Chapter 29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Iwasn’t supposed to be down here. Mama told me it was only for emergencies. But I liked the dark. I liked the sounds the tunnels made. The little animals and insects runnin’ across my shoes, the dripping water, the chill.
It didn’t matter what was going on outside.
It looked the same down here. Allie said it was gross.
She scrunched up her nose and rolled her eyes.
But I didn’t care what my big sister thought about it or that she insisted I call her Alice now because nicknames were for babies.
She would always be Allie to me. Just like these tunnels would always be my favorite place to hide out.
Yup, being down here was much better than being up there. Trying to fit in with them.
The people who owned this giant house weren’t the nicest. They treated Mama and me and Allie like the cockroach I was currently squishing between my fingers.
I watched its little legs struggling to get free, the little antennae on its head waving back and forth until I pushed my thumb all the way down and its guts popped out of its body.
It took a few seconds for it to stop moving, and when it was finally still, I tossed it over a shoulder and plucked off another one from the wall.
I was just about to squish that one too when I heard a couple of loud bangs coming from above me. In the house. But not where the rich people lived. They were a few floors up, too far to hear what they were doing from the tunnels.
I’d taken a hundred and thirty-two steps to get to this spot—it was how I kept track of where I was going so I didn’t get lost—which meant I was standing under Adrian’s bedroom.
I placed the second cockroach back on the wall, squashing it with the meat of my fist before it could get away.
It twitched and dropped to the floor. I didn’t have time to watch it flop around, so I brushed its guts off on my dress and grabbed on to the metal ladder that would lead me up to the trap door.
Mama said Adrian couldn’t be trusted but he was always nice to me. Brought me sweets and asked about my hospital visits. Mama also said it was none of his business. She was wrong, though. Because Adrian was in school to be a doctor. It was exactly his business.
Once I got to the top of the ladder, I balanced my feet on one of the rungs and placed my ear to the door.
Another loud bang. It sounded like furniture tipping over.
That was nothing new for the people who owned the house.
Mr. Prescott had a temper, but I’d never seen Adrian lose his. He was quiet like me.
I pushed up on the door, careful not to make it squeak too much. In case Adrian wasn’t alone. Mr. Prescott didn’t come downstairs to our level often but whenever he did, it wasn’t good. It was why Mama told me and Allie about these tunnels in the first place. So we could hide.
I didn’t like when Mr. Prescott visited. But Allie did. She liked it more when he brought her special gifts.
As soon as I had a big enough opening to see through, I reached a hand out and shoved the rug to the side.
Then did the same with the top part of the door.
I had to crawl on my belly in order to make it all the way out and under Adrian’s bed.
Most of these tunnel entrances were hidden by furniture or behind secret walls so that the people who owned the house couldn’t find them.
I tilted my head to the side, pressing my cheek to the floor, and peeked out past the dangling sheets.
Adrian was pacing back and forth. I recognized his shoes.
They were fancy like Mr. Prescott’s but a few years older.
He was the only one who wore shoes like that on the lower level and the only one who didn’t throw something away when it got old on the upper level.
He started mumbling, his steps quick and stumbly. But I didn’t see nobody else, no other shoes, so he must have been talking to himself.
“Adrian?” I whispered, in case someone was in here and I just couldn’t see them.
I waited a few minutes. But when he didn’t answer, his shoes shuffling to the other side of the room before plopping out across the floor, I held my breath and rolled out from under the bed.
I pushed to my knees and then to my feet, standing to my full height and taking a tentative step forward.
He was just sitting there. Staring at me but like he didn’t see me.
His back against the wall and his arms at his sides.
I would have thought he was dead if his chest wasn’t still moving.
I knew what dead things looked like and he was pretty close to it.
“Adrian, are you okay?” I tried again.
“Yeah… no…” He rubbed at his head, next to where some blood was dripping down. He must have hit it on something. “How’d you get in here?”
I grabbed his sleeve, pulling on it until he finally got back on his feet. Then I led him over to the bed and pulled on that too until it wasn’t pressed up against the wall anymore.
“Don’t tell Mama…” I said, giving him that look I gave Mama whenever I was trying to get my way with something. It was easy when you were small for your age. Everyone treated you like a baby. “I heard a bunch of banging and I got worried something happened to you…”
Adrian nodded, one hand on the bedpost as he leaned forward and peered down into the tunnel. He paused before looking back over at me. “Where’s that go?”
“All over.” I shrugged and twisted my dress around, trying to hide some of the bug guts. People didn’t like dead things as much as I did. “Mama said we were only supposed to use it if Mr. Prescott came looking for us.”
Adrian was staring out into space again. I was pretty sure it had something to do with that cut on his head. I lifted my chin and stretched my neck as far as it would go. I’d never seen a dead person before. Just dead bugs and dead animals. I wondered what that would look like.
“Your head’s bleeding.” I cocked an eyebrow without meaning to. Because, well, I was curious.
“Not anymore,” he grunted before ushering me back down the ladder.
I suppose it was up to me to show him the way out of here.