The Missing- Volume II- Lies by A. Meredith Walters, A. M. Irvin Page B

safe.
    Lies!
    All lies!
    He was doing it for himself.
    Because for the first time in the course of our friendship, I saw him giving away his smiles.
    And it wasn’t to me.

The Present
    Day 8
     
    The more he saw the less he spoke
    The less he spoke the more he heard
     
    “I should have known it was you!” I gasped. I wanted to lunge at my former foster sister. I wanted to grab her neck between my hands and squeeze the life out of her.
    I made an attempt to move, but I was too weak to do anything. I wasn’t a threat to Rosie Allen.
    I never had been and I certainly wasn’t now.
    I stood in the hallway of the rundown barn wearing only my dirty underwear and bra. I was covered in dirt and dried blood. The torn piece of fabric still wrapped around my wrist was filthy and frayed.
    “You look like you’re going to fall over, Nora,” Rosie singsonged.
    I frowned.
    Rosie was here so it meant she was the one responsible for keeping me prisoner. For taking Maren and locking her away.
    Yet.
    My head throbbed again and my vision became even fuzzier.
    Beep. Beep. Beep.
    “What’s that noise?” I asked, forced to lean against the wall for support.
    Beep. Beep. Beep.
    “Tell me!” I screamed, though it wasn’t loud. My throat was so dry and raw it wouldn’t allow me to do much more than whisper.
    Rosie only smiled. It was obvious she did not intend to answer my question.
    “Why am I here? How did you do it?” I demanded, wanting to stay on my feet but finding it impossible.
    I slid down the wall and sat down, my back pressed against the wood. The concrete hot beneath me.
    Smoke. Flames.
    Get out!
    “Don’t you want to know who’s behind door number three?” Rosie taunted, twirling the ring around her finger.
    I rubbed at my temple, completely overwhelmed.
    The ring on her finger . . .
    Her voice . . .
    “Just tell me why did you do it?” I cried, but no tears fell down my dirty cheeks. I was incapable. They were all dried up. But my frazzled nerves couldn’t deal with this latest revelation.
    She twisted the ring over and over.
    I twisted my ring on my thumb.
    “Come on, Nora, play along! Ask me who’s behind the other door.” Rosie tapped her hand against the handle.
    “It’ll be fun, I promise!”
    I shook my head, too tired to do anything else. Rosie was crazy. She had lost her mind.
    And I was pretty sure that she was going to make sure I would never be free. Ever again.
    “It’s because you think this life I have should be yours, isn’t it? You’ve decided that by getting rid of me, you could have Mother all to yourself,” I surmised. I continued to twirl the silver ring on my thumb. “But don’t you get it? I’m not a threat to you! Mother always loved you best!”
    Rosie laughed as though I were telling the funniest joke she had ever heard.
    “You’re nuts!” I screeched, my throat protesting the effort.
    Rosie walked to the door of the room where Maren was being held and tapped her fingers along the wood. “Knock, knock, Maren. You awake in there?” She giggled obscenely.
    “What are you doing?” I demanded.
    Rosie shrugged. “Behind door number one we have Maren Digby. So pretty. So special. Unique in every single way.” She winked at me. “You really love her, don’t ya, sis?” Rosie goaded.
    “I’m not your sister!” I yelled.
    I couldn’t see much of Rosie’s expression with my diminished eyesight, but I could see enough to know that she smiled.
    Oh, how she smiled.
    She was enjoying this.
    “No, you’re not. You never were. Thank god. Leslie should have bashed your head in when you were born,” Rosie mused, tapping her chin with her finger.
    “Shut up!” I moaned, covering my ears. Anything to drown out the sound of her awful voice.
    Her voice . . .
    I sat up straighter, my breath coming in short, shallow bursts. My heart beat wildly in my chest.
    Something wasn’t right. And I had just realized what it was.
    Rosie’s voice wasn’t the same one that I had been