Page 62 of After Our Kiss

“You know who I am?”

“In a way. We were pen pals,” she chuckled. “Of a sort.”

I sat back on my calves heavily. “Youwrote me those letters?”

“Feels like forever ago. You stopped replying, did you get sick of me?”

“I had to move,” I said. “My mother needed to be closer to a better hospital. For her treatment.”

She sensed the sadness in my tone. “I'm sorry.”

“Forget about that. We've got out own problems. Do you know where we are?”

“The cellar beneath the house.”

To think, she'd been so close all along. “How high will this water rise?” I asked anxiously.

“Lonnie told me that it gets as high as the stairs this time of year.”

We'll drown for sure.“How does he know that? Conway said he'd been staying here since springtime.”

“I don't know. It's just what Lonnie said to me. He liked to tell me all sorts of awful things,” she said somberly. “Ways he'd hurt me, way's he'd torture Conway. He could be lying about the water.”

“Let's not stick around to find out.” Filling my lungs, I screamed as loud as I could. I did it until my throat was scratchy and raw.

“No one will hear you,” Emily said. “I lost my voice twice.”

“I have to try!” I wished I could see in the damn dark. “I can't give up here.”Conway has suffered so much to save us both.I was grateful that she couldn't see me starting to cry. “I won't fucking stop fighting. Not while I'm still alive.”

He called me strong.I wouldn't let him be wrong so soon.

Emily was quiet. “There's a big pipe over in the corner,” she finally said, and I sensed her new hope taking root. “I saw it a few times when Lonnie was around. It has to thread up into the house. Maybe, if you're loud enough, Conway will hear.”

Navigating without my hands to brace a fall was deadly. I inched along, knees scooting, wading through the wetness. Unless I was wrong, it already seemed higher.

I thumped against the solid wall. Using my shoulder as guidance, I scraped along, following it until I came to a corner. I took it a few more feet—smooth metal collided with my chest. “I found it!” I shouted. Tensing my body, I banged against the hard surface with my shoulder—itthwonged.Again, I hit it, using force to create a catastrophe of sound.

He'll hear. He has to hear.

Breathing in until my ribs argued, I began to scream.

I screamed for help.

I screamed for Conway.

And when my voice faded hours later, I whispered for my mother.

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