Silent Night

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter fourteen

All of us sat on the cold, concrete floor staring at one another until someone spoke up. Ginger sat next to Charlie while Lainey sat inbetween Mouse and I. Black rings started to form under all of my friends' eyes. I felt tired, but was far too busy with trying to find a way out of here with my friends and I.

"Is there a way we could trick them?" Ginger suggested. Everyone looked at her, paying more attention to what she had to say. "Like pretend we're going to make one of our friends stay, but when they come to let us out, we all attack them. We have more people on our side." She paused, thinking to herself. "I think we do."

"I'm not sure that would work." Charlie spoke up before anyone else could. "I mean, they must have something planned out so we can't attack them."

Ginger huffed, knowing very well her idea was shot down.

"Think about it, Ginger. These people are crazy, I mean psycho crazy, but they are not stupid." Mouse chimed in.

"You guys sound like you're giving up." Ginger's lip formed into a pout.

Charlie grabbed ahold of her chin, looking her in her scared eyes. "We're not giving up, okay?" His reassurance was enough to make her give him a quarter of a smile.

"He's right." I stood up. "We're not going to give up, no matter what hell they decide to put us through. We can't leave anyone behind and we won't be stuck here to die. It's time we start having the attitude of survivors. Not victims." I could feel a surge of confidence and hope spread through my body, curing my infectious thoughts of never leaving.

Their blank stares averted from me to the behind my back. My ears didn't catch a noise of someone walking in, but I could already sense an evil and feel the tension rise. Expecting Daniel to be standing there, I turned to see the woman that sent an uncomfortable feeling through my body. Maria.

"Hey look, psycho bitch is back." Ginger laughed, standing next to me.

I nudged her in the side, remembering Daniel's threat when she called her crazy the last time around. "Stop. You don't know who's listening in."

"Why? She really is crazy. Did you forget when she tried to get us in trouble?"

"I remember." I looked at our other clueless friends. They had no idea. "We didn't tell you about our encounter with Maria over here, did we?" They shook their heads.

Maria still stood there, staring at us through the cage. She didn't speak a word, but observed. Her hair was just as frizzy as before, but her body didn't shake as previously when we seen her. She seemed as calm as a river, but her eyes were vacant. She was there, but I didn't think anyone was home at the time. Her beady eyes watched Ginger and Ginger watched her back.

Eventually she walked away from her stare and began to tell the story of how we met Maria. "When Marla and I first got here in the cage, she walked in. She was shaking and looking scared. Of course when she found us, she came up to the cage telling us to let her out and that they captured her. Turns out she's missing marbles upstairs. When Daniel found her in here with us, she started yelling and telling him that we were trying to convince her to let us out and that we wanted to kill them. The last part isn't technically a lie, I do want them dead, but still, she's loopy."

"Why is she just standing there?" Mouse asked, taking a step away from Maria.

"Because she's crazy." Ginger turned, walking up the cage, standing inches away from Maria. "Isn't that right?"

Maria stuffed her hands in the pockets of her dress. Then focused her attention on Ginger again. She turned her head to the side, reminding me of what an owl would do. "Psycho bitch." She uttered.