We needed to get the hell out of here. No one was here on Rumor Island, but that could change at any moment.
There wasn’t one doubt in my mind that there was a man lurking somewhere, a man who’d hurt Amnesia and Sadie.
Holy shit, I found Sadie.
There was no way in hell the widow could have done all this on her own.
Leaving Am up top, I leapt back down into the hole, sort of surprised she hadn’t followed us out when I rushed (rather awkwardly) up the ladder with Amnesia.
“Sadie?” I asked, not sure how to approach her. I wanted to snatch her up and run like hell, but I held myself back. She was fragile; that much was entirely obvious. My God, the way she cowered when she thought the man was coming back…
If I hadn’t wanted him dead before, now the urge was tenfold.
“What happened?” she asked, her voice small in the dark.
“It’s okay.” I promised. “Being back here is, uh, hard for Amnesia.” That sounded stupid to my ears. Stupid and insensitive. This was so much more than “hard” on her, and Sadie, too.
“You call her Amnesia?” she asked curiously, moving back into the soft glow of the lantern.
“That’s the name she gave herself.”
“What about her real name?”
“She doesn’t know her real name.” I paused. “Do you?”
“It’s Lily.”
Lily. Like the flower. It was beautiful. I could barely digest it, though, any of this. Swallowing past the massive lump in my throat, I asked, “How do you know her name?”
“We’re sisters,” Sadie replied. “Well, we were.”
I had no idea what that meant. Sadie didn’t have any sisters. She was an only child. She was probably confused, dehydrated. Who the fuck knew what else?
Shit. Lily might not even be Amnesia’s actual name.
“Come on. We need to go,” I said urgently. I could ask questions later. Our safety was more important.
“Go?”
“Yeah, we’re leaving.”
She seemed confused. Her hesitation was something I wasn’t expecting. I shifted on my feet, gazing up at the opening. “I’ll take you home, back to Lake Loch. People are going to be so happy to see you.”
“My parents,” she murmured.
My heart broke. Sadie wouldn’t see her parents. Hadn’t she endured enough? But now she had to be told they died in a horrible crash caused by her own father.
Now was not the time for that. I wasn’t sure when the time would be, but it wasn’t now.
I went forward and took her hand. She glanced down to where I held her. “Come on.”
“I can’t go,” she said, digging her bare feet into the floor.
“What?” I spun around. “Why?”
I honestly thought she’d run out of this cave so fast it would make my head spin.
Her voice dropped low, the tone warning. “He’ll come back.”
“Which is exactly why we need to go now.” I pressed, giving her hand a little tug.
She yanked it out of mine, wrapping her arms around her middle. “He said I couldn’t leave. He said I had to stay.”
“He’s a psycho!” I roared, my patience snapping.
She wilted, and I cussed.
“I’m sorry,” I said, contrite. “I didn’t mean to yell. It just… it makes me crazy to see you here like this, knowing you’ve been tortured all these years.”
“How long have I been here?” she asked. “I tried to keep track…”
I pressed my lips together, then replied. “A long time, sweetheart.”
She nodded. “You look like a man now.”
“I won’t hurt you,” I said, thinking maybe the fact I looked like a man scared her. After all, she’d suffered extensively at the hands of a man.
“I know,” she said, but there was a hint of doubt in her tone. “But he said I was his. He said I belonged here, with him. I’m not allowed to leave.”
She was brainwashed.
I moved forward just slightly. “You don’t belong here, Sadie.” I held out my hand between us. She glanced at it, but made no move to accept. “And the only person you belong to is yourself. I’m here now. I’ll protect you. I’ll make sure you do anything you want, including leave here.”
I saw the glimmer in her eyes. She wanted to break free.
She was like a bird in a cage.
A small, fragile creature that craved freedom, but didn’t understand what it was.
Even though the door to the cage was propped open and no one stood in the way of escape, she hesitated. Because if she spread her wings and flew away, it would be to places unknown.
All she knew now was life inside here. She was kept. Hidden away. A beautiful bird, broken and locked up. A beautiful bird that once knew freedom but now only knew inhibition.
I left the door propped open but took a step back.
“Remember that time we got up just after sunrise and rode our bikes all the way to town just so we could get a fresh-out-of-the-oven donut from Joline and Jeremy’s bakery?” I asked, smiling a bit at the memory. “It had rained the night before, and by the time we got there, we were covered in so much mud, Joline made us wash up in the bathroom before she would let us have our donut.”
“I told you we shouldn’t have taken the shortcut through the field.”
Her words pierced me straight in the heart. She remembered.
I chuckled. It was slightly forced because it was hard to laugh in this kind of situation. “You were right.”
“Joline and Jeremy,” she murmured.
“They’re still there. Same bakery, same donuts. We’ll get one.” I cajoled.
Still, she hesitated.
“It’s okay, Sadie.”
“He said he would—” Her voice caught. “Hurt me if I wasn’t here when he got back.”
My teeth ground together so forcefully a pain in my jaw spread down my neck.
