Page 19 of Medium
“Can you walk?”
Pia took a step toward the door of the cage, but she crumpled. Lorraine cried out as I caught her, barely in time.
“Okay, I’m going to carry you, and we’re going to go fast.” I swept her up in a bridal carry. She hardly weighed anything. I’d have preferred her to hang onto my back or my front so I could have my arms free, but I didn’t think she had the strength. Up close her skin was dried and puckered.
I turned, but Garfield was between me and the door, holding up a hand. “One sec.” He spun around and poked his head through the door—I never got used to that—then pulled it back inside. “Hallway’s clear.”
I shifted my grip on Pia until my right hand was freed up to turn the doorknob. I eased the door open. No sense making more noise than I had to. As promised, the hallway was empty.
I exited the room and shut the door quietly behind me. I shifted Pia more securely in my arms and walked as fast as I could the way I’d come in. Garfield and Mercy took turns scouting ahead and reporting back. Once I had to dodge into what turned out to be a bathroom for about sixty seconds, but then we were on our way again.
I slowed when I heard the sound of the service staff. “Put your face to my chest,” I told Pia. She did it without question.
The first staff member we encountered, an older Latino man carrying a tray of dirty glasses, stopped in his tracks when he saw us. He blinked at Pia, whose mottled-leaf legs and feet were on full display, but he didn’t speak. I didn’t sayanything either, just continued on my way out. I heard him follow me, but I decided to ignore him unless he did something.
The other people we ran into behaved similarly. Their eyes would widen, they’d look closely at Pia, and they’d either go on about their business, or they’d follow us. My back was stiff with tension, waiting for one of them to do something.
I walked through the laundry room, then into the mud room. Mercy came through the back door and said, “Patio and yard is clear. Security guards are on the side of the house.”
My skin crawled at the thought of crossing the back yard, exposed under those lights. But needs must.
“Hang on, Pia, we’re going to run for a minute, okay?” She nodded her face into my shirt.
“Wait,” one of the people behind us said.
I spun around. It was the first man, the older guy, who had spoken. Five more people ranged behind him, all with worried expressions.
“Yes?”
He pointed to the wall next to the door. “Those three switches control the lights to the backyard.”
I frowned. “But won’t turning them off draw the attention of the people inside?” I jerked my head downward. “The lights from the house will still be on. My shirt’s going to be visible.”
A young woman in the back said, “One second.” She opened the clothes dryer and pulled out a black rectangular tablecloth. She approached me with it. “May I?”
“Um, sure.”
She snapped the fabric out to its full length and draped it over my head and body. Then she tied it in front, covering Pia.
“Why are y’all helping me?”
The woman scowled as she stepped back. “We all know when he brings in a new one. But we don’t know the code for the door, and there are cameras.” She shrugged. “Most of us are not in the country legally, and jobs are hard to find.”
“Understood. The code to the room is 4321.” That brought out even more scowls. “If I give you my phone number, will you contact me if he brings in someone else?”
They nodded, and I rattled off my number. Three of them, including the first guy and the young woman, put it in their phones. One of them, I wasn’t sure which, texted me. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket.
The older guy asked, “Is the camera in that room dead?”
“Yes. And the hallways.”
He smiled. “We will make it look like the little miss escaped.”
I frowned. “He’ll know she didn’t have the energy for that.” Then I grinned. “She’s a dryad. They live in trees. Can you get your hands on some dead branches, or even just a pile of dead leaves?”
His eyes lit up. “We’ll put it in the cage in her place. Chamberlain is stupid enough to believe it.” The others smiled.
“Okay, now I really need to go.”
