I worked my jaw, feeling the tears burn the back of my throat as she shoved my hair over my shoulder, the collar moving ever so slightly.
Joke’s on her, there was no way she could get it off. I had tried. For days and days, I had tried, but nothing cut thro—
Asnapmet my ears, and the collar loosened.
My eyes widened, burning with tears as she pulled it from my neck.
It was just a symbol. It could be replaced.
It was just a symbol, I chanted in my head.
It could be replaced.
She walked back in front of me, a pair of snips in one hand, my collar in the other, a smile stretching across her face. “Daddy dearest will be in to join you soon,” she hummed before she finally headed for the door, spinning the collar in one hand while the snips remained gripped in the other.
Snips? I had never consideredsnips!
I watched after her until I heard a lock slide into place on the other side. I felt unbelievably naked without anything around my neck. Like I was missing a vital piece of who I was now, but I couldn’t think about it.
I sniffed, forcing the tears to stay back, shaking my head, trying to focus.
I had to focus, find anything to tell Everett and Evelyn when one of them called. Because they would call, I knew they would. I looked around the room again, trying to keep the tears back, trying to focus. No cameras, no microphones, unless they had something in the light bulb or something hiding in the cracks on the walls. There was nothing at all to worry about.
Thank God there was that.
I pushed my toes into the dirt. Hard and compact. Some sortof basement or cellar. I was definitely underground. Below a house, maybe.
I inhaled deeply. It smelled of mold and mildew, and the water she had dumped on me wasn’t soaking into the ground, or if it was, it was doing it very slowly. Too slow.
I swallowed, another shiver falling through me. The silence in this place was deafening. I couldn’t hear anything. Not one thing. Not the wind or any cars or the rustle of trees, there was nothing.
It was as if I were completely alone down here. Absolutely and utterly alone.
I closed my eyes, focusing, trying to find at least one sound in this deafening silence to focus on, but there was nothing.
The panic started growing in the pit of my stomach, my breathing picking up no matter how hard I tried to swallow it down. I couldn’t be alone. I wouldn’t survive being al—
A ringing sounded in my ears, soft and beautiful and very much real.
My heart skipped a beat, my face collapsing in relief as I tilted my head to one side, lifting my shoulder until I was able to press it to my ear.
The call connected. “Everett?” I whispered, staring at that door unblinkingly.
“Hello, pup,” he hummed, the sound music to my ears. It was a little crackly, as if I were talking to him through a tin can and string, but it was real. He was real.
My eyes filled, the world blurring around me, a sob catching in my throat. I pressed my lips together and shook my head. He sounded so calm and collected, unphased, and why wouldn’t he be? He knew he would find me, I just had to help him a little. I had to do my part so he could do his.
I inhaled sharply and cleared my throat. “Okay, okay, um…I’m in a small damp room, hardpacked dirt all around me, concreteceiling, one light, old, really old. It’s small, can’t be more than six feet by six feet, tall ceiling though. Maybe ten or 12 feet tall. Wooden door, rusty hinges, smells of mold and mildew, the water isn’t sinking into the soil, I don’t think, and I can’t hear anything. Not a single thing. Oh, but the wall, it looks like it was chipped away at, um…I don’t know, by maybe a pickaxe. It’s hard to tell, they have me in the center of the room, and there are small rocks embedded into it. Gravel, sharp pieces, not like river-rock, but like the rocks you would find digging too deep in the woods. I think I’m under a house or some sort of building.”
He was quiet for three seconds too long.
“Everett,” I whispered, my voice shaking. “Everett, please. Please don’t—”
“You’re doing good, baby,” he said in response. “Take this,” he told someone else. “You said water? What have they done to you?”
I inhaled sharply, tears slipping down my cheeks. Shit, I wasn’t doing a very good job at holding it together. “They killed Lucy,” I whimpered, shaking my head. “I tried to stop her, but they had already drugged me. They killed my dog, Everett, they killed my dog. I don’t know what I’m going to do without her, they killed my dog.” The sobs cracked through me no matter how hard I tried to hold it back, it was painful, but not as painful as my shattering heart.
“Lucy’s in surgery, Olivia,” he said, causing my eyes to widen and my heart to stutter.