“He lied,” I said gently. “I won’t let him hurt you.”
She debated another minute, which felt like an eternity. But then she stepped forward, her hand reaching out for mine.
“Okay.”
The weight of responsibility sank down on me. She was trusting me enough to take her out of here, to keep her safe and protected. Even after the part I played in her getting here. I couldn’t fail her this time.
“C’mon.” I led her to the ladder. “You first, okay. That way if you fall, I’ll catch you.”
“I won’t fall. I’ve climbed this a lot.”
“That’s good.” I encouraged. “Go on.”
She went, her movements definitely experienced. She even managed to avoid getting caught up in the too-long gown.
I went up closely behind her, nearly running straight against her when she paused at the top.
Her face turned back down. “You’re sure he’s not up here?” She worried.
“I swear. I searched the island before I found you.” I searched and then wanted to leave. Leave you here again…
If it weren’t for Amnesia, she’d still be down in that hole.
The second Sadie cleared the top, I practically catapulted out of that den of evil. I searched immediately for Am, making sure she was still okay.
She was still sitting on the ground nearby, looking pale and quite frankly wrecked. I started to go to her, but Sadie called my name.
“Eddie?”
I swung around, caught in the center. Up here in the sunlight, I noticed how much they favored each other. It was easy to see why we all speculated Amnesia was Sadie.
But there were differences, ones that now made it obvious.
“I’m here,” I told her.
She glanced around as though she expected a giant eagle to swoop down from the sky and take off her head. Wind blew and the sound of the waves seemed louder.
Sadie shivered. “It looks different up here during the day.”
“You usually come up at night?”
She nodded. “That was the rule. He left the hatch unlocked while he was gone but made me promise I’d only come out at night. Someone might see me wandering here during the day. Someone might take me away from him.”
How was a man—or any sane person really—supposed to listen to these things? These insane meanderings of a lunatic that this girl spoke as if they made perfect sense. How was someone able to brainwash another human being to, in a sense, make them think they were a dog and not in charge of their own life?
“It was you,” Amnesia said from close behind me. “It was your lantern we saw here at night.”
Sadie’s eyes widened. “You saw me?”
I went forward, already knowing where her mind was going. “Just your light. But it’s okay. You didn’t do anything wrong. It probably was nice to get out of there and walk around.”
“The stars are pretty at night.” She agreed.
I wanted to scream. To yell. To punch a thousand things.
“I thought it was him,” Amnesia said. “I came here to find him.”
“Oh, he’ll be back,” Sadie said. She was so sure. She glanced past me at Am, her eyes changing slightly, but I wasn’t sure how. “He’s very angry with you. He says when you come home, he’s going to have to teach you a lesson and that you won’t get as many nice things as I do.”
What. The. Ever-loving. Fuck?
Amnesia’s face went white. So white I started toward her, worried she might fold to the ground again.
“And your hair…” Sadie went on. Amnesia’s hand flew to her wavy, short strands. “He’s going to get out the whip.”
Amnesia whimpered. I caught her around the shoulders and pulled her in, covering her ear with my hand.
“He won’t,” I said fiercely, turning to look at Sadie. “He isn’t going to touch her ever, ever again.”
Amnesia trembled against me. Sadie just stood there stock still, almost emotionless. As though she had the inability to see what her words just did.
“Don’t ever say anything like that to her again,” I said, trying to be gentle. “Amnesia doesn’t understand. She doesn’t need that running through her head.”
“It’s what he told me,” Sadie explained.
I was so close to yelling. So close to screaming. I held it in, feeling as if doing so might cost me an actual few years off my life.
I glanced down at Amnesia, pulled her away from my body, and looked into her face. “We’re going home now.”
She nodded and started walking in the direction of the boat.
“Boat’s this way,” I told Sadie, gesturing for her.
She rushed forward and took my hand, her fingers like ice. That gown was so thin I could see through it in the sunlight, and the wind was so cold her nipples were completely visible.
“Here,” I said, unzipping my hoodie and putting it around her shoulders. “It’s cold out.”
She looked down at the shirt, then pushed her arms through. “Thank you.”
It seemed to take less time to get to the dock. I thanked God for that. I was never coming back to this island of hell ever again.
Everyone was quiet as we made our way to the pristine white boat. Sadie was definitely weak and malnourished. She tired out halfway to the dock and began to stumble.
It didn’t help she was barefoot and the sunlight seemed to blind her.
I picked her up and carried her the rest of the way. She sighed in relief and practically went limp in my arms.
“Be careful.” I gently reminded Amnesia as she walked down the dock toward the boat. It made me nervous to watch her because so much of the wood was rotted out.
She didn’t look back at me when we made it across, instead just jumping into the boat and moving toward the back where she’d sat on the way here.
I was worried about her. Unfortunately, my worry had to wait.
Once Sadie and I were in, I sat her down beside Amnesia and fired up the boat.
I didn’t spare a single glance back at the island as I jetted over the water, but the creepy, unstable feelings it possessed definitely followed us home.