“I will never be free.”
“What if we could offer you an alternative?” Lilith asks, now gripping Amber’s hand in both of hers. “A way to move on without dumping you back into a society that is completely foreign to you.”
Amber’s brow furrows, confusion warring with the sadness in her eyes. She opens her mouth to speak, but then a voice from the shadows states loudly, “Send her back to the psych ward where she belongs.”
Amber stiffens, her head ducking forward as if she’s trying to fold in on herself. Lilith’s eyes narrow then she leans around Amber, peering into the shadows as my father appears at the bottom of the stairs.
His expression is angry, but I see the exhaustion, the worry clouding his eyes. He takes a step closer, his words loud in the otherwise quiet room. “She has no business being part of society,” he takes another step, and Lilith stands, releases Amber’s hand. ”She should remain locked up with all the other cra?—“
“You shut your mouth,” Lilith grits out, finger pointed directly at my father, now standing only a couple feet away from me. “Your hurt ego and bruised pride have no place here.”
He scowls, but doesn’t back down. “But she?—”
Lilith jumps forward, her finger poking him right in the chest. “I know all too well what she did. I was there, remember,”she punctuates each thought with more jabs to his chest, “I watched her kill her own mother. I watched her lead me into a basement to where her own daughter was caged. I kept watch over her year after year, making sure she could do no harm while also not have herself be harmed.”
My father is quiet now, some of the fight leaving him. Hostility still shines in his eyes, but it has dulled some, the edges now tinged in sadness. When he doesn’t say anything, Lilith goes on, “Most people don’t know what it’s like to fight demons that were instilled and nurtured since childhood. How difficult it is, how painful. How the only way to truly overcome them is to reach down your own throat and rip them out of your insides until you pray you’ll fucking die.
“And even then, once you’ve purged the nightmare, you live in constant fear that it’ll all come back, that one day you’ll wake up and see that demon staring back at you in the mirror. And this will make you question if maybe, just maybe, you were the demon all along.”
Lilith stops talking, and you could hear a pin drop in the room. Lilith and my father stare at each other, obviously at an impasse. I hold my breath, uncertain what I should say or if I should say anything, but then Amber whispers something incoherent. I turn my focus to her, bending down slightly. “What was that?”
Her frightened eyes meet mine. “Please don’t send me back.”
“Why shouldn’t I?” my father asks coldly.
Amber is silent for a moment but then her chin lifts and she straightens in the chair. “I’d rather die than go back.”
My father goes to respond, but Lilith, obviously knowing he’s about to say something shitty, pokes him in the chest again. He glares at her but remains quiet, back to their stare down.
“Amber,” Darius says from my other side, having somehow managed to brush right by me without me noticing. He squatsdown, taking the same position Lilith had just been in, but he doesn’t try to touch her in any way. “What would you say if I told you we have a place you can go where you’ll be safe without also being a prisoner?”
“I’d say you’re a liar,” she retorts, then bites her lips, eyes wide in panic, as if she didn’t mean to say it.
Darius smiles, a low chuckle vibrating from him. “That’s fair.”
Her eyes flit to mine, then back to Darius, who’s waiting patiently for her to say something else. Her fingers twist nervously in her lap,
“It’s an open facility in the mountains,” he explains. “Its’s only accessible by plane. Every amenity you could ever dream of is available there, and we’re always adding new things as they’re brought up.”
“What’s the cost?”
“You don’t need to worry about any of that,” Lilith answers, her hand resting on Amber’s shoulder. “You’ll be safe there, and you’ll also have the opportunity to decide how you want to live the rest of your life. On your terms.”
“And what’s this place called?”
Darius smiles, his golden eye glittering in the dim light. “I call it ‘The End’.”
Amber quirks a brow. “Kind of ominous, isn’t it?”
He laughs then replies, “Such is life, I guess.”
“It sounds nice.”
“It’s amazing,” Lilith states. “If I wasn’t so old and stuck in my ways, I’d give it a shot myself.”
“May I visit her there?” I ask.
Darius shakes his head. “No, we don’t allow visitors,” he says, and I immediately deflate. His hand on mine draws my eyes upward and he adds, “But it’s not a prison, Cassidy. The point of the operation is to give survivors an opportunity to heal andrebuild. To provide a safe environment for them to regroup and figure out how they want to live their life, how to manage their newly attained freedoms.”
