Lock

I stare in awe at my brother fighting off his opponents in the ring.

He invited me to come watch. I didn’t know what he meant by opponents until I saw him step into the ring with a roar. People around us are cheering … not just for the fight, but also for him.

It makes him more pumped, and his strikes are harder than before the people started chanting his name. And the moment his opponent goes down, it erupts.

I hold my hands over my ears to block the noise.

I don’t know how he does it.

Why he likes listening to them … and why he puts himself out there like that.

People make him feel wanted and strong …

Me? I just want to run away whenever I come in contact with another person.

I sigh and watch the match in silence, wishing I’d feel different about it all, but something still nags at me.

Father made us fight for rewards, and we both hated it, which is why I’m so surprised Cage is still doing this. It’s like he somehow still enjoys it.

Or maybe because now he won’t have to kill anyone.

Me? I want no part of this.

And the moment it’s over, I try to quietly slip out the back.

However, a hand on my shoulder stops me. “Hey, where you going?”

It’s Cage. I turn and clear my throat. “Just … wanted to catch a breath.” It’s both a lie and the truth.

“C’mon, let’s go celebrate,” he says, putting his arm around my shoulder and pulling me along. “What did you think?” he asks. “Did I punch him good or what?”

“Yeah, great,” I answer.

“Not good?”

I shrug. “You like beating people up?”

He smirks. “It’s what I do best. So that’s what I do.”

“But why?”

“To earn money.”

“Money …?” I frown. Hate that stuff. It’s why Father did all those horrible things to us. It’s the sole reason we had to suffer.

Why doesn’t he care?

“You know … to buy stuff. You need money to give your woman what she needs,” he says, eyeing Ella who’s waiting for him in the locker room.

“If you want, I can introduce you to someone and hook you up.”

“As in fighting?” I ask, raising a brow.

“Yeah. To earn money.”

“Ah …” I hold up my hand. “No thanks.”

“Let me help some other way then. Want me to show you around town? Help you get started?”

I frown. “I prefer not.”

“Why?”

I shrug. “I just wanna take it slow. Besides, I don’t see the point.”

“In what? A job?”

“No, everything. Here,” I reply.

He snorts. “You’re not making any sense.”

“I know,” I say. I don’t mind. He fits in well here, but just because he does doesn’t mean I will. Or that I want to.

“My point is, dude, you’re gonna have to search for a job too, if you wanna survive and make your woman happy.”

I make a face. “Don’t wanna talk about that now.”

“Sorry.” He laughs. “I just figured you wanted to know.”

“Is that why you invited me to come watch you?” I ask, raising a brow. “To give me tips?”

“Well, I figured … since you’re new to it and all …”

I cross my arms. “That I’m what? Inexperienced?”

He shrugs, but a grin still spreads across his lips.

“Did you forget I was the first one to escape?” I ask. “I’ve seen the world. I know what people like, what they do, what they want. It’s not my thing.”

“Then what is?” Cage asks as Ella hands him a towel, and he wipes off his sweat.

I stare off into the distance, picturing the jungle and fresh lakes. “My island.”

“Hmm …” He nods. “Must be a great place. Can’t wait to see it.”

I freeze.

Is he going to?

Does that mean I’ll have to share my island?

“Relax,” he says, laughing. “We’ll come when invited only.”

“Right.” I shake my head. “Except I’m here now. Just like you.”

“Right …” Cage winks.

Well, fuck me.

He’s just as arrogant as I am.

Guess he really is my brother.

Still, it makes me wonder why I never knew about his existence in the first place. Why Father kept him from me is a mystery to me. Maybe he thought it’d be another incentive for me to want to leave the prison he built. He did everything in his power to keep us both there… and still, we escaped.

“What happened to … the compound?” I ask, after a moment of silence.

“The police raided it. No one was found.”

“What about Father?” I ask.

Ella’s face contorts, and she glances back and forth between Cage and me.

Their faces are all I need to know the truth.

“You know what happened to him.” Cage replies, swallowing. “It’s for the best.”

I nod, letting out a sigh of relief. “Agreed.” Still, I can’t let go of the compound so quickly. “But we weren’t the only people in that prison. What happened to all of them? The girls?”

Ella licks her lips and looks at Cage questioningly. “Well,” he says. “One of the girls who shared a cell with us, Syrena … She was sold.”

“Sold?” I frown.

“Yeah. That’s what he did too. Lots of girls who couldn’t get pregnant for whatever reason. He sold them to rich and powerful men. Like pets.”

