I knew she was planning something crazy, but a fire?
I never thought she’d actually start a fire.
“How’d you do it?” I ask, shouting over the snap and crackle of the roaring flames behind us.
She gives me another mischievous grin over her shoulder. “You know I have connections.” She’s been here so long that she’s started this barter system with some of the staff members. She must have traded something for a book of matches.
I don’t ask what she traded and I don’t want to know.
I’m the one who found the window in the basement for us to escape out of. The lone window in the entire asylum that doesn’t have bars on it. What I had to do to find that window…
That isn’t something I’ll ever want to talk about.
At the basement door, Aurora whips it open and heads down first. I hesitate for a second then follow, closing the door behind me. Aurora is already at the end of the stairs when I finally start down them myself. I’m moving much slower than she is, probably because my lungs have been bogged down with smoke.
The cement walls all blur together when I reach the last step and I inhale the musky, damp odor of wetness and mold. Walking swiftly, I walk straight down the narrow, pitch black hallway to the fruit cellar at the end of the hall. Aurora stands below the window, piling a few books on top of one another. The window is long, but wide and she already has it opened.
She motions me over with her right hand. “Here!” she yells. “You go first!”
I’m not going to argue. I’m the weaker of us both and if I go last I’ll slow us down.
I step onto the books and stick my arms out the opening of the window.
I tell my feet, don’t fail me now as I shimmy out the basement window onto the cold damp earth.
Aurora has her hands on my backside and she grunts, giving me one final shove. Once I'm all the way out, I bend down and reach for her. First she hands me the khaki burlap sack she packed for us with items she managed to steal without the staff noticing. Then she sticks both of her short arms out the open window. I clamp my fingers around her wrists.
I pull.
With force and fierce determination.
We're so close to freedom I can taste it like bittersweet chocolate melting on my tongue. “Use your feet,” I growl.
“Where would you like me to put them?” She huffs out in a sarcastic undertone.
“Scale the wall with them while I pull,” I force out breathless. Aurora isn't that heavy. In fact she isn't heavy at all. She has a petite build and can't possibly weigh more than one hundred pounds. But I've never been the strongest person and my tight grip on her wrists is slipping.
Stumbling backwards, using as much strength as I can, I dig my heels into the muddy ground to give myself some traction. That's when I hear the voices.
“Oh no!”
“Keep pulling!” Aurora shouts as the voices get louder and are followed by a door slamming.
I do. I pull so hard I'm worried that I might pull her dainty arms out of her sockets. By the time I've managed to get her partly out the window there are members of the staff filling up the small room. Frantic shouts seep out the window and I hear someone yell, “Get them!”
At that point Aurora looks at me sternly. “Go!”
“What?” I shake my head and refuse to let go of her. “No! We promised we'd do this together! I'm not going to leave you!”
“Damn it, Adelaide just go!”
I plant my feet firmly into the ground and Aurora glances over her shoulder. Marjorie is inches away from her. Guilt penetrates the walls of my stomach and brings on a bout of nausea. In a way it’s like I'm reliving Damien's death all over again. “I can't.”
Aurora grits her teeth. “Fine if you won't go on your own, I'll make you.”
I stare at her puzzled. I'm confused. “Wh
at do you mean you'll make me?”