Page 136 of Death is Familiar

“When?”

“When she took me out to see the sky. She told me how dangerous the woods around us were. How there were monsters and bad things just waiting to hurt us. She gave me the snack pouch and said it was the only way to protect you from yourself. That the dogs needed to come to your rescue.”

"Do I look like I need rescuing?"

“Uhh.”

On second thought. “Don't answer that.” The first thing I would do when we got to a town would be to find us some clothes, and a tie for my hair. “But you knew about the dogs. You knew and you lied.”

“Because if you knew they were coming, they wouldn’t be allowed to rescue you!”

“If the dogs find us, they won’t be rescuing us, Three, they’ll be bringing us right back down to that dungeon.”

“And is that so bad?”

“Yes! It is!”

“It’s better than out here!” Though her tears had stopped, splotches of popped vessels were left in their wake. “I thought you said that life was going to get better, that there was more to life than what I’d been part of, that there were choices.”

“There is! What we are doing right now, Three, isn’t living. It’s escaping. Right now, we have to get through something difficult, so we can make our way to freedom.”

“Why won’t you just play your role? You’re important.”

“I’m not important. I’m dispensable.” I could feel the color bleeding into my cheeks. “If we get brought back underground, my life is as good as over. I’ll be forced unconscious until they take my passenger from me, and then I’ll no longer be of use. They’ll get rid of me, Three, just like they’ll get rid of you!”

Three stared at me a long while, until she said, “Your passenger?”

Unbelievable. “That’s all you got from what I said?”

“I’m just trying to understand. What is your ‘passenger?’”

I just needed to be out of the woods. It wasn’t lost on me that I was getting scratched and rubbed by all sorts of plants and material. Poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac. But skin irritation seemed favorable to having to explaining the level of separation I created for myself.

Instead, I ran a hand over the swell of my belly. The sun was starting to set, and I was tired. So very tired. “Are you with me, or against me, Three?”

“I’m with you.”

“Any other tricks up your sleeve? Anything else Madame told you to do that would ‘protect’ me?”

Shaking her head, she was on the verge of tears again. “I’m sorry, Two. I’m so sorry.”

“Save it. If you want to continue on with me, you need to call me by my name.” For the months we’d be held underground, she’d refused to do me this courtesy. If she didn’t call me by my name, she wasn’t capable of following instructions. She wasn’t capable of respecting my wishes. She wasn’t capable of doing anything other than what she’d been told by the Seal. “Say it.”

Three swallowed, her red-rimmed lids searching mine for the soft-underbelly I’d shown before saying, “Delilah.”

“Good. Good, that’s good.” Whatever flowed through me wasn’t relief, it was more like a momentary reprieve. It was tiring being on edge all the time, but I’d need to be on edge a while longer. “You only call me by my name from here on out, got it?”

She nodded with enthusiasm. “Yes, of course, Delilah. I’ll call you Delilah, Delilah.”

“Things are going to get worse before they get better. The sun is setting, and we are going to walk through this swamp hoping we get to land before nightfall. It’s going to be unpleasant. It’s going to be dangerous, and I need you to follow my every instruction.” I was giving her one last out. “Any questions?”

Three took in the large expanse of flooded forest before us. There was no clear end in sight. It could have stretched feet or miles, and the temperature was already starting to drop. But of course, her only question was, “When are we going to play hide and seek?”

†

Night descended swiftly, as Three and I made our way through the never-ending swamplands. We darted from tree to tree, surveying our next move, any threats in the water.

I hated every second of it.