Poppy held both hands up. “Clover, I promise I took care of them; they just died. ”
His nostrils flared again. He raised his hand and slapped her across the face sharply. Poppy whimpered and clutched her cheek. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. How could he get angry over that? It didn’t make any sense.
He grabbed the flowers out of the vase and threw them to the floor. I jumped deeper into Rose’s side and buried my head in her shoulder, peering at the scene out of the corner of my eye. What was he doing? Just as I thought he was about to do something to Poppy, he spun around on his heel and ran from the room. It was only when the cellar door slammed shut that I pulled back from Rose.
“It’s okay, Poppy,” Rose soothed, holding her hand out and stroking her arm to comfort her.
Poppy nodded and took a deep breath. “I’m okay. Lily, you’re shaking. It’s all right now, I promise. I’m fine. ” I’m not. “Come and sit,” she said, exchanging a glance with Rose. They were about to explain what the hell that was.
I sat on the sofa and hugged my legs to my chest. “Why did he do that?”
“He doesn’t like when they die,” Poppy whispered.
I almost laughed. He had no problem murdering women, but he didn’t like flowers dying. “He doesn’t like when flowers die,” I repeated, testing the words. Seriously, how fucked up?
Poppy sighed. “I don’t know why exactly, but he says flowers are pure and beautiful. Nature is beautiful and clean. I think that’s why he’s doing all this. ” She waved her hand around, gesturing to the prison we were trapped in. “This is his idea of a perfect, pure family. ”
“Locking four girls and four bunches of flowers in a cellar?”
Poppy half smiled. “I’m not saying it makes sense. Not to us anyway, and it’s just my theory. ”
“I think it’s an accurate theory,” Rose said.
I shook my head. “What’s wrong with him?”
Rose scratched the top of her head. “I don’t know, Lily. ”
“Summer,” I snapped. Rose flinched, and I instantly felt guilty. It wasn’t her fault. “Sorry, I just don’t like being called that. ”
“You are Lily now. I’m sorry. I’m only trying to help you. If you keep holding on to who you used to be, you’ll go crazy. Accept this life. It’ll be a lot easier once you do. ” Rose got up and walked into the bedroom. I dropped my head to the floor. I would never accept this life, not ever.
As soon as Rose took her clothes into the bathroom to shower, I sprinted for my bed. I didn’t want to talk to her again tonight. Poppy followed me and sat on the end of my bed. “Lily, you need to shower first. ”
I got in bed and pulled the cover over myself. “How the hell will he ever know? Screw the shower. It’s ridiculous. ” I didn’t want a bloody shower. I wanted to go home. At the very least I wanted them to be normal and make it a little more bearable down here. Violet was murdered, right in front of me, and neither of them had mentioned it beyond the little “It’ll be okay” remark they’d said right after they cleaned up her blood.
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They either didn’t care or they really had managed to shut everything out. I couldn’t do that. Every time I closed my eyes I saw her lifeless body on the floor. I could still hear her scream as he stabbed her. She tried to get us out because not only could she not do it anymore, but also she was concerned for me. She didn’t want me to go through what he had already done to her three times.
I felt sick with guilt. I should have been stronger and told her we would shut ourselves out and be Violet and Lily together until we were found, then maybe she would still be here. I missed her much more than I should miss a virtual stranger, but I felt like I’d known her ages. She let me in and told me things about her that she clearly didn’t speak about; she tried to help me escape. I felt so alone without her.
Friday July 30th (Present)
I woke up in complete darkness. The quilt covered most of my head, making me uncomfortably hot. I threw the cover off and sighed. Last night I dreamed of Lewis. He was here too, only we weren’t trapped, and I wasn’t scared of him. Lewis and I were lying on that sofa watching movies. He was playing with my hair, the way he had done a million times before. Clover wasn’t here, but Rose and Poppy were. I wanted it to mean that Lewis would find us. I wished it were a sign that we were going to be okay.