I want to smack the wall with my fists. Goddamn that man and all his evil.

“We’re still looking for her.”

“And the others?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugs. “They vanished.”

“I hope they ended up somewhere safe,” I say.

“We don’t know. But the police are on it, they say. So we’re gonna trust them, right?” He glances at Ella, who nods in agreement.

I rub the back of my head and close my eyes, sighing. “Man, I can’t believe it. I thought he would’ve changed his ways after I escaped. But of course not. Bad people will always be bad people.”

“Right …” Cage mutters.

“God, I fucking hate this world,” I say, grinding my teeth.

Cage slams his locker shut and suddenly asks, “Hey man, do you even want to be here?”

“What?” I mutter, pulled from my thoughts.

“This place. The city. The people. Do you even like it?”

I frown and purse my lips, but there’s no response I can give them that will satisfy them.

He won’t understand. He wasn’t shunned like I was. He had a girl to guide him.

What did I have? Broken dreams.

I have never fit in.

He does.

He likes this place. More than I ever will.

He approaches me and places a hand on my shoulder. “It’s fine, dude.”

I shake my head. “It’s not. Jules needs to be here.”

“Yeah … but what if you can’t take being here, among the people?”

“It’s not that,” I say. “It’s the technology too. Doors that can’t open without me standing in a strange spot, small devices people can’t stop staring at … books.”

“Oh, yeah …” He chuckles, gazing at Ella for a moment, which makes her blush. “I had a lot of trouble getting used to all that too. But I learned, eventually. And you can too.”

“Is it worth it?” I ask, looking at Ella specifically. “Did it make you happy?”

She nods.

“I didn’t do it for her. I did it for me,” Cage says, cocking his head. “If you don’t want to do it for you, then don’t. It’s not right.”

I sigh. “It’s not that easy, and you know it.”

“Yeah, it is. You hate people, and you miss the island. Why not go back?”

And there it is.

The final straw.

He’s right.

I’m not fit for this city. These people. The technology they use. The things they can do with those paper bills. How difficult it all is … I don’t fucking care. I don’t want to fucking learn. I just want things to be simple.

Like the island.

“Fuck …” I say, leaning back against the wall.

Cage gently pats my shoulder. “It’ll be okay. Just talk to her about it.”

I look up at him. “You think?”

“Yeah. And if not … well, then it wasn’t meant to be.”

As he turns and starts undressing so he can take a shower, his words still spin in my head.

Wasn’t meant to be …

Maybe he really is right.

* * *

Juliet

It’s been a few weeks since we last saw his brother and Ella, and things have turned out much better than I thought they would. I never expected I’d get to meet a part of his family, let alone that it’d be this much of a success.

We even got to see pictures of their baby boy, Forest. Such a beautiful name.

Maybe we’ll get to meet him too, one day.

After Lock went to Cage’s fighting match, we all met at a local bar for a drink. We talked about Ella’s parents and how badly Lock wanted to apologize to them too, but Ella thought it was a bad idea, as Cage explained. She preferred not to tell them at all about what he did to her sister because it would hurt them too much. Instead, she’ll tell them about Cage’s brother, and let the man who took her sister be someone else.

It was her choice, so we accepted it. She seemed glad, so I guess that was what we wanted.

I get the feeling everyone wants to start with a clean slate.

I’m happy we got to make amends. Lock has finally stopped blaming himself for what happened to the girl.

Suzie. That was her name. According to Cage, Ella said she’s at peace in heaven.

I just pray Lock can move on too now that she’s forgiven him.

It’s a miracle, to say the least.

We can only hope the police won’t come after him either. But the case is so old now, and we’ve all changed. Not only mentally but physically too. We don’t look the same anymore, and I doubt they’re actually still looking for him.

We’re safe now. For the time being.

I’ve even gone back to work, so I could say hi to everyone and let them know how I was doing. And also because I needed to say goodbye to Pete and Ollie. There was a gathering at work to mourn our loss and to answer questions anyone may have had. I’m glad they didn’t ask much of me, though. No one blames me, which I’m happy for. It’s already tough enough to have witnessed them dying. And to be the only one to survive.

But right now, I’m okay. I’ve said my goodbyes; I’ve made my amends.

Within a few days, I’m sure I’ll be back at work again, doing my thing just as always.

Except something still gnaws at the back of my mind.

Something I can’t ignore.

Lock still isn’t happy.

It shows in everything he does. Whether it’s learning how to cook or watching the television or exploring my home. His face never lights up.

