That night, I allowed myself one more shower, even though I had to take it with three other girls. I didn’t want to condemn Harlow to this life, but she wasn’t my responsibility. She wasn’t my sister.

I didn’t want to leave anyone unless I had to, but I had my brother to think about. He needed me more than she did. I couldn’t stay here much longer.

I was curled up in bed, getting a good night’s sleep while I still could. I thought I heard something, but when I opened my eyes, I couldn’t see anything in the darkness of the windowless basement.

I closed my eyes, settling back in to sleep, and then the bed started to move. My heart stopped as fear spread over me.

– 9 –

I rolled onto my back so I could punch whoever had crawled into my bed. I hoped to catch sight of them, so I could figure out where to fight back.

“Remy,” Lazlo whispered, realizing just in time that I was about to hit him. “It’s me.” I finally started making out the contours of his face.

“What are you doing?”

“We gotta go.” Lazlo looked back over his shoulder.

“Now? Right now?” I asked.

“Yeah, Blue is upstairs being a lookout, but we can’t stay. Korech told me. I’m sinful and corrupting the girls, and if I stay, he’s going to have to take action to cleanse me,” Lazlo informed me hurriedly.

“What does that even mean?”

“I didn’t want to know, but Blue asked, and all Korech’d say was that people don’t always survive a cleansing.” He shivered, his body shimmering like a mirage in the darkness.

“He basically threatened to kill you?” I struggled to keep from shouting.

The thought of Korech just talking about hurting him enraged me. I felt surprisingly protective of Lazlo.

“Yeah. Unless I leave. So… we gotta go.” He’d been leaning on the edge of my bed, but he stood up.

“Is that the truth?” Harlow asked quietly, her voice coming from the bed behind me.

“I haven’t lied to you yet, kid, and I’m not gonna start with this,” Lazlo said. “If you wanna come, you gotta do it now.”

“I’ll go with you,” Lia piped in, shocking all of us, I think.

I looked up at Lazlo, but it was too dark to see his expression. If she wanted to come with, I wouldn’t stop her.

I sat up and threw my feet over the edge of the bed, feeling around in the dark. My clothes were folded on the end of the bed, but I didn’t bother changing into them. If we had talked loud enough to wake Lia, I’m sure we had woken other girls. It was only a matter of time before they sounded the alarm.

“Harlow, get your stuff,” I commanded.

She didn’t say anything, and for one unnerving minute, I was afraid I’d have to drag her out of here against her will. Then I saw her silhouette as she sat up, and I let out relived breath as she gathered her own clothes from the end of the bed.

Despite what I’d said earlier about not forcing anyone to leave, I couldn’t leave Harlow here, not with a man who had threatened to kill Lazlo. I didn’t know what I’d do if she tried to fight me on leaving.

I sent Harlow up the stairs ahead of me, and I hurried behind her with Lazlo at my heels. I didn’t check to see who was following us. I didn’t want to know.

Part of me felt guilty for leaving any of the girls here, but I didn’t really have a choice. I didn’t have time to argue and convince them, especially when most of them wouldn’t be convinced. Besides that, I couldn’t ignore the fact that Korech had kept them all alive thus far.

Moonlight shone through the kitchen window. Blue waited by the basement door at the top of the stairs, watching out for Korech or Nevaeh. I looked back to see who had come with us, and Lia had followed, along with Vega, whose dissension made more sense than Lia.

Without saying a word, we rushed through the house. It was dead silent, and if we made a sound, Korech had to hear us. I held the screen door open as everyone else ran outside, and I gently closed it behind them, making sure it didn’t slam shut.

“Get in the car,” I whispered as they darted out into cool night air. “Blue, you drive.” I had my jeans in my hand, and I pulled the car keys from the pocket and then tossed them to him. “But don’t start it yet. I gotta get Ripley.”

“You’re gonna look for Ripley now?” Lazlo asked as Blue unlocked the vehicle.

“I’m not leaving her.”

“Hurry. He’ll notice us missing soon,” Vega warned, but she didn’t look scared. I wasn’t sure if I found that comforting or creepy.

As the girls crawled into the SUV, Blue paused and exchanged a look with me. I had to look for the lion, but I didn’t want to risk the safety of everyone else. At the first sign of trouble, Blue needed to get out of here, protecting the girls, even if I wasn’t ready.

I searched around in the moonlight, lifting up my nightgown so I wouldn’t trip on it. Lazlo went with me, apparently helping in some way. Neither of us yelled for Ripley. We couldn’t, not if we wanted to get away without Korech hearing us.

“Aw, hell,” I sighed. I couldn’t see any sign of Ripley, and we didn’t have much time. “I don’t know what to do.” I turned to Lazlo, hoping he would have an idea, but he just stared at me strangely. “What?”

“Nothing,” Lazlo shrugged. “I’ve just never seen you with your hair down.” My stomach fluttered. “Also, your nightgown is almost completely see-through.”

“Oh my god.” I rolled my eyes and covered my arms over my chest. “I should’ve just let Korech kill you.”

He smirked and might’ve had a witty retort, but the porch light suddenly turned on, bathing us in bright yellow light.

The front door banged open, and we turned around in time to see Korech’s dark silhouette as he came outside. Nevaeh followed right behind him, carrying a shotgun.

Lazlo and I stood a few feet away from the SUV, and I considered diving behind it to hide. But with the porch light shining on us, they had to have seen us. We could only try talking with them, but reasoning with insanity rarely boded well.

“What’s going on?” Korech asked, his voice eerily pleasant. He moved towards us, while Nevaeh fell a few steps back.

“Nothing. We just decided to leave.” I straightened my shoulders and stood tall.