open and Eve began to scream: “No, don’t touch me. Let me outta here! I’m not going back to that room! You can’t make me.” Her voice kept escalating higher and higher as I heard them struggle. But Fill must have grabbed the upper hand as I soon heard her horrible screams trail down the hallway.

And then finally: silence.

I stood alone in the room for a while but slumber soon overtook me and I laid down back in bed like the meek rabbit that I was.

Later, when I asked Fill about Eve he responded innocently, “Whoooo?” I knew then there wasn’t any use to press him further on it.

It was if she never existed.

Perhaps when she asks of me, he responds in kind.

[Deleted]