Page 24 of Fighting Shadows

“Sure. I won't be trying to run, though. I don’t want to have to hurt you, either.”

“I mean…” Noah pauses, a smirk on his face as he stares up at Charlie, “you could just let me go?”

“Not happening!” Charlie snarls, “You are here to keep her alive,”

“I could do that without chains.”

Charlie inhales sharply, holding his breath, and looks up at the ceiling like it has all the answers to dealing with his son. With a shaky exhale, it seems like he finally got himself under control enough to let Noah go to the toilet, and when the sound of the shackles released, my body thrums with anticipation.

Is he going to knock his dad out and get us both out of here?

He does none of that. Instead, he trots to the bathroom like a good little prisoner and then lets his dad clamp the chain around his wrist once again.

My body slumped, and any energy I had was now gone.

Charlie leaves the room and promises to be back soon, ordering us both to eat, but I stay silent. I don’t feel hungry; my body is too exhausted to think of anything other than closing my eyes and going back to sleep.

“Strange girl,” Noah hisses, making my eyes pop open. I hadn’t even noticed that I had closed them.

“What?” I whisper.

“You need to try to stay awake. You need to eat if I’m going to get you out of here.”

I scoff, unable to help myself.

“There is no escaping thedevil,Noah,” I mutter as sleep pulls me under once more.

Chapter 12

Noah

12 days…

“Fuck my life,” I mutter as I watch the girl’s body relax into the bed as she loses consciousness once again.

She’s been in and out the past few days, mostly out, and unable to stay coherent enough for more than twenty minutes before she’s passing out again. Her memory is also going; each time she wakes up, she has no recollection as to how she got here or who I am; it’s terrifying to watch.

Her skin is mottled, and when she is awake, she is in pain.

“What am I going to do with you, Strange girl?” I say out loud, even though I’m not sure why. I may as well be down in the morgue at the hospital talking to the corpses; at least I wouldn’t be tied up here.

I listen to her breathing, if you can even call it that, the sound sounding more like a rattle each day as the infection spreads through her body.

We’re running out of the penicillin I carry in my bag, and it’s only doing enough to keep her alive for now.

She needs a hospital, and if I don’t get her out of here soon, then Charlie will be burying her body deep in the woods that surround us, and no one will ever know what happened to her.

Thankfully, I managed to convince Charlie to release her shackles, her body too broken to try to escape. All I need to do now is come up with a plan to get myself out of mine and get her out of here.

13 days…

I watch Strange Girl as she sleeps, unable to take my eyes off her chest as I watch the uneven rise and fall. I know my countdown to get her out of here has dramatically lowered as I hear the sound coming from her lungs.

She’s on the precipice of death, and I don’t know if I have enough time to save her. Charlie hasn’t visited in twenty-four hours, unable to face what he’s done to the girl he claims to love. I have to hope he comes back soon and that I can set my plan into motion before it’s too late.

Chapter 13

14 days…

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