Page 25 of Claim Her
I don’t believe him.
But he does.
In the middle of the night, the key sliding in is too loud. He holds my hand as we run, up, up, up. Me slipping. No energy. He pulls me, tries to carry me but he can’t. He’s still just a boy after all.
“Can you fit yourself in this box?” he asks.
“I’m not sure.”
“You have to. It’s the only one available.”
Making myself smaller and stepping into the wooden box. I must have stayed there for hours or days. I don’t know. When it opens, a gruff man with white beard stares at me and says, “Run. Run as fast as you can. As far away as you can. They will come for you and no one can help you.”
I run. And run. And run. My heel bleeds and I run. My lungs burn and I run. I fall and scrape my knees and I run.
When my stomach starts feeling like there’s a hole the size of my head, I steal bread. And get caught. The bakery owner pushes me, wants to call the cops. The couple in matching white outfits are angry. Pays for everything.
“Where are your parents?”
“Help me please.”
“Honey, call the cops.”
“No! Please, no. I’ll leave. Don’t call the cops.”
“What happened to you, sweetheart?”
“Help me.”
“How? How can we help you?”
“Take me with you. Take me far away from here and drop me off. Just take me away please.”
The man calls someone. The woman lets me bathe in their massive hotel room. The man whispering. The woman crying and nodding.
“The men looking for you, are they family?”
“No! They hurt me. Take me with you, please. Just away from here. I’ll hide in the trunk of your car or your suitcase.”
Understanding passes between them. They ask me to tell them everything when I’m ready. The man calls his friends to find my family.
The woman cries and shows me a news clip of their accident. Everyone dead. Papa, Mama, Lily, Rose, and Jasmine.
I have no one. Then, I have them. Mom and Dad.
“Zara, baby. What’s wrong? Tell me. What’s going on?”
With me collapsing on the floor, clutching the clip to my chest, I raise my eyes to Alec, who sits on his haunches, his forehead furrowed, his hand on my shoulder.
The pain is all-consuming, as if my heart is torn away and all that’s left is an empty void that threatens to swallow me whole.
The happiness I felt now seems nothing but a distant echo of a different me. How can something so beautiful suddenly crumble in the space of a few minutes?
I want to scream at the unfairness of it all. Why, of all people, must it be him? It’s like the universe likes playing cruel pranks on me.
Alec rubs my back, and I flinch at the contact. He sees it. Of course, he does. He stops touching me and curls his hands into fists on his sides. “What is it, Zara?”
The words catch in my throat, but I force them out. “Why do you have this?”