The Mercenary and the Mortician (The Silent Hollow #1)
1. Cal Walker
(Age 10)
Alexa, play: The Secret History - The Chamber Orchestra of London, Andrew Skeet
O ne of the bars to my cage came loose.
Finally.
I had been working at getting a bar free for two days.
Two whole days that our mother hadn’t come down to feed us.
This was the longest she had ever left us down here without checking in. My older sister Cass told me she didn’t think our mother was coming back at all. The moment she said that I decided I was going to try to break us out. As the bottom of the bar broke free, a small thrill ricocheted through me.
I grinned. My efforts had been rewarded.
“Cass,” I whispered, getting her attention. She had been staring at Naomi, who had finally passed out from exhaustion.
Naomi was our younger sister. She was only three and had cried for almost the entire first day our mother locked us down here. She needed to be held, changed, and fed.
My mother kept the three of us locked in separate cages, so there was no way of getting close enough to comfort her, and it was killing me. If we didn’t get to her soon, I was worried our baby sister might not make it.
Cassandra’s brown eyes widened when she realized what I had accomplished. She met my gaze head-on, biting her chapped bottom lip.
“If she catches you, she’ll kill you,” she whispered to me. I ignored the cold spike of terror that shot through my veins.
“If we don’t get out of here, we’re going to die anyway,” I replied matter-of-factly. This wasn’t the first time I thought I might die from my mother’s neglect. It didn’t really bother me to think about it. This was just normal for me.
For us.
The fear I was feeling wasn’t for myself. It was for Naomi. If we didn’t get her some water or something to eat, she might die… and that was unacceptable to me.
I pried the bar completely out of the slots I had diligently worn down and got to work shimmying my way through the gap.
Considering I was lucky if my mother fed me three square meals a week, I was thin enough to fit through. Sometimes, we just got table scraps, which I had come to look forward to. It was better than nothing.
First, I worked in my legs, then my hips, and finally, my head and shoulders. There was a moment of blind panic when I thought my head might get stuck, but with a few hushed words of encouragement from Cass, I was able to wiggle through.
I rushed to Cassandra’s cage, and she pushed her arms through the bars immediately, her chocolate eyes filling with tears. We held onto each other with the kind of fierce desperation that comes with a complete lack of human contact.
“Hurry,” she whispered. “See if you can find the keys. Don’t get caught,” she hissed, reluctantly pulling away from me to brush a strand of thick, dark hair out of her eyes. I nodded. My own greasy mop of black hair rustling with the movement.
There was enough light filtering into the unfinished basement from one of the tiny windows that I could more or less see where I was going.
I picked through the minefield of junk and garbage, making my way toward the stairs. As badly as I wanted to go to Naomi, I didn’t want to wake her.
Not until she was free.
I knew my way upstairs. Mom didn’t keep us locked down here all the time. Sometimes, she would be in a really good mood and let us all come up to the main floor. During those times, we would get baths and even sit at the table to eat with her.
It was my fault we got locked up this time. She had hit Cass, and I got really angry at her. I should have known better than to lose my temper. Because of my mistake, Naomi might die, and it would be all my fault.
Shoving down the intense feelings of panic and guilt at the thought of failing my sisters, I crept up the creaky wooden steps. I flinched each time one of the steps groaned under my feet, but thankfully, no one came to check on the noise.
My heart leapt to my throat as my eyes clocked a key ring hanging from a nail on the wall by the door to the main floor.
I found the keys!
Forcing myself not to rush too quickly up the stairs, I stretched up with shaking fingers. I could barely reach them, but when my fingers closed around the cold steel, it took everything in me not to whoop with excitement.
As quietly as possible, I rushed back down the stairs to Cassandra’s cage. My excitement turned out to be premature, however, when I discovered there were only two keys on the key ring.
Two keys, three cages… please let one of these be the key for Naomi’s cage…
“You found them?” Cass asked, her voice breathy. I nodded, biting down on my own chapped lip in worry.
“Yeah, but there’s only two of them.”
Cassandra’s eyes flashed. “I think she keeps one on her neck,” she whispered. “That’s why she’s always wearing that black cord.”
My hands began to shake, but Cassandra continued.
“If the keys are for you and Naomi, you need to leave me and take her to get help. Don’t try to get the other key. It’s too risky,” Cassandra said urgently.
I narrowed my eyes on her. She was only thirteen, but she always seemed like more of a grownup to me than our mom.
“I’m not leaving you,” I said firmly, shoving one of the keys into the lock that kept her door shut. It slid right in. I turned it and it clicked, and the lock popped open.
We both stared at the open lock in shock for a moment before Cass reached forward with trembling fingers to let herself out.
“I can’t believe it worked…” I whispered, and she snatched the keyring from me and rushed to Naomi’s cage next.
With bated breath, I watched as she rammed the keys into the lock on Naomi’s cage.
Neither of them worked. The other key was for mine.
“ Shit!” Cass whisper-yelled, tossing the keys away in frustration. I crept up behind her, unable to look away from the shallow rise and fall of our baby sister’s chest.
“What are we going to do?” I asked, keeping my voice quieter than a mouse.
Cass turned to look at me, her brown eyes burning with a fire that I had only seen a few times before. She only ever looked like that when Mom punished me or refused to let her take care of Naomi.
“You’re going to run and get help. I’m going to get Naomi’s key.”