I thought back to earlier today. How Hans had pretended to be Cole, and how easily I had fallen for it. When my mind should have been screaming in alarm the moment he had told me he needed to use Hans' car, should have noticed how early he was to pick me up when Cole was always running late. I had zero self-preservation skills, it seemed. Being a too-trusting creature had major disadvantages. Hans had even brought me some takeout food, saying he wanted me fed well, and I had easily taken the noodles from him and eaten that. My major weakness - food. It was a wonder Hans hadn't put drugged it or poisoned it, at least not that I could see. But that meal was over eight hours ago, and my stomach rumbled yet again, an edge of pain beginning to gnaw into me. My bladder was full, but I knew I should be grateful I didn't need to go to the washroom for that other reason.
My vision was beginning to dim, but I fought my weariness, unwilling to fall asleep lest I missed something. Danger - or a chance to escape, whatever shape it may take. If anything - I was hopeful. I had always been a hopeful person, and now was not the time for me to fail me.
***
Light was still eluding the spot I was tethered to, the dense canopy barely giving me a peek of the sky above, although parts of the wood had begun to rouse, the birdsong telling me that dawn was near. My throat was dry, my shouting earlier having gone unanswered, except by the rabbits that had taken one look at me and hurried away. Rabbits - reminding me of what Hans had told me when he came to check on me earlier.
"Cole didn't let me have a pet rabbit. He never said why, but I knew it was because of him our dad changed his mind about getting me one." He had frowned then, his eyes suddenly hard, focused on mine. "I know why, of course. I had let him see Furry. His kitten," Hans had informed me, as if we were talking over lunch, at home in the kitchen. My skin was beyond raw from my working on the ties - without making any headway. The exposed skin was smarting and I tried my best not to wince as Hans prattled on. "It hated me, the little furball. It could tell between us, you know." He glanced towards me, and I stilled, hoping he wouldn't look at me too closely. "Always tried to run away, as if it knew what I wanted to do to it, what I ended up doing to it." That too-bright smile again, making him look like a shark in the background of deep, deep green. "Cole saw it, I made sure he did. Saw the clean dissection I had made from its neck down to its tail." He had leaned towards me, as if about to divulge a secret, and whispered, "I'll make a great surgeon, one day. With all the practice I'm getting, I could do it. If I lose my interest in football, that's my second choice." He had looked up then, looking into the distance, and quickly left, headed for whatever he had seen or heard. And that's when I broke down, all optimism and hope crumbling, and ended up screaming my throat raw for hours, until I gave up believing someone would save me.
Chapter 26
Cole
The morning chill seeped into my bones, making my sweater seem inadequate. I struggled to contain the panic that had steadily built up every hour I failed to locate Ella. I wondered how she had fared, wherever she was. At least it hadn't rained overnight, that Ella hadn't experienced the sharp drop in temperature that Gray Lake often saw this time of the year. Assuming she was outdoors, and alive. She had to be alive. Hans wouldn't have gotten rid of her, not yet, not when I hadn't laid my eyes on her yet. He had made sure Furry was still alive when I found him, although barely. His tiny heart was still beating, visible under the sternum he had somehow split open without killing him. I hadn't been able to say a word when I found him behind the shed at our old house, couldn't run, couldn't describe what Hans had done to the kitten to anyone after that, even years later. Hans had enveloped me in a hug when he found me, had stroked my back and told me that it was okay, he was here now, and stayed with me the entire twenty minutes it took for its heart to stop beating. He then helped me dig a small grave near the fence at the far end of the compound and buried it for me, all the while checking on me over his shoulder and attempting to soothe me. It was an eye-opener for me, a cruel one at that, and I finally saw the monster I called my twin.
Marcus was rubbing Ella's mom's back as she sobbed into his shoulder, the police milling around in the living room, having made the place a headquarter of sorts. We had each been questioned several times about the past twenty-four hours: when we had last seen Ella, what she had been wearing, did we hear that Hans had left the center? It was meant to be a missing person case, although given that Ella had disappeared only about twenty hours ago, they had wanted us to give her time to make her appearance. Had wanted to quell our fears by saying she was nearly eighteen, she was allowed to be gone somewhere overnight without telling anyone. Maybe she was with friends? But none of her few friends had heard from her after school. She didn't own a car, and it couldn’t be a coincidence that she had disappeared at the same time Hans had