Even after I’ve made him taste literally everything from the supermarket and took him to the city to show him around. Books didn’t work either because he never learned how to read. The only thing that remotely excited him was the zoo … until he found out the animals were all stuck in a cage too.

I had to physically stop him from freeing them.

When we walk across the street, people look at him as if he’s a freak show. I know he’s huge, but that doesn’t give them the right to stare. But I guess people don’t understand.

Just like when I tell him to go and take something to the cash register, and he doesn’t even know what to do when he’s there even though I gave him the cash. The people judge him, laugh at him, and ridicule him behind his back.

It makes my blood boil.

But what can I do?

Even if I educate him and teach him everything there is, he’ll still be at a disadvantage. It’ll still remind him of the fact he’s different. That he never had a chance at the life they live.

Kids can learn … but adults?

It’s much harder, and I can tell it’s making him doubt himself so much. The more time we spend in the city, the more he’s fading away.

I knew then and there it was never going to work.

He has to go back.

So I’ve packed up our things and forced him back on the plane. Lock asked me what we were going to do, but I didn’t want to tell him because he’d try to persuade me that everything was fine when it wasn’t. So we flew back all the way to the island where we were taken with the boat. I asked around before we went, and there is a company willing to take him there.

But the moment Lock sees the ship, he turns around and stares at me in disbelief.

“We’re going back to the island?” The excitement in his eyes is too powerful to ignore.

I nod, smiling. “Yeah. It was supposed to be a surprise.”

He shakes his head and grabs my hands. “No. I can’t accept this.”

“It’s where you belong,” I say. “You said so yourself.”

He cocks his head. “But you don’t.”

I bite my bottom lip, not knowing how to respond. “I …”

“Stay,” he says, looking straight into my eyes. “This world … the people … are your home.”

I shake my head, my eyes turning watery. “No.”

“Yes. I want you to be happy,” he says.

“Please …”

“No. I can’t leave knowing you’re not happy.” He tips up my chin. “Your love means everything to me, but not at the cost of your happiness. Go home.”

A tear rolls down my cheek as I open my mouth, but he stops me from talking by covering my mouth with his and sucking out the anxiety and fear. His kisses numb me to the point of letting it all go.

“I love you,” he whispers. “But you need to be here.”

I peer over his shoulder to the man standing on the docks, waiting for Lock. “You … should go,” I say.

He nods and slowly lets me go. “Find a man who can give you what you need,” he says. “Find someone who will call you his with pride.”

I lick my lips, unable to smile. The cold immediately returns to my body, and I shiver as he turns around and walks to the man, convinced this is the right choice.

But I’m not so sure.

What do I need?

What is it that I want in life?

I love my job; I love my house. I love my family and co-workers. I love my city and everything this world has to offer. But without him, it’s … empty.

And even though guilt eats away at my heart, I know I made the right decision the moment he smiles as he steps onto the deck and the boat starts to move away from me.

I wave until it disappears.

And I’m crushed by the weight of my own heart begging me to follow him.

Instead, I turn around and leave.

* * *

I can’t drive myself to get on a plane back.

Instead, I book a room at the nearest hotel and fall on the bed. I burrow my face into the pillow and cry, my screams turning into mere soft squeaks in the fabric. Every passing second feels like an eternity in this dark, damp room. After a while, I have no more tears to cry. I sit up and stare at the wall in front of me. The emptiness around me makes me feel sick to my stomach.

Too nauseous.

I quickly jump off the bed and run into the bathroom, throwing it all up in the toilet.

When I’m done, I turn on the shower and step under, letting the water rinse away my pain and sickness.

I rest my head against the wall as the water cascades down my back.

I feel hot and cold at the same time.

Everything aches.

My body. My stomach. Even my goddamn breasts.

I suck in a breath, my eyes flashing open.

What if …?

Turning off the shower, I jump out and grasp a towel, drying myself off as quickly as I can. After putting on my clothes as fast as I can, I grab my purse and rush out the door. I ask the concierge for the closest pharmacy and hail a cab to take me there.

The lady at the cash register looks at me as if I’ve lost my mind, so I quickly go and pay the cabby to take me back to my hotel. When I get back up to my room, I throw the box away and take out the test.

Blowing out a big breath, I sit down on the toilet and pee on the stick.

My heart is pounding when I place it next to the sink and stare at it.

Time seems like it’s infinite, and I can’t stop tapping my feet and biting the inside of my cheek.

That’s when the stripe appears.

For a moment my heart stops beating.

A second one appears.

Trembling, I pick up the stick and read the back of the box.

Pregnant …

I’m pregnant?