She was insane, friend’s with a mouse. She was compliant, happy to do what they said without question. She never smiled, never laughed, she just took what they gave her and bode her time.
After all, she had killed four people in this tiny little room. All on her own. She could kill more. She could kill them all.
Now Mr. Alascer was finally coming, and she could finally make her escape. Nobody would expect it. Not one person. Not even Merlin.
I would always keep Merlin safe. I would always keep myword.
Phil walked over to me, the rag in his hand, and I found myself studying his hand for several seconds before I stood.
He started at my feet and worked his way up, respectful but thorough. Phil was always respectful. That’s why he would get to live when I came back and killed them all.
He rinsed the rag out several times during the cleaning process before he was done with it. Then he brought over a toothbrush and brushed my teeth, cleaning out all of the bologna and carrots from my teeth.
He brushed my hair next, and I think I hated that part about the process more than anything. I hated it more than the nasty toothbrush and the taste of bologna. I hated it more than I hated blacking out. More than I hated the pain when I walked across the room.
I hated it because Everett was the only one in this world, besides me, who had ever brushed my hair.
He had touched my hair last, and then they erased that. They had erased all of him. Every single piece of him except for the tattoo and the carving in my thigh. Mr. Alascer would take those though, and there would be nothing left of who I was. Not a single shred.
Just me. Just Merlin.
“I’m going to bring you out, okay, Olivia?” he asked when he was finished brushing my hair.
I nodded, sitting back down on my bed. I figured as much.
Of course, I was excited. How could I not be? I’d been here for a lifetime, and I hadn’t seen the daylight in a very long time, just the yellow bulb. Nothing but the yellow bulb.
It never went off either, it never went out. Just yellow all the time.
“He’s bringing a van to put you in, listen to me very carefully,” Phil said, grabbing my chin only to release it a second later atthe shift in my eyes. “Listen. I’m going to take you to the van. It’s going to be parked away from the buildings, away from the main compound where Alexei is. I’m going to put you in that van and then I’m going to shoot everyone inside. When I tell you to duck, you duck. Get down under the seats, okay? Leave the rest up to me, I’ll get you out of here, I promise.”
No, he wouldn’t. No, I wouldn’t. I was already shaking my head at him. It was a terrible plan.
His eyes furrowed in confusion, and he crouched down in front of me. “What are you saying, Liv? I’m getting you out of here. We have to get you out of here.”
Phil was a good man, and I had decided that I wanted him to survive this. I wanted his family to survive this, and that meant that he couldn’t get involved.
I shook my head again, cradling Merlin in one hand while I reached out with the other and touched his cheek, allowing myself to speak for the first time in a very long time. My voice was my only power. “You have Tanya and Peter. It’s okay,” I whispered, his eyes filling with tears. “I won’t let you take that risk.”
I could see he had thought about it. I could see he had considered the risks, the outcome, what could happen if he failed, what would happen if he succeeded, but I had done some thinking as well.
A lot of it.
It’s all I could do.
Plot out the last chapters of my story, and him doing this wasn’t apart of it.
“Olivia, you’re going to be sold into sex trafficking,” he stressed. “Or something pretty damn close to it. You’re going to lose yourself. You’re going to die cold and alone, and Everett will never find you.”
Yes, I knew that, and I had long since come to terms with it.With everything. As much as I could come to terms with it.
I had Merlin.
I had my mind, my safe place.
“I love it when you lie.”Those words had been whispering through me since I first got here. So, I lied. I lied to them, I lied to myself, I lied to Merlin. I had to. It was the only way to survive.
Lying.
