***
ELODIE SUCKED IN Abreath when the shadow stopped in front of her cell door, and for a brief moment, as the lights flickered again, she hoped it was Gunner, that he was already back. That she had lost track of time and the gunshots she heard were only in her head.
“Boy,” the man grunted and she recognized his voice.
“Da—Chesnik?” She caught herself and scurried forward, clutching the bars.
“Is that you, Chesnik?” Someone else asked.
Grumbles and questions filtered through the space. She couldn’t believe it. Couldn’t believe it when the lights went back out and a flashlight switched on. Her dad’s face came into view.
“We don’t have much time,” he muttered, looking down at the lock. “Gotta get you out of here.”
Her hands shook as she reached through and tried to touch him. “You came back,” she whispered.
He grunted, “It wasn’t easy. Isn’t safe still.”
“Look at me, please.”
He lifted his wrinkled, tired eyes, having aged even more since she last saw him and she couldn’t hold back the tears that sprang forth.
“Don’t go doing something stupid like that, boy, we don’t have time!”
Elodie drew her hands back. “What do you mean?”
“I’m getting you out of here.”
“What? How?”
Her dad produced a keycard, one of the ones she had seen dozens of times used on the cells, and pressed it into her door. A ping sounded and it opened. The barrier was gone.
Elodie didn’t care and rushed into his arms.
“Boy...” He tensed as she buried her head into his chest, wiping her tears onto his vest, and heaved a sob. She didn’t care who saw or what the others thought.
She held onto him tight and shivered in distress when his arms banded around her in an embrace. “Dad,” she choked out and breathed in his smell, creating more tears in the process. “I never thought I was going to see you again.”
“There, there, boy. I wouldn’t leave you behind.”
“But you did! You did leave...”
His eyes drooped, sad, and she reached up to smear the dew on her lashes away. “I didn’t want to give you hope when the odds were bad.”
Elodie sniffled and nodded, understanding, but hurting. Something inside her splintered as he clutched her hand and turned away, pulling her. She tugged back, heart pounding.
“We gotta go, boy! What’s the matter?” he asked, pulling her again.
She couldn’t move. Her feet planted on the threshold of her cell. Her throat was tight and dry as her eyes drifted to the empty cell beside her. The other prisoners spoke out but she didn’t hear them.
Gunner has a plan. I sent him out there.His empty cell loomed, harrowing.
“Boy! For fuck’s sake, what’s the matter with you?”
Chesnik grabbed her arm and dragged her out of her cell, her feet trailing behind him heavily, her pulse racing. She twisted to keep her gaze on Gunner’s cell as he led her to the door, the flashlight a beacon in the dark.
Her safe place vanished into the gloom.
The space she shared withhim. Her throat constricted.
