Page 71 of Crawl
“Did you send the picture?” he asks.
“No.”
“Are you lying to me, Remedy?”
And that’s what hurts the most. He doesn’t believe me.
The gun leaves my temple and the shot goes off. I gasp, but when I open my eyes, the gun is aimed at the back of the room, and there’s a new, small crater in the concrete wall. He didn’t kill me. And that knowledge makes me laugh. This is crazy. He’s crazy. And I’m just as crazy for following him into a giant cage. It’s hilarious.
Once I stop laughing, I squeeze my arms around myself. “You don’t trust me,” I breathe. He releases his hold on me for a moment and I shove his shoulders. “This is ridiculous.”
His eyelids flutter as he thinks it over. “You’re right. I don’t trust you.”
Suddenly, he’s gone, leaving me inside of the metal cage.
“Where are you going?” I ask.
He puts the padlock on the hitch.
“What? What are you doing, Cash?”
The lock clicks into place, and he pockets the key. His eyes hold me, and he shifts back and forth like he’s curious. And that pisses me off even more.
“You’re insane,” I yell. I run my hands across the ground, trying to find my phone. “Locking me in a cage because I won’t give you my phone?”
He leans against the doorframe. “You have a choice,” he says.
I want to stay in this cage to prove that I’m not going to give in. But Cash isn’t the kind of person to bluff, and if he threatens to leave me here, he’ll do exactly that. I find my phone and briefly consider calling Jenna for help, but there’s no service. Is that what the concrete walls are for? To block the signal?
I stomp to the door of the cage, then shove the device under the gate. “Screw you,” I yell. “Have my phone. I don’t care.”
He picks it up, then taps through the different screens. Recognition lights his eyes. He knows I’m telling the truth now. I didn’t send her anything. But it tookprooffor him to accept that.
And it’s like I’m back in middle school again, trying to tell my mom about my stepdad as she brushes me off. She didn’t believe me.
And now Cash doesn’t believe me either.
Maybe Peter is right. Maybe Cash is using me to killforhim. That’s why he doesn’t trust me. I’m just a puppet.
“Let me go,” I shout. He turns off the phone and tilts his head. My pulse races. I gave him my phone; how long will he keep me here? “Please,” I whisper.
“Pick the lock,” he says, gesturing at the padlock. “That’s what you tried to do before.”
I touch the bobby pins. My heart stops.
It’s not about locking me in here, then. He knows I can get out.
He wants me to choose his cage.
He unlocks the door of the cage but I go to the back corner, sinking down to the floor, wrapping my arms around myself in the fetal position.
“Stand up,” he demands.
I don’t move. “You don’t trust me,” I whisper harshly. “Why should I do anything you say?”
He drops to his knees in front of me. Still, I refuse to move. He drapes his arms around me and I shove his shoulders, using my legs and fists to get him off of me. But still, Cash comes back, pulling me into him. He fights me to the ground until his body pins me against the cold, hard concrete.
“Jenna won’t say anything,” I say, tears in my eyes. “She needs to know. I can tell her it’s a joke. A Halloween prop.”
