“Who am I?” I asked and then heaved again, the vomit burning as it came up. It hurt so bad my lungs felt even they might collapse.
You’re mine, a deep voice intoned. You’re no one’s but mine.
“Amnesia!” Eddie pleaded. “Jesus, please.”
“Eddie?” I asked, lifting my head. It felt I was coming out of my coma all over again. Confusion and light warred within me. I coughed.
“Am, baby, it’s okay. You’re out now. You’re out of that twisted cave.”
“What?” I moaned.
“You’re here with me. No one’s going to hurt you. Cross my heart.”
“Hope to die,” I whispered. “You will be forever mine.” The words, though I spoke them, calmed me. Probably because those were Eddie’s original words.
I felt his hands in my hair. Everything seemed to come back, realign. I no longer felt I was on the world’s best (or worst) tilt-a-whirl. Opening my eyes, I saw Eddie above me, the sun at his back, black curls glistening and ruffled in the wind.
I felt myself smile up at him. “What happened?” I asked, sitting up.
“You had some kind of panic attack,” he said, concern darkening his face. “Being down there was too much.”
It all came back to me, and I shuddered. “We’re out?”
“Of course. I carried you out the second you collapsed.”
“I think I threw up.” I wrapped an arm around my belly.
“It’s okay. That place makes me wanna barf, too.”
I wanted to smile, but reality was too much right now. “I want to leave.” I asserted.
“Me, too. This place sucks.”
I grabbed his wrist. He gazed at me with a question in his eyes. “What about Sadie?”
“I’ll get her and then we can go.” He paused. “You okay?”
I nodded firmly, and he left my side.
So she was coming with us, then. Of course she was. Leaving her here was not an option. I, of all people, knew what she’d been through. Even just the small portion I recalled was hell.
And she remembered it all.
She belonged in Lake Loch. She deserved to have her life back. Maggie was her mother’s best friend. Joline and Jeremy knew her parents, and Eddie was her childhood love. Even Robbie had been her friend.
Those people, they were her people.
They were mine, too, right?
Everyone had been missing Sadie so much for the past eleven years. So much they’d all wanted to believe I’d been her. They opened their arms to me, their homes. Was it all because they thought I was her?
I know I wasn’t supposed to feel I was living someone else’s life because technically all the time I spent living in Lake Loch was mine.
But I couldn’t help it.
I couldn’t help but wonder just how drastically the answers I found today would change everything.
We needed to get the hell out of here. No one was here on Rumor Island, but that could change at any moment.
There wasn’t one doubt in my mind that there was a man lurking somewhere, a man who’d hurt Amnesia and Sadie.
Holy shit, I found Sadie.
There was no way in hell the widow could have done all this on her own.
Leaving Am up top, I leapt back down into the hole, sort of surprised she hadn’t followed us out when I rushed (rather awkwardly) up the ladder with Amnesia.
“Sadie?” I asked, not sure how to approach her. I wanted to snatch her up and run like hell, but I held myself back. She was fragile; that much was entirely obvious. My God, the way she cowered when she thought the man was coming back…
If I hadn’t wanted him dead before, now the urge was tenfold.
“What happened?” she asked, her voice small in the dark.
“It’s okay.” I promised. “Being back here is, uh, hard for Amnesia.” That sounded stupid to my ears. Stupid and insensitive. This was so much more than “hard” on her, and Sadie, too.
“You call her Amnesia?” she asked curiously, moving back into the soft glow of the lantern.
“That’s the name she gave herself.”
“What about her real name?”
“She doesn’t know her real name.” I paused. “Do you?”
“It’s Lily.”
Lily. Like the flower. It was beautiful. I could barely digest it, though, any of this. Swallowing past the massive lump in my throat, I asked, “How do you know her name?”
“We’re sisters,” Sadie replied. “Well, we were.”
I had no idea what that meant. Sadie didn’t have any sisters. She was an only child. She was probably confused, dehydrated. Who the fuck knew what else?
Shit. Lily might not even be Amnesia’s actual name.
“Come on. We need to go,” I said urgently. I could ask questions later. Our safety was more important.
“Go?”
“Yeah, we’re leaving.”
She seemed confused. Her hesitation was something I wasn’t expecting. I shifted on my feet, gazing up at the opening. “I’ll take you home, back to Lake Loch. People are going to be so happy to see you.”
“My parents,” she murmured.
My heart broke. Sadie wouldn’t see her parents. Hadn’t she endured enough? