Chapter 30 The Plan
“I’m going to burn this place down,” Scarlett said after we’d been sitting by the water for an hour.
“If you try to escape this place and they catch you again, they’ll just make your life even more miserable,” Summer warned.
“Alice says I can do it. Besides, once I call my twin brother … there will be nothing that can keep me here. We may hate each other’s butts, but the minute he realizes what’s happened …”
“How are you going to tell your brother where you are at, Scarlett? And who the fuck is Alice? Please. I can’t take the wishful thinking, okay, there’s no way to escape.
Sir said there—” The words caught in my throat.
Fuck. I hadn’t meant to bring him up. The girls didn’t like how attached I’d grown to him, how much I was struggling in his absence.
“Why do you believe everything he tells you? You know he’s just like the rest of them, right?” Scarlett asked.
“Yeah. You’re right. He wouldn’t tell me if there was a way out.
” It hurt to say it, but deep inside, I knew it was true.
There was a pause to our conversation. Scarlett, as of late, had an imaginary friend.
Summer said it was a coping mechanism for losing her baby.
It seemed like she was getting worse every day.
I didn’t know where she’d gotten it, but she was always carrying a doll.
Every time the grief made her cry, she’d sing a lullaby to the doll.
It freaked the other girls out, but we understood.
“You two really can’t see her?” Scarlett asked.
“See who?”
“Alice. She’s right here. You—”
Summer and I both gawked at her. “There’s no one there, Scarlett. Are you okay?” I asked.
“No! Of course I’m not okay. Who the fuck could ever be okay in this hell hole?”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” I began crying, lately I’d been just as emotional as her. “Of course you’re not okay.”
Summer placed her palm on my shoulder. “Don’t cry, hon.”
“I’ll do anything for you two. Whatever plan you have. Whatever you need me to do to get you the fuck out of here, just let me know.”
“I’m sorry I yelled at you,” apologized Scarlett.
“So how would we do it? If we dared? How could we get a hold of your brother, Scarlett?”
“We’d need the help of one of the lords. One of these motherfuckers has to give in,” Scarlett said.
“If we did it, we’d have to find a way to kill them all,” Summer said. They were both looking into the forest, sounding as if they were in a trance.
“We could make it look like there’s a show in the auditorium and lock them all in there.
I noticed that there is a certain code they used to recruit everyone there.
Maybe there’s a code to recruit only the guards, lords, and buyers.
We get them all in there and then lock the doors.
Only bad thing is that we won’t be able to watch them burn.
At least it will smell good. Like bacon. ”
They both gawked at me. “What? Why you girls looking at me like that?”
“You’re a fucking genius,” they said, smiling.