Stolen

    Marissa stirred in the six by eight room of the single wide trailer where she was kept. She could feel the light coming in under the door. Her young body seemed to recognize the change from dawn to light, the change from the colder temperatures of the night to the warmer but still cool temperatures of the coming day. Dread filled her pores.

      According to the tally marks on her floor beneath her bed this must be the day her father’s colleagues came to her home to visit. “Home, ha.” She thought sardonically to herself. She pulled the only blanket she had up over her head and curled back into fetal position on the twin metal framed bed. There was no reason for her to get up and begin her day of worry when she knew what was coming was just more torture, best to sleep as long as she could.

    Thoughts of her sister Margaret, lovingly called Magpie and her brother Anthony filled her mind as she tried to pull sleep to her. She wanted nothing more than to embrace that sleep and hold it to her as long as she could. But that sleep she longed for was evasive, it dodged her every grasp. Each time she thought she had reached it and let her mind drift into nothingness it was filled with a vision. She saw her sister flinging away a man’s hand as it reached for her. She saw her brother Ant running with an object in his hand, running as fast as he could and not looking back but holding that object to his side, tucked in the curve of his arm. She saw Magpie slice a knife through the air as she lunged toward a tall dark shadowed figure.  She saw her mother lying on the ground beside their jeep, blood spilling from her mouth, nose and eyes.

    These images were certainly not conducive to sleep. But what choice did she have? She could stay curled on her bed in her room in her trailer. Or she could get up, get dressed and go through the only door that led out of the trailer, the door that was framed with a wire cage. A caged tunnel leading from the trailer where she slept to the main house, it was nothing more than a fenced catwalk covered in a dark tarp that kept out most of the sunlight. Of course according to her step-father, the good doctor, it was designed to keep predators out. However she knew the truth. It was a prison compound. At sixteen she knew enough about the world. She had memories from her life before the fire, before her Daddy died, before her mother remarried and slowly lost touch with reality.

    Rolling out of the bed she accepted the fact that her brain was not going to slow down enough to rest. Her thoughts wandered to the house before her feet took her there. She could feel her older brother and sister inside. Magpie was somewhere near their step fathers office. Ant, short for Anthony, was in the den near a bookcase. Without the gift of voice she could only communicate with gestures and a limited knowledge of American Sign Language. She remembered having a voice, squealing and happy as a child but not since her stepfather, Dr. Orton, had begun treating her for “disciplinary problems”. The medication drove away her voice. At least her external voice, she could still hear her own sound in her mind. The power over her body had also changed. She felt herself moving inside even when the medication made her body appear limp. She knew what he was doing to her was wrong in so many ways but there was no one she could ask for help. He had made that very clear over the years.

    The threats, the punishments, the starvation, it was all about control for him. She couldn’t wait to see that man suffer and die. Hopefully someone would be able to revive him so she could watch him die a second time. She could feel the smile mentally but knew from experience that it didn’t reach her face.

    Wandering into the house seemed like she was invading a space that was not her own. She slept, showered and ate separately from her family. She was allowed communal time with her siblings during the day light hours and only when they had completed their chores. She couldn’t understand what this man’s goal was, what was he getting out of destroying her life and her family. She walked quietly down the hall to the den where she had felt Ant. There he was at the bookcase just as she had seen him in her mind. He startled when he heard her approach. Jerking his body around in a fluid motion, his face showed the relief he felt at her presence. He must have been about to try and read one of the forbidden books from the case.

    “Ah crap Mare, I told you that you’ve got to walk louder. You just about gave me heart failure.” She felt the tears sting her eyes, she wasn’t welcome anywhere.

    “I don’t mean it like that, stop will you. I just meant you scared me. That’s all. I am really glad to see you.” He reached out to hug his small sister around the shoulders. “Especially now, you and your spy skills,” he held her at arms length watching her face, “You feel like watching the door for me?” When Marissa nodded he smiled and kissed her forehead. Returning to the shelf with her standing at the door keeping a lookout made his search much quicker. He grabbed the thick heavy hardback that he had been searching for. Flipping it open he gasped. It was there. The pages had been cut out and replaced with a small journal. He removed the journal and stuffed it under his shirt into his waistband.

    “Come on we have to go to breakfast.”He grabbed her arm to lead her out to the dining room but she resisted. He turned back to see the questioning look on her face. “Dr. Orton has insisted we meet his colleagues for breakfast, so,” he shrugged, “we get to eat today.” He patted his flat stomach and smiled at his little sister.

    She nodded and went with her older brother. The thought of eating, after being hungry for so long, made her stomach ache. She couldn’t be certain if it was the pain from hunger or the thought of food making her sick. She made up her mind as soon as the smell from the kitchen reached her nostrils. It was definitely hunger. The scents were amazing. Apparently Rasha, the cook, was back in full swing.

