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I took it upon myself to get the driver's attention, standing in the middle of the road and praying the driver would stop. And he had. I kept Silas off to the side of the road until I knew it was safe. There was a chance I would be flagging down our captor, but I had to take the risk.

From the moment I laid eyes on him, I knew he wasn’t our captor. I couldn’t explain it, but something deep within me intrinsically trusted him. His amber skin and dark brown hair were familiar, yet I couldn’t put my finger on it. But it was his eyes… those jade-green eyes were the only ones I had never forgotten.

The drive had been quiet and far past the posted speed limit. The kind man with the green eyes had made a couple of calls while we drove. The first seemed to be to a friend or a family member, based on his familiarity. Whoever he had called knew me, based on the gasp I could just make out when he explained what he was doing. The second call was to a police officer or detective of some kind. I wasn’t sure who; I just knew he was meeting us at the hospital and had questions. Though I wasn’t sure I had any answers. I couldn’t even answer my own questions.

The man had driven us to the hospital in a town called Eugene and hadn’t left us alone since. Silas and I were in matching beds, side by side. We were both given gowns to change into, and the lights were turned off in our small room. It smelled like antiseptic in the hospital, but not mixed with gasoline. Not the smell that would haunt my nightmares. It was clean here—so clean—and now I was worried I had dirtied the kind man’s car when he drove us here.

Silas sat quietly on his bed, digesting the world he was experiencing for the first time, though he hadn’t seen much of it. We had been quickly admitted and taken back to this room, where they promptly turned off the lights. The only light seeped in from the cracked bathroom door. Silas couldn’t handle the light, not yet.

I wasn’t sure what was going to happen next, but I had a feeling it was going to be countless tests, interviews, and questions. It all sounded entirely exhausting.

“What’s your name again?” I asked the man who brought us in.

He cleared his throat. “Lexington.”

I nodded slowly. Lexington. It was a bit of a ridiculous name, but mine was Goldie, so I didn’t think I could judge. Lexington. I could remember that. Maybe.

My mind was struggling more than I had expected. They were prepping to do a scan on my brain to figure out where my memory had gone—if it would ever come back.

“How do you know me?”

Silas glanced between the two of us, obviously intrigued. He had only spoken a few words since we were brought here, and they were all to me.

The man… Lexington… I needed to remember that. Lexington leaned forward in his chair, resting his elbows on his knees. “We work together, and I think… I would call us friends.”

I raised a brow. “Our friendship is in question?”

He chuckled lightly, and the sound was warm. “I had a tardiness issue, which you weren’t always the biggest fan of.”

I smiled to myself, though I wasn’t even sure why. Being around Lexington felt safe, which was insane. I didn't know this man… at least, I didn't remember knowing this man. But there was something in my soul that felt drawn to him.

“Goldie,” Silas whispered.

I turned to him. He was sitting cross-legged under the blankets of his bed. He had an IV matching mine, pumping who-knows-what into us—fluids, I assumed, that our bodies desperately needed. “You okay?”

He gave me an incredulous look. He wasn’t okay; his world was turned upside down, but it was necessary for his survival. “Where’s the bathroom?”

I smiled sadly and pointed to the open door. “Just in there.” I glanced at Lexington. “Can you shut off the light for him?”

Lexington nodded and stood, flipping the switch and blanketing us in darkness. Silas stood and wandered into the bathroom, his IV in tow, closing the door behind him.

Lexington sat on the edge of Silas’s bed, his attention on me. “What’s his name?”

“Silas.”

Lexington’s green eyes grew wide in shock. “Silas? He’s Silas Graves?”

I shrugged. “He doesn’t know his last name, so I’m not sure. Is he important?”

“He was declared dead a decade ago,” Lexington explained. His voice was like caramel, and I could listen to him speak all day. I think I was just desperate for human connection after the isolation; that was the only explanation for how I was responding to this strange man. “We’ll need to call his brothers.”

“Two of them?” I asked quietly. Lexington nodded, looking perplexed. “Silas remembered two boys who looked like him. He assumed they were his brothers,” I explained.

Lexington swallowed hard and looked at the closed bathroom door. “Where were you guys? What happened to you?”

I shook my head. I wasn’t ready to talk, I didn’t want to talk, and I didn’t have the answers. I didn’t know where we were held; I wasn’t sure why we were there at all. I never heard our captor’s voice, I never saw him in that dark cave that was our home. All I knew… all I knew was that we were out.

Lexington sighed wearily. “I’m sorry. You’re not ready. I won’t press.”