Trapped

Chapter 17

I fall to my knees. He stabbed her. She's going to die.

    I could only see his back as he pierced her skin with his blade, but her scream and the blood streaming down the knife as he holds up his prize is enough.

    I am picked up and carried up the stairs. I don't fight anything because I can't. I'm frozen in shock and fear. I know that's what they want, but I can't help but give in to Jeremy's strong arms wrapped around my legs.

    I have no fight left in me. If they want the obedient niece, future wife, cousin, I will give it to them. Maybe Layla was right. I will be the good pet. For now.

I hold onto his shirt for dear life until I am forced onto my bed. I place my hands in my lap and stare straight forward.

"Lilian," I hear a far off voice say my name and I force myself to come back to reality. I stare into Jeremy's eyes blankly. He gently places his hands on my knees and I look down at them. I would probably have a huge crush on him if he wasn't crazy and hadn't scarred me for life.

Tears come to my eyes and before I can stop them, they fall down my cheeks. I feel like a helpless child subject to the whims of an abusive father. The tears start falling faster as childhood memories of my brothers, surface in my mind. Erik and Chris chasing me through the field behind our house. Luke scolding us for getting too far away and grandpa laughing at the lot of us, sitting on the old, rickety bench on the back porch. I want to go home.

Jeremy wipes the tears from my cheeks and I am brought back to the real world. Being locked in this house 24/7. Never knowing when, if ever, I will get out. I fall to his chest and stain his shirt with the flood I've been holding back since I was brought here.

Yesterday.

Oh my word. That was yesterday. I am about to give up, but all of this happened in the span of a couple days. My brothers will find me. I push off of his chest and look into his concerned eyes. "Is she dead?" I ask.

He looks down at the floor and says, "You need rest." He looks back into my eyes and nods for me to lie down on the bed. I stand with wobbly legs and begin to walk around the side of the bed. I fall onto the mattress and bury my head in the thick pillow. He covers me up with the white bedspread and kisses the back of my head. My skin crawls and I fight the urge to recoil. He walks out and I am left to my sorrows.

***

An entire week passes without my escape or death.

Or Layla.

I haven't seen her or heard her name spoken in seven days. One hundred and sixty eight hours. One hundred and sixty eight hours of obedience and...wedding plans. I am to give input on the details of the wedding— even though my word is hardly taken— and be Katherine and Mary's personal doll.

I am in almost constant contact with a tape measure. Since the night I was taken to the basement, I have found a place inside my brain where I can go to escape all this madness. A place where I am numb to this reality and a place where there is hope of escape.

In the past week, I have worked on prying open the window in my bedroom. Obviously it has been sealed shut, but it is still glass. There has to be a way to break it without making too much noise and climb out without too many people noticing too quickly. I need time to get a good head start into the forest before someone has time to determine the cause of the sound. It won't be easy, but I have to hope it is doable.

It's Monday so everyone is at work. Except, of course, Mary, Katherine, Collin and I.

And Layla.

I have to hope beyond hope that she is alive. She is the only one that has shown me a drop of sanity the entire time I have been in this hellhole.

I am jabbed with a needle as I imagine the plastered on smile she gave me the first time I laid eyes on her. Then I couldn't see the fear she held behind her eyes because I was so afraid myself, but now it is clearer than ever. She was warning me with her silent cries. Her invisible tears. She tried to warn me of the dangers and I ignored her. I denied that I was in a bad situation. That I might die, but not now. I will not be so ignorant anymore. If they want me to submit, they are going to have to kill me first.

"I'm sorry, love." I look down and a spot of blood has risen from the spot where the sharp needle penetrated skin.

I say 'it's fine' mechanically. For now I will be the obedient puppy that they all expect me to be, but soon I will fight back and I will take Layla with me.

At the moment they are fitting me for the wedding dress they plan to sew. No one is allowed to leave the property without a male presence and even then, the farthest we get is maybe a few hundred yards away. Not nearly far enough to find a bridal shop.

So we stay here and let the prisoners do their job.