My Little Doe

Chapter 4

The cell door opened, startling me awake.

Four people walked into the room, and I scrambled into a sitting position.

Light had filtered in through the small window.

I fell asleep at some point. I recognized Quinnlyn, but not the two other males or the female standing with them.

One of the males was older, a smidge shorter than Quinnlyn.

His hair was brown, streaked through with silver.

The female was five foot six. She, too, was a bit older.

Her hair was mostly white. The other male stood the tallest at six foot two, his jet-black hair was braided tightly against his head.

His eyes were similar to Quinnlyn’s—light brown.

Nothing passed my lips as I stared at them.

I took in their details, wanting to remember every detail about each person who had a part in holding me.

All four of them studied me. I finally cocked my head to the side a little and fixed my gaze on Quinnlyn. The older male whispered something in the female’s ear.

“To what do I owe the pleasure, in my humble abode?” I finally said.

“She’s a midwife, and she’s here to check on you,” the older male voice said. It was the same voice from the night before that had demanded Quinnlyn stand guard.

“I have a doctor. She’s in town,” I said.

“Not anymore,” he said.

“Look, I get you think you have some claim over me, or over this child I’m carrying, but I can’t stay here. I have someone to take care of. If you let me go, I promise I won’t tell anyone—”

“You’ll be going nowhere,” he said.

“Please… I can’t stay here. This isn’t sanitary for a baby or me,” I said.

He let out a laugh before straightening his face and staring at me. “My grandchild won’t be raised—” he looked around the cell, “—in this filth.”

This was Daxyn’s father. Whenever Daxyn talked about his father, he'd always given the impression that his father was an ass… well, I guess he was. Sometimes Daxyn didn’t say much, but his brother, Benji, said enough for both of them.

“And what about me? Am I supposed to live here as a prisoner forever?”

“Maybe—”

“You’d separate a child—my child—from its mother?”

“I’ll do whatever I see fit,” he said.

The midwife stepped closer to me, then knelt next to me. She reached to grab my wrist, and I jerked it away from her.

“No,” I said.

“No?” she repeated back.

“You’re not touching me,” I told her.

“I told you guys she was feisty,” Quinnlyn said.

“You’re not fucking touching me,” I repeated, narrowing my eyes at Daxyn’s father.

“You act like you have a choice, girl. Either you do it willingly, or the three of us will hold you down,” Daxyn’s father said.

“Ravik, we can’t harm the girl,” the midwife said.

“She will do as we say, or we will,” he said.

She stared at me with eyes that told me she felt pity for me, her mouth in a frown. She let out a loud breath. She closed her eyes and stood up, then turned around to face them.

“Out! All three of you!” she said.

“What?” Ravik exclaimed.

“You heard me, get out. You want me to check her out? You want her to participate? Then all three of you leave this cell,” she said.

The taller guy who had been quietly standing there furrowed his brows at her and studied her for a second before looking at Ravik. Ravik nodded, then all three of them made their way out of the cell, closing the door behind them. She knelt next to me again.

“Listen, I know you don’t want to be here, and you don’t want to let me examine you, but I’m asking you to please let me. They will hurt you at whatever cost, and not lose an ounce of sleep over it,” she said, pleading with me.

“I want to go home,” I begged.

“I’m sure you do, and I wish that you could,” she whispered.

“You can let someone know and help me get out of here,” I whispered to her.

She pulled her head back a little, eyes wide. “You don’t know, do you? Ravik runs this town. He owns everyone in it. They will do nothing against him,” she said.

“Why are you helping him?”

“I was born into this family, born into this blind loyalty, and I don’t want to be on his bad side,” she said low.

“What do you want from me?” I asked her.

“I don’t want anything from you, except your cooperation.”

“What does that mean?”

“I just want to examine you,” she said.

“Okay.”

She grabbed my wrist and flipped it over, placing her index and middle fingers on the inside of my wrist. She looked down at her other hand, where her watch ticked the seconds by.

Afterward, she placed a blood pressure cuff on my arm and a stethoscope at the crook of my elbow.

She inflated and then slowly let it go. She then moved to listen to my chest, first my heart and then my lungs.

“How far along do you think you are?” she asked.

“Seven weeks or so,” I said.

“Oh, okay,” she said.

“Is everything okay?” I asked.

