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His silence was worse than any answer he could give me.

Malakar stood up and disappeared. When he came back, he had another plate of food. “Here, eat more.”

I did as I was told. He sat there and watched me.

Another memory poured in.

“You’re always watching me,” I told him, side-eyeing him with caution. I didn’t trust men, not after what my dad did to those poor women.

He tilted his head. “You’re interesting. Most of these girls are scared of me. Not you. You never run.”

I chewed on my lip. “I’ve seen true terror, believe me. You’re nothing compared to my father.”

He blinked. His eye twitched. “I know what you mean. My dad was a brutal man. I made sure he couldn’t hurt anyone ever again.”

I didn’t want to know what he meant by that. “Maybe I’m just lonely. It’s hard to make friends in a place like this.”

“I understand. Maybe we can be lonely together. You’re good company, you make the bad feelings go away.”

He was smiling at me. It felt warm. I smiled too.

“I’d like that, I guess. It’ll be a while before I’m out of here, I’m only fifteen, so it’ll be nice to have a friend.”

He frowned. “I’m seventeen. My time to go is coming soon. Flying away from this cage. But, I’m sure we’ll see each other again, I think it was fate. Us meeting.”

I couldn’t make out the boy’s face very well, it was blurred in the memory. Not a full face. But he was familiar.

A shiver passed through me. I wrapped my arms around my waist. My body still felt so cold from starvation.

“You’re cold.” He tilted his head. It was the same kind of movement from the boy. Could it be? No. The boy was sweet, warm, kind. Normal. Well, not totally normal, but he wasn’t this.

Monsters aren’t made overnight, Starla, you should know better than that.

“I hate that I always have to leave you down there, but I don’t want you to fly away from me.” He paused and eyed me. “Will you fly away? If I let you stay up here? With me?”

Would I fly away? Maybe. I wasn’t sure.

I shook my head. “I won’t fly away.”

His lips lifted. It was a small smile. “Forever, then, my bluebird.”

He pulled me off the couch. I glanced at the door. It would be so easy to kick him, push him, do anything. It would be so easy to fly out of the cage.

Instead, I let him lead me further into the house. Wings clipped, fluttering alongside him.

We walked up the stairs into a bedroom. It was a different bedroom. The one he lashed me in was somewhere else. I shuddered at the memory of that. The scars were still fresh on my back. They still hurt if I rubbed against them the wrong way.

When he motioned for me to lay down, I hesitated. I didn’t want him to rape me again. My body was tired and bruised.

“Get on the bed, Starla.”

I sighed and crawled onto it. I laid on the far end, hoping he wouldn’t come any closer. I also longed for it, for the warmth.

“Don’t be afraid, Starla darling, I just want to make you feel good. I want you to feel safe.” He laid down next to me. “I never felt safe growing up. My father was cruel. My mother was hysterical all the time. Always talking to the walls and shadows in her head. Always acting out. And my father…well he didn’t like that. He was cruel.”

Was he actually sharing things with me? I looked at him. There was no wildness in his eyes. No anger. He looked sad. Something inside of me broke for him. I reached out and touched his hand.

“My father was cruel too. He liked to butcher women in our basement. My mom was blind to his cruelty though. When I snitched on him to the cops, she drowned herself in the lake.”