I ripped the tape and plastered the pictures over the window, repeating the same steps until it was completely covered. Now all that remained were the shadows, but another layer of pictures should completely hide them. It was much darker in the church now, but there was still enough sun from the windows that we didn’t need to turn on all the lights. I turned around and faced the girls again.
Laura looked incredulous, as if she couldn’t believe I’d just done that.
Beatrice had the same fearful look, as if she expected consequences for this.
The two girls at the front stopped their worship and now just stared at me.
But Claire smiled.
“I don’t like those things.” Claire sat beside me on the bench, looking at the blocked-out windows before turning back to me. “I don’t like this place. I want to go home.” She had light-colored hair like her father, similar blue eyes, and she had such a beautiful innocence that it broke my heart that she was there.
None of us deserved to be there—but her most of all. “I want to go home too. But we’ll leave eventually.”
“Because my dad will save us?” She turned back to me, searching my gaze for hope, like I somehow knew her father well enough to make that assumption.
“Yes. And even if he doesn’t, we’ll figure it out.”
“You promise?” Her voice dropped, like she was still afraid, like she needed some kind of reassurance.
I wasn’t her mother, and it felt wrong to make a promise I couldn’t keep, especially to a child, but I did…and I meant it. “Yes.”
She nodded, more to herself than anything else.
I was getting all of us out of this place. We were outnumbered and far away from civilization, but I believed every problem had a solution. It just took a long time to find that solution sometimes.
Laura and Beatrice talked quietly as they sat together a few feet away, keeping their voices low.
I was alone and I was scared, but I couldn’t imagine how scared Beatrice was since she wasn’t alone. She had to keep not just herself alive but a whole other person. That was a difficult hand to be dealt.
“So, you know my dad?” Claire’s blond hair was in a braid down one shoulder, and her wings were crumpled behind her.
“No. I just met him the one time. But I could tell how much he loves you.” I gave her a gentle smile.
“Yeah, we’re best friends.”
“I’m sure you are.” All I knew about him was that he was a contractor, so I doubted there was any chance he would find us. I doubted even the police would find us. We couldn’t wait around for someone to come save us. We needed to make a plan to get ourselves out of here alive. But I let her believe that her father was a hero, because I was sure he was a hero to her heart. “I found some crayons and colored pencils. You want to color?”
“You did?” she asked in excitement.
“Yeah, I’ll get it for you.” I went to the closet and grabbed the items, along with the book of sketches. There were no demons inside, just angels floating in the clouds or lounging by a lake. It seemed harmless for her to look at it, and it would also keep her mind occupied so she wouldn’t think about the terror that existed outside these walls.
When I returned, Laura had left. I gave Claire everything, and she turned to the first page to see an elegant woman dressed the way she was. She pulled out a pink colored pencil and started to add the color.
I looked at Beatrice, who sat alone, her expression so forlorn it looked as if she might burst into tears. Claire was occupied with her coloring, so I slid over and came close to her. “You okay?”
She didn’t react to my words, as if she didn’t hear me.
I assumed Laura had just told her everything she’d told me, and Beatrice was a bit stung by it all. “We’re going to figure out a way out of here, alright?”
She slowly turned to look at me, her features undeniably pretty like the rest of the women here, some of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen in my life. She had big, round eyes and sculpted cheekbones. But when she was devastated, her beauty was diminished. “The Malevolent follow our every move, and we have no idea where we are… Come on.”
I was scared too. I was hopeless too. But giving up right off the bat couldn’t be the decision. “Look, I’m scared too. I’ve never been so scared in my entire life. I’m not ashamed to say that. Anyone else would feel the exact same way. But we can’t just give up. We can’t just accept what has happened to us. It won’t happen overnight, but in time…we’ll figure it out.” I had to keep telling myself that, had to stay focused on some ideal, because if I didn’t…I would lose my mind. And if I lost my mind, I would lose my body too. “We’re in this together.”
She faced forward again, her eyes glossing over like she didn’t take a single word to heart.
“Just think of Claire.” A mother’s strength was unparalleled. They would do anything for their child, take any risk to give them a better life. She was just disturbed right now, but that instinctual fight would hit her. “And your boyfriend.”
“I don’t have a boyfriend.”
I didn’t want to ask her about their complicated relationship because it was none of my business. “Claire’s father. You’ve got to get back to him.”
She shook her head slightly. “We aren’t close.”
“Oh…”
She turned back to me. “We hooked up a couple times, got pregnant, and then…we turned into parents. We just hand her back and forth, but he has her most of the time.”
“Well, he asked about you, so I know he cares about you.”
It was the first time she wore a slight smile, but it was deeply sarcastic. She released a cold chuckle. “That man only cares about one woman—Claire. She’s the only woman he’ll ever love. The rest of us…mean nothing to him.”
Now I didn’t know what to say, and I felt like I’d crossed a boundary I shouldn’t have. “You have a sweet and beautiful daughter, so it’s still a blessing.” Having a family hadn’t been on my list of priorities because I was a struggling dancer who went through men like a deck of cards. I never found an ace. But when that happened…if I ever got out of here…I would want a family.
“Yeah.”
I turned quiet, unsure if I should continue to talk to her because she seemed closed off and withdrawn. I wanted us to be friends and allies since we were neighbors, but she still seemed to be in shock about the whole thing. “So, you’re a dancer too?”
“I was.” She turned back to me, tucking her long hair behind her ear. “Benton is our only chance to get out of here, and if he can’t make it happen, then there’s no hope. With every passing day, my hope grows weaker and weaker…”
“Why is he our only chance?”
She rolled her bottom lip into her mouth as she considered how to answer the question. “He’s got connections. He was never part of something like this, but he used to be a part of this world.”
“Part of this world?” I whispered. “What does that mean?”
“I don’t know a lot about it,” she said. “Only what I forced out of him. He used to be an underworld criminal, basically. He never wanted to have kids, and whatever he was mixed up in forbade him from having kids, so when we found out about Claire…he was furious. He said it compromised his commitment, his eternal pledge of fidelity to his brothers. We were total strangers, and after a couple passionate nights, we were both thrust into lives we didn’t want.”