    As the two walked in their mother greeted them at the doorway; met really, more than greeted. She handed the teens each an outfit on a white plastic hanger.

    “Go change, look presentable. Marissa have Margaret fix your hair. It’s atrocious.” She turned back to the dining room to oversee the staff setting the table.

    “The nerve of that woman to tell us to look presentable when you can look at her and see she is as strung out as they come.”Ant whispered angrily and shook his head in disgust. He looked back at his sister with her skeletal body and sunken eyes. The sad look on her face nearly shattered his heart. “Ah Mare, I’m sorry. You know I don’t mean anything by that. I just get angry.” Her pain was tangible in the hallway, filling the walls around them. “You don’t choose the drugs they make you take. She could stop this if she wanted to.” The tears filled her eyes and blurred her vision but even as her breath came out with a small hiccup of air there was no sound. She had no voice to tell him she understood and accepted his opinion and apology. Even her hands had to remain silent. Signing in the house was strictly a no-no. Anthony and Margaret had stolen the only book on the subject and together they had learned as much as they could of the language and taught their younger sister. The knowledge was still limited but better than nothing. She could only nod and depend on his ability to read her thoughts. He responded with a nod of his own. “Do you know where Magpie is?” She sniffled and led the way. He silently followed her down the hall. She opened her mind as much as she could to find her sister. The twin to her brother Ant was in the den they had been in earlier. She was standing in the middle of the far wall looking out the barred window when they entered.  She turned and made eye contact with each of them then lifted a finger on her right hand to her temple. Their stepfather had placed cameras in the house and Margaret had no idea that Ant had already looped the one to this room. Anthony had become quite versed in the security system of the compound in attempts to break out.  As she used their private sign to tell the other two she had something to share he smiled.

    “It’s ok Magpie, I looped it this afternoon. We should be safe in here for the next couple of hours.” She breathed a sigh of relief and spit a small object out of mouth into the palm of her hand. Holding it out, she walked toward them. Huddled in small triangle the three looked at the key in her hand.

    “I found it Ant. It freaked me out but I found it.” Mare pulled on her sleeve, blinking at the key.

    “I’m sorry Mare we didn’t want to tell you what we were doing because if we couldn’t pull it off we didn’t want you to be let down again.” Mare shook her head in frustration and blew out a long breath.

    Ant spoke up, “It’s the key to his lab. We can change the meds they give you. Then you should be able to get strong again. I wanted to stop taking mine too but we thought it would be better if I wait. We’re going to stash some of those too so that I can wean myself off them when we leave.”

    Panic overwhelmed the younger sister. She shook her head back and forth almost violently. NO, NO, NO she signed, her gestures wild with panic.

    Anthony grabbed her arm and shook it lightly. “Yes Mare we have to get out of here. Don’t you understand? We will be eighteen next month.” He waved his hand between himself and his twin. Marissa shook her head again. Images of the dreadful things that could happen flashed through her mind. Memories of beatings they had received just for playing as preteens, fear coursed through her veins chilling her to the bone. They day her voice vanished, the day her step father came into her room and beat her for not answering him. She could smell the blood that soaked through her sheets to her mattress after he busted her lip and split the corner of her eye. She could almost taste the bile rising in her throat at the image of scrubbing her bed with a brush and sponge to remove the blood as best she could.

    Frantically Marissa shook her head until her whole body trembled. Anthony embraced his younger sister and stroked her dark hair, calming her with a soft shushing sound. When the trembles eased she realized that she was being held by not just her brother but her sister as well.

    Margaret spoke softly into her hair. “It’s going to be alright Mare. This time will be different. We won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.” Mare removed herself from the warmth of her siblings. Stepping back she watched them both for a few seconds. Fear of losing them in a month battled with her fear of dying at Dr. Orson’s hands. Her mental struggle lasted only briefly. With a single nod of her head she agreed. They understood this agreement. Mare was slight in stature but strong in spirit. Her determination alone could make or break them.

    The house maid Beryl chose that moment to appear in the doorway. “Dinner will be served in twenty minutes. Your parents expect you dressed and behaving properly.” She turned and walked away. Beryl wasn’t unkind to the children but she showed little emotion either. She had on several occasions helped tend to wounds or illness that their parents did not. She was a stout black woman that looked as if she could lift a full grown horse. As children they never disobeyed her and as teens they rarely snuck around that she didn’t notice. She was definitely not a rat about it though. She never told their parents when she found them reading material not given to them by their tutors. She also seemed to know when it was safe to leave food in hidden places in the kitchen where one of the teens could get it quickly back to the others. She seemed to them more observant than servant. Anthony once confided in his sister that it creeped him out the way she always seemed to be around. Margaret countered this with a “Thank God she is or we would likely starve.” Mare agreed with a nod.