I forced myself to get out of bed, and seeing the small, obsessively clean, matching room made me realize how far away from home I was. My room was messy, really messy to a point that when I tidied, I didn’t know where anything was anymore. Taking a deep breath, I tried to stop myself crying. I was tired of crying and feeling exhausted. It wasn’t getting me anywhere. I needed to focus and stay strong if I had any chance of getting out of here. I had to play family.
The bedroom door flew open and Poppy walked in. “Oh good, you’re up. You need to—”
“Shower and get ready,” I said, finishing her sentence. “Yeah, I know. ” Poppy gave me a quick, fake smile and walked out of the room, probably to clean for the millionth time this morning. I wondered what he would do if he came back and the whole place was a mess, if we smeared food on the walls and emptied the trash on the floor. Violet should have been in the room too, running around getting the final things ready for breakfast. Rose and Poppy didn’t even seem to notice; they picked up the slack as if Violet—Jennifer—had never even been here.
***
I emerged from the bathroom exactly how I was instructed to look and dress, and sat down on the sofa. How had they not gone insane by now? Years of doing this every single day and they were still sane. I couldn’t imagine what I’d be like if I was still stuck in three years’ time.
“Want me to do anything?” I offered.
Rose turned and smiled warmly, seeing me for the first time. “No, thank you. We’re all done. Why don’t you have a seat? He’ll be down soon. ” She said everything in such a matter-of-fact way. Open your eyes, Rose.
I sat down and played with my fingers—waiting. The seconds ticked by on the clock, and I tensed. He was coming soon, but I didn’t know how soon. That noise I feared so much rang through my ears, and the cellar door was unlocked and pushed open. Now. I held my breath and my heart hammered in my chest.
“Good morning, Flowers,” he said and walked down the stairs.
“Good morning,” Rose and Poppy replied. They said it so in tune, as if it was their line in a play. That was how I was going to look at it. I was a part in a play. It was all make-believe and I just had to go along with it until we were found.
He stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked at me. “Good morning, Lily. ” His voice was firmer—challenging me. He wanted me to say it. His face reddened as he waited.
I stood up. My hands started to shake. “Good morning,” I replied quietly and forced myself to look into his cold, muddy brown eyes. He smiled triumphantly and ran his eyes over my body. I squirmed under his gaze. My skin crawled at the way he looked at me. I didn’t dare look away; I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of making me uncomfortable. If that was even what he was trying to do. Would he even care how I felt? No way. He couldn’t.
“You are a very beautiful young woman, Lily. ” My stomach turned. I clenched my fists, digging my nails into the palms of my hands. In the eyes of the law, I was still a child. I felt dirty and violated as he raked his eyes down my body. “Let’s eat then,” he said. “This smells wonderful, girls. ”
I let out a sigh of relief that his attention had been turned to something else and sat down. The food did smell good, but I couldn’t stomach anything. He placed something at the end of the table. A newspaper. My heart leaped. Would I be in it? The urge to grab it and see was overwhelming, but I was too afraid.
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We ate mostly in silence, answering the odd question. The newspaper was taunting me. I wanted t
o reach for it and see what was going on outside this prison.
“Well, that was lovely. Thank you. I’ll see you tonight for dinner. ” He left without giving Rose or Poppy a kiss. I was glad for them, even though they didn’t seem bothered either way.
It wasn’t until he had locked the door that I reached for the paper. I flicked it over and gasped. On the front page was a recent close-up picture of me. It was taken just a few weeks ago at my aunt’s birthday dinner. Lewis was also in the picture, but he had been mostly cut out so the focus was on me. I wished they had left him in so I could see his face. All I had was a small part of the side of his head, not even enough to see his eye. I could see his styled black hair, though.
I stroked the picture where he should have been and closed my eyes. Tears streamed down my face, making a soft thud as they landed on the paper. As hard as it was to see that picture, to read about myself, at least it meant people were looking for me. People were searching, and it was only a matter of time before they found me. But how much time could I cope with?
