Don't Be Afraid

Chapter 19

"Cleo?" I take a shaky step forward and see the strong, smart, cunning girl I use to be allies with standing in front of me. Her clothes are ripped, mud is caked into her hair, and she looks ghostly. Almost like she hasn't eaten in days, but maybe she hasn't, considering she's here. I scroll through sentences in my head and finally spit everything out. "How did you...how did you get here? What happened? What's going on? Are they going to kill us-"

She puts her hand over my mouth, rendering me from speaking."Remember what I told you?"

She slowly takes her hand away from my mouth. I swallow the bile that's risen in my throat. "Yeah."

"Well this is Hunter's plan." She gestures around the dark room with her hand. "He's kidnapping a bunch of girls and throwing them in here. I don't know why, but every hour one of his men strolled in here all high and mighty and grabbed one of them up until finally I was the last one. It's been three days and nobody has come to get me. I've been alone...until now that is." She wraps her arms around herself and I copy her movement because I notice, for the first time, that it's freezing. My teeth start chattering and my body's shivering.

I stumble over the thoughts that are running through my head. Unable to speak I slide towards the ground and start crying. Cleo sits next to me and hesitantly puts her arms around me, pulling me close to her, and starts rocking back and forth. I hide my face in her hair and let my tears continue to fall. I don't know if she's comforting me because I'm crying or if she's comforting herself by being with a person after days of being alone, but either way I don't care. It feels good to be held by a friend, or anyone, right now. My teeth stop chattering, but my body's still slightly shivering. I go to wipe the excess tears from my face and stop. What's the point? I'm just going to keep crying.

After what feels like hours, the door creaks open and a high pitch scream indicates that we have another guest. Cleo releases me and stalks towards the girl. She looks about fifteen and my heart aches. She's so young. This isn't fair to her. It's not fair to any of us.

I slowly get to my feet and walk towards the girl. Setting a hand on her shoulder, I nod my head. "Everything's going to be okay. We're going to get out of here. I promise." I lightly squeeze her shoulder and she gives me a little smile, but her eyes are hollow and I can tell she gave up a long time ago.

When she speaks up, her voice is squeaky. "Got any ideas?"

Cleo's head snaps up. "I have had a few, but I've never had anyone in here who would agree to help me."

I roll my eyes. "It doesn't look like we have much of a choice. So tell me."

She takes in a quick, deep breath and starts talking. "When, or if, one of Hunter's men come in one of us hides behind the door and when someone comes in they jump out from behind it and slit his throat with this." She pulls a piece of glass out of her boot. It's about four inches long and pointed sharp on one end. "When he's dead, we sneak out and around the camp. When we reach the woods, we run."

I think about it for a few seconds before responding. "It's not a very elaborate plan...but it may actually be crazy enough to work. I mean at this point, there's really nothing else we can do. We're sitting ducks." Cleo smiles and puts the glass back in her boot.

After a few minutes of silence, the new girl speaks up. "So...I only have one question, if you don't care."

"Yeah?"

She hesitates for a second, but finally puts on a brave face. "Who's going in for the kill?"

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A/N

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