“I don’t either. We’ll figure something out,” he promised.
I turned my head, staring up into his bright blue eyes. Despite the years of torture, they remained vibrant and resilient. Constantine was a fighter, and he’d get us out of here.
“We better,” Kansas, pacing the room, snapped at us. “Otherwise, one of us—”
“You can’t think like that.” Constantine rose, forcing me upright too, as he didn’t let go of my hand. “We’re all going to escape.”
“How?” Kansas shouted. “We’ve been trapped in here since, since… I don’t know how long! And now that she’s…” Kansas’s anger quelled when he flicked his gaze to me. He shook his head. “The Minister has already made up his mind, we’re doing this. And someone is going to…” His face crumpled. He turned around to face the wall as he sobbed.
He didn’t need to finish his sentence. We all knew what he was going to say.Someone would die.
“I’m not going to let that happen,” Constantine repeated. He’d been saying this since he woke up, but neither of us believed it. How could he save us? We were all the same. Weak, malnourished, and hurt. Over the years, they’d beaten us, deprived us of sunlight and fresh air, and forced us to listen to the Minister’s sermons. We prayed to a god I never understood. If the Minister’s god was the best one, then why did he require sacrifices?
“We need a plan,” Constantine continued, ignoring Kansas’s meltdown.
“You’ve been upstairs. How do we get up there without being seen?” I asked.
Constantine and Kansas were given special privileges as of late. Every week, they went upstairs with the Family and listened to the Minister speak. They hated it every time and always refused to tell me what he said.
“The Minister has a staircase in his office. It leads to one of the rooms down here,”Constantine told us.
“What room?” Kansas wiped his nose and turned back to us.
“The room we’re going to.”
“You’ve been in there?” Kansas demanded.
“One time. There were some people from the town upstairs. He didn’t want them to see me, so he made me go down the stairs and through the room. The door is covered by a bookcase. It’s heavy.”
“So what?” Kansas’s eyes lit up. “If all three of us push, we can get it open, right?”
Constantine nodded. “I think so. And once we’re upstairs, we just hold on to each other and run. Got it? Don’t look back. As long as we stay together, we’ll be fine.”
Loud clicks came from the large iron door, and we froze. It creaked open and a Mother stood there.
“Come now. You need to be bathed and dressed.”
“I don’t want to go,” I repeated in a shaky voice.
“It doesn’t matter what you want.” The Mother stormed over to me and snatched my hand from Constantine’s. “The Minister has decided. The three of you will be bathed. The three of you will be dressed. And two will be married.”
I woke up with a jolt on the couch.
The words she’d left unspoken screamed in my head.
And one will be murdered.
A frantic knock came from the front door.
My entire body was stiff from sleeping in my clothes. The knock came again, and I stood. The two papers meant for me fell to the floor. I picked them up and looked around for a quick place to stash them. The rapid knocking on the door made me worry they would just come right in if I didn’t get to them quickly enough.
Folding them up, I shoved them in a book I had on the coffee table and went to the door. I opened it to find Therese on the other side.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “Why are you here at seven in the morning?”
Her long brown hair was in a high, messy pony; her makeup was expertly done to highlight her hazel eyes, and she wore the tightest sundress, despite it being October, to highlight her massive chest.
“Sorry, did I wake you?” She cocked an eyebrow as she looked my wrinkled dress up and down with condescension. “I know you don’t want to hear about it, but something huge has happened with the movie.”