“Is that Lewis with you?” Poppy asked, peering over my shoulder. I nodded, not trusting myself to speak without breaking. She put her hand on my shoulder and gave it a little squeeze. “I’m sorry, Lily. ” Summer. “We’ll watch some movies tonight. Okay?” Right, for a change! The way she said it was as if that was a treat rather than the only thing we had to do.
“Sure,” I replied.
Poppy smiled. “Clover’s bringing popcorn for a movie night tonight. ” Bringing. He was staying down here too? My heart sunk. I nodded and went to get a book from the large bookshelf so I had something to do and so I could fall into another world and leave this one for a while.
I started reading The Time Traveler’s Wife to pass the time as quickly as possible. Every second down here seemed to drag on for hours and hours. As I flicked over another page, I wondered: how many books would I finish before I got out of here? Tens? Hundreds? Thousands?
“Lily, we need to start dinner,” Rose said, placing her hand on the top of the book to get my attention. I looked up, stunned. I had been reading all day. Smiling to myself, I vowed to read my time away every day until I was found.
“Okay,” I replied, placed a bookmark in the book, and put it back on the shelf. If I had been at home I would have slung it on my bed, but he was weird about cleanliness and tidiness, so I was too scared to be messy.
When dinner was in the oven, we cleaned up and made sure everything was perfect. Rose and Poppy were so obsessed with things being perfect it scared me. “I’m just going to brush my hair,” I told them and walked away. I wanted to be in another room when he came down. The anticipation was too much; my heart felt like it was going to explode as I waited for him to come down.
I sat on the bed and took deep, calming breaths. Just play along. That was all I had to do. All. As if that wasn’t already too much. A murmur of voices filtered through to the bedroom, and I knew he was out there. Pushing the fear deep down inside me, I pulled the door open and forced myself to try to smile.
“Ah, Lily, so nice of you to join us,” he said and smiled. “Come and sit. Dinner’s almost ready, right, Rose?”
“Two minutes, Clover. I’m just serving now,” she replied.
Ignoring him as best I could without making it obvious, I helped Rose and Poppy serve dinner. When I sat down, he stared at me. I sank down in the seat and pushed my food around the plate. I felt uncomfortable. Everyone had finished eating before I had even had half, but I couldn’t force anything else down.
“Are you not hungry, Lily?” Poppy asked.
“Not really. I’m a little tired actually. ” I wasn’t tired, not physically anyway. I wanted to be anywhere but in his company. Whenever I looked at him, I saw him stabbing Jennifer.
“Let’s watch the movie now, and we can all relax,” Rose said as she quickly tidied up. If there were a world record for cleaning, Rose would easily hold it. Was that what three years here did to you?
Poppy poured the popcorn into a large plastic bowl and we all crammed on the sofa. It was large enough to fit four people, but because I wanted to be as far away from him as possible, I pressed my side into Poppy’s. He was sitting in between me and Rose—still too close to me. I held myself in such an awkward position my muscles started to ache.
I had watched The Notebook with Lewis. He complained through the whole thing. If there weren’t any cars, fights, or nudity, he really wasn’t that interested. I’d do anything to be back with him and listen to him whining about how boring it was.
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Clover threw his arm over the back of the sofa and I cringed. My heart was racing and I couldn’t concentrate on the film anymore. About halfway through the film, his fingers brushed my hair so lightly I barely felt it. I seized up. No! Gulping, I looked down at my lap and closed my eyes, pretending I was anywhere but here. I tried to control my breathing—in for three seconds and out for three seconds—anything to take my mind off what was happening and calm my racing heart.
He stroked my hair until the film finished, and then he got up, said good night, and left. I rushed to the bedroom and dove under the cover. My skin felt like a million bugs were running all over it. I curled up and burst into tears, sobbing into the pillow and soaking it within seconds.
11
LEWIS
Saturday, July 31st (Present)
It had been seven days since Summer went missing, and I had barely slept at all. I took as little rest as I could survive on and spent the rest of the time searching. I looked awful and could see the worry on my family’s faces. Finding her seemed hopeless, but I wouldn’t ever stop. Although the search area had widened, there was still no trace.
