It was a risky one, especially given that she knew they were likely watching her on the camera feed around the clock. But staying there and doing nothing was even riskier. These men weren't suddenly going to decide to be nice and let her go. Her brother had done something bad enough to them that they were prepared to abduct an innocent woman and torture her just to get to him.
When they realized their plan wouldn't work, she became a liability.
One they wouldn't hesitate to get rid of.
So escape was quite literally her only option.
Growing up, her life consisted almost solely of study and chores, but there was one other thing she’d been allowed to do. Apparently, part of grooming her included keeping her body as strong as their twisted torture games were supposed to make her mind. Little Rose had learned early on that she enjoyed tumbling and climbing things, and after seeing a video of someone performing gymnastics, she’d become hooked.
Thankfully, her parents, and then her brother, had agreed that gymnastics was an appropriate way to tone her body, so she’d started studying every video and tutorial she could find.Hours of practice, any time she had a free moment, she would work on her skills. Adding to her repertoire and perfecting each trick she learned, strengthening her body, one muscle at a time, until she was good enough that if she’d lived a normal life, she would have tried out for an Olympic team.
Now those skills might save her life.
Getting through the door was out of the question. It was reinforced steel, and there was no access to screws to try to undo them and take the door off its hinges, even if she’d had something that would have worked as a screwdriver.
Waiting until the men were there and trying to get past them was also off the table. There was no way she would get past Mr. Bedroom Man even if he was alone, let alone if he was with one or more of the others.
Which left only one other option.
The vent.
Earlier, it had been her nemesis, blasting her with air hot enough to push her system into heat stroke, then enough cold air to make her hypothermic. Now it had become her lifeline.
Never in her life had Rose been so glad that she was small. Her brother had often criticized her for her stature as though she’d decided to only grow to five-foot-two to bother him personally. While strong from hours of working through gymnastics routines, her muscles looked small and insubstantial.
Yet she knew better.
She was small and strong, and hopefully just small enough to fit through the vent.
Where it led, she had no idea, but she would follow it for as long as she could, then find a way out of it, and then out of this house. Failure was not an option.
Getting to the vent, however, was going to be tricky. There was no furniture she could use to get up close to the ceiling, which meant she was going to need every one of her skills.
Her plan was to use the door handle to get her three feet off the ground, then she’d have to launch herself at the vent. She had no idea how sturdy it was or how hard it would be to rip it off, and once she launched at it, there would be no way for her to perch up there and figure out how to remove it.
Which meant she was betting on her body weight being enough to pull it free.
Then all she’d have to do was land safely, then fling herself right back up to the vent and wriggle her way inside it.
A million things could go wrong, but Rose wasn't going to dwell on them.
What was the point?
If she talked herself out of this, she was accepting her fate, and she’d never once accepted the fate anyone else had tried to determine for her.
Being watched was her biggest problem, because if they thought she was up to something they’d be down there in a heartbeat.
So instead of making any attempt at getting to the vent, Rose merely started a warm-up routine and then began to flip and tumble her way across the floor. She’d cleared an entire room in her house so she could do her floor routines, and she’d even toyed with the idea of once again building her own equipment, parallel bars, uneven bars, and a balance beam.
This was her happy place because it was the only thing back in her childhood that she’d had any sort of control over. Now she prayed that if anyone was watching her, they’d quickly get bored, thinking she was just trying to stave off boredom and panic, so that when she made her move, they weren't ready for it.
Chapter
Seven
December 27th
12:10 P.M.
