Episode 19

Miah sat against the wall staring at the floor. Her eyes still hurt from crying herself to sleep.  She had woken in the morning to light shining in the small window high up on the wall. The light only showed the hopelessness of their escape, and she felt sick to her stomach.  The feeling made her want to lie there motionless until she died, but soon her curiosity and fear drove her to open her eyes again and look around her to assess her situation.

She saw Connor sitting at the far end of the room with his elbows on his knees, his head bowed. He’d already tried to break the door down the night before, which Miah remembered murkily as if it had been a dream, but the door had been sealed tightly and wouldn’t budge.  By the looks of it, it was still in that state this morning, despite the surprisingly deep scratches on both sides of the wooden frame.  Miah sensed that same spark of fear she had felt when she had asked him if he had ever killed anyone.

Connor felt lost and confused; none of his plans had worked the way he had expected.  The shock that they could have done such a thing to Ben still stuck a cold lump in his stomach that wouldn't go away.  It was inhuman, and didn't make any sense to him.  How could anyone want to mutilate a human being and make it less than it was?  He sighed and lifted his head, and then noticed that Miah was awake.

Looking away from him, she asked, “Do you think he’s dead?”

Connor cracked his neck, as if to come up with a good answer, or a solution to something, but none came and he sighed, “I don’t know…”

Miah looked at him and cupped her face in her hands, her elbows resting on her knees like him.  “Are they going to do the same thing to us?”

“They might.”  Connor was starting to get restless.

She sighed. “There’s nothing we can do, is there?”

“Not right now,” Connor told her, wishing she would be quiet.  She couldn't do any good by answering questions. 

He looked at the door again, and then shook his head. “We’ll have to wait until they come to give us food to escape.  That's about our only chance.”

Miah looked around. “Don’t you think they’re monitoring this room?”

“I can’t see any cameras or anything.”

“There could be something in the ceiling that we can’t see.”

“It really doesn’t make much of a difference. They’ll know everything soon enough.”  He was sure an interrogation was in order, but he was content to wait until it came to him instead of rushing it.  And making her even more nervous will only make things worse, he told himself.

She looked up at the window, a far-off look in her eyes. “I thought we would be able to save him. It happened too fast.”

Connor pushed himself up off the floor and walked over to sit down next to her.  “I’m so sorry I couldn’t do anything…I could have fought the man.  I should have tried to stop him.”

“You were carrying me. You couldn’t have.”

“But if I hadn’t been so stupid and gotten us wrecked, you would have been perfectly able to walk. It’s all my fault—it was my idea to get caught anyways.”

“But you couldn’t have known they’d do this to him.”

“I shouldn’t have taken that risk.  I never should take that kind of risk.”

Miah put a hand on his arm. “It’s not your fault, Connor.”

“Yes it is!” he said, raising his voice and pulling his arm away.  Miah shrank back.  "I'm sorry."  

She shook her head, looking down. Crossing her arms and turning toward the door, she muttered, “I only hope it doesn’t hurt.”