Summer’s face was all over the local and national news every day, and people from all over had turned up to help look for her. I’d heard that the first few days were vital to find evidence of what had happened. I didn’t know what it meant for our chances that it had been a week. If there was something somewhere, fingerprints or DNA, then would it have washed away in the wind and rain? How long could it hang around? I desperately wanted to know, but I was too terrified to ask.
Someone must know something or have seen something. It was impossible to just vanish. Although we knew Summer must’ve been taken, there were no suspects, no real ones anyway. Time wasters had phoned in many times with their theories and suspicions, but none of them had led to anything.
I arrived back at Summer’s house, where I was meeting up with her family and mine for a quick, early dinner, and then I was going back out. Two days ago, I gave in and agreed to stop and go back to Summer’s house to eat, rather than grabbing something on the run. I felt guilty every time I stopped. What if I missed something because I turned back?
“Lewis,” Mum said, giving me a hug as I walked through the door. I hated being around them all. Not because I didn’t love them but because they seemed to cope better. They slept and ate, and I could barely breathe. “Honey, you need to sleep more. ” She frowned, looking over the dark circles under my eyes. I looked like shit, but who wouldn’t in my situation?
Ignoring her comment, I walked into the kitchen, where Dawn was keeping herself busy. She grated cheese, stopping every few seconds to stir beans on the stove. She hadn’t stopped doing something for the last few days—keeping herself busy to stop herself from going crazy waiting. The house phone was beside her wherever she went; if she moved an inch, it went with her. “Lewis, have a seat. It’s almost ready,” she said, glancing at me for a second before returning to her stirring.
My dad sat at the table looking over a map with Daniel and Henry. Daniel looked up and half smiled. “We’re just going over the areas that aren’t in the official search. ” That was something that bothered me. Although the search had widened, what if it wasn’t wide enough? What if Summer was just a mile out of that area—or even a few feet? That was why we had widened our sea
rch. The area closest to us was more than being covered with the official search, which now included the wide forest area. The reason you searched a forest was if you were looking for a body.
I sat down and tried not to think about the possibility of Summer being dead. She couldn’t be dead. I couldn’t picture her cold and pale. I couldn’t even force myself to believe her being dead was a possibility. Until I knew otherwise, she was alive and well.
“Apparently this part of town is where runaways go,” Dad said, pointing to the town that was about twenty minutes away.
“Summer didn’t run away,” I said, frowning at his suggestion.
“I know that, Lewis, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t check it out. It may be that someone there has seen her with someone. ”
The person that took her. “Okay, let’s go then. ”
“Ah, ah! Not until you’ve eaten. I’m serious, Lewis,” Mum said. Her eyes were wide, stern. I felt like a kid being told off for swapping the sugar for salt.
I inhaled my food, barely tasting a thing, and within minutes I’d finished. It wasn’t until I had eaten that I realized how hungry I had been. “Okay, now?” I said, pushing my empty plate away. “Let’s go. ”
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Dad, Daniel, and Henry stood up. “Lewis, you pick up Theo from home and then go to the east side of town; the three of us will start west, and we’ll meet in the middle. Stick to the back areas first. If there’s something to be found, it’s most likely going to be there,” Dad said. He was good at things like this, organizing people. I don’t think he knew what he was doing more than any of us, but he could think calmly and logically while I just wanted to run around and search every little corner of the world. Daniel and Henry had also been calm, unlike Dawn. I think they were trying to stay strong and refused to believe we wouldn’t find her alive.
“Theo’s ready?” I asked. There was no way I was waiting around for him.
Dad nodded. “Ready and waiting, so let’s get a move on. ”
***
I pulled up outside my house and honked the horn, tapping the steering wheel impatiently. Come on, Theo. The front door opened and my brother walked out. I put the car in first, ready to go as soon as he got in.