34. Sawyer #2
We make it to the coyote trap and Liberty helps me tear open a wound on my back so we can smear torn pieces of Persephone’s dress in fresh blood. We space them around the trap before taking off again, this time faster, count be damned.
We’re already past the river, so I lead us to the oak tree first.
Then the moss-covered log.
Through the thick minefield of metal claws and tripwires.
Until finally, we reach the fence.
There’s a couple on the other side just as Luna promised. The man wears a top hat and black suit like he drove here from the Victorian era.
The woman has curly hair like Persephone’s and skin to match. As I get closer, I notice the similarity in bone structure, and in the woman’s wide, beady eyes.
“Persephone,” the woman calls, making the man stop his pacing and rush to the gate. The woman grasps the metal rings but jerks her hands away. The current is subtle, certainly not enough to kill, but it stings.
“Is she hurt?” the man asks. I shake my head and look around for a sturdy branch while I drop to my knees, Persephone securely cradled against my chest.
“Where’s Rose?!” I peek up to find the woman on her toes, searching the forest for someone lagging behind.
Rose?
Liberty’s mouth opens, but she looks to me for words.
“She’s safe,” I offer. I nod toward a branch a few yards away. “Liberty…”
“Where?” The woman recoils from the fence a second time while Liberty retrieves the branch. I lodge it beneath the chain link and pry back the bottom of the fence, worn from the effort of the liberated, probably including the woman before me.
“We were assured you’d bring both sisters.” The man’s gruff voice grows louder.
“We couldn’t get to Rose in time,” Liberty says, flashing me an uncertain glance. “But don’t worry. We’ll call the authorities as soon as—”
“What?” the woman shrieks. Too loud. I look behind us. “You can’t call the police!”
The man places a hand on her shoulder. “Aurelius has contingencies. The Head Keeper knows this; it’s not as simple as—”
“We’re not calling the police.”
All eyes turn to me. Liberty looks as grateful for my help as she does confused.
The man crouches so we’re eye-level. Before he can speak, I gesture for Liberty to bring Persephone.
“The rest of the children are safe in the compound.” I take the young girl’s shoulders while the brand digs into my thighs. “Luna is making a plan for their escape; it shouldn’t take more than a week. I give you my word, you’ll be the first to know when it’s in place.”
I turn to Liberty. “I need your help.”
The woman cries while Liberty and I work to shift Persephone beneath the fence, the man carefully dragging her shoulders. The girl’s arm grazes electric metal, but she only stirs, a slight grimace pinching her lips. We have maybe ten minutes before the chloroform wears off.
As soon as Persephone is pulled through, the woman—too young to be a mother unless she had Persephone as a young teenager—collapses to her knees. She cradles the young girl in her arms and sobs while the man wraps his arm around her shoulder.
“Go,” Liberty tells them. “We’re right behind you.”
The man pulls Persephone into his arms while the woman peers solemnly toward the forest. He has to drag her by her wrist before she’ll leave.
It’s hard to say who’s false promise is crueler: Luna’s or mine.
I take the branch from Liberty and pull the fence back farther so she can shimmy beneath it. She grunts at the electric current as she crawls through, then stands and holds out her hand for the branch, her breaths coming heavy.
“Pass it through.” She flexes her hand in a give it to me gesture.
I toss the branch in the snow, my fingers prickling from the cold.
I can’t believe I’m about to do this again.
“What are you doing?” Liberty steps so close to the fence, I’m worried her nose will get zapped.
I open my mouth, but she interrupts before I can say anything.
“Come on.” She looks pointedly at the branch, jutting her eyes almost aggressively. “We have to go.”
When she peers back at me, her face twists with worry.
“Listen to me… As soon as you can, you need to warn Angel. If you can’t get a hold of him, tomorrow, go wait at a barn about an eighteen-minute and thirteen-second drive from here.
” I give her directions to the meetup I read about in Luna’s emails.
Right turn, left veer, left turn, right turn.
“They’ll pick him up from there at 7PM. Because he’s Angel, he’ll show up early. You have to get there before they do.”
“Wha…” Her shoulders droop. “Sawyer.”
“I know I fucked up. I shouldn’t have brought you here, I shouldn’t have brought you onto my island. I know I’ve done awful things, and I have a long list of regrets.”
“That doesn’t matter right now,” she tries to argue. But I’m not finished.
“But one benefit that came from my island is my understanding of psychopaths. The guy is right. Aurelius will know the police are coming, and he’ll have a plan in place. We can’t be rash.”
“Then we’ll figure this out from the outside. Wasn’t that the plan anyway? We could—”
“Liberty, if I leave, he’ll know Persephone didn’t get caught in a coyote trap.”
If he finds out this particular girl escaped…
The rest of the children are as good as dead.
Her jaw works. “We can figure this out with Angel,” she whispers, though it’s herself she’s trying to convince.
We stare into each other’s eyes for a few seconds longer before she breaks away. “Are you sure?”
Am I sure?
I don’t even know what I’m walking back to. I don’t even know if Luna is alive.
But this time…
I have a plan.
“Find Angel… And tell him I’m sorry.”
I turn and start toward the fence while Liberty calls after me. The grief in her voice sounds so foreign it’s hard to believe it’s directed at me. It’s hard to believe what twenty-four hours can change.
On the way back to the Keep, I pull the article from my pocket and rip it into as tiny of pieces as I can manage. I scatter them over the trail and crush them beneath my shoes, one more secret buried in the compound’s sour depths.
If Sawyer Hansley gets caught, so be it. The world will never know Sawyer Voss.
They won’t know Luna either.