“Yes, as far as I can tell. You’re too early to hear the baby anytime soon. Your pulse and blood pressure are a little higher than I’d like, but it’s probably due to—” she looked around the cell, “—the situation.”

“I don’t know what that means…” I said.

“It means it needs to be lowered, or complications can happen for you or the baby,” she said.

“How can I lower it?” I asked. I didn't have control over much, but if there was something I could do, I was going to do it.

“I’m not sure if you will be—”

“How?” I cut her off.

“High blood pressure can be from a lot of things. Given the circumstances, I’d say it’s probably due to the stress. I don’t know how to tell you to relax more in here,” she said.

“Oh,” I said, defeated.

“But I’ll talk with Ravik and see if I can convince him of anything. Do you like to color? Watch television?”

“Yeah,” I answered.

“Which one?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

“I colored with my sister, or I watched TV, but we only had a few VHS tapes.”

“Anything else you liked to do for fun?”

“I don’t know,” I said.

Part of me didn’t want to share more about me than was needed, and the other part didn’t know.

I used to party for fun, and that changed.

My brother and I often invited friends over and spent our evenings either drinking or smoking pot.

Everything had changed that week. My mindset shifted, and I went quiet on everyone.

I hadn’t invited anyone over and kept to myself.

“Okay,” she said. She grabbed her things up, putting a couple of things in her pocket and the rest in the canvas bag draped over her shoulder.

I remained on the thin mattress on the floor, staring at her. She looked back at me with the same eyes she’d given me earlier. It was like she wanted to help me, wanted to save me, but she couldn’t. There was no saving me. She’d made that clear.

I was Ravik’s prisoner, and everyone in this town was loyal to him. I always knew that our small town had corruption. It was often about who you knew and what you knew, but I was naive and didn’t know there was one person who had major control. I’d never heard his name until now.

I knew that I couldn’t run away. Someone was always standing outside of my cell; if it wasn’t Quinnlyn, it was someone else. Someone who didn’t answer me, who ignored everything I said. That was how I knew when it wasn’t Quinnlyn.

The midwife left, and I was alone again. The chattering outside faded, but I knew someone was still there. I refused to accept this as my fate. I couldn't. But every minute in here took something from me I wasn't sure I'd get back.

I needed to fight for Aspen. For the baby that was within me.

For myself. I had to come up with a plan to get out of here, but I didn’t know what.

Quinnlyn seemed to enter when I was sleeping, when I was vulnerable.

Not to mention, I was sure he could take me down.

Whoever the other guard was, they never entered, only standing outside the door.

I looked around the room, focusing on everything, on anything that could help me.

The only thing that was hard in this room was the toilet.

I knew from removing the toilet bowl lid at home that it wasn’t lightweight and would also be noisy, bringing attention to myself.

I had to figure this out. It was clear that even if I were to make it to delivery, I’d be left here to rot, and they would take the baby.

I’d been sitting there for a long while, tears streaming down my face, falling onto my shirt. The door opened, and Quinnlyn walked in with two full plastic bags. He walked over to the floor bed and set them down.

“What is this?” I asked.

“The midwife said you needed some clothing and things to calm you,” he said.

“Yeah, because it’s going to take away that I’m being held against my will,” I said.

I moved to stand up, and he took a step back. I reached down and grabbed the cotton clothing out of the bag and held it up.

“I reckon it will do,” I said.

“It’s better than—” he looked me over, “—than what you’re wearing,” he said.

Before my brain fully processed what I was doing, I took a step forward and kicked him with every ounce of strength I had in between his legs.

His eyes widened, and his knees started to buckle.

I dropped the shirt and ran for the door.

He hadn’t shut it fully when he came in here.

My bare feet smacked the cold concrete floor with each step.

I pulled the door open, and it was heavier than I thought.

Quinnlyn was growling behind me, in between deep breaths, he was muttering curse words.

I couldn’t focus on him. I had to get the fuck out of here.

I ran into the hall, and I looked to the right and then to the left.

I didn’t know where to go. They both seemed to go somewhere.

The left was almost pitch black, and the right looked lighter, so I turned and ran as fast as I could.

I could hear his boots behind me. I had no plan, so I ran. No one else was in the hall as I passed other barred doors. The hall turned to the left, and I kept running.

“You don’t have anywhere to go!” he shouted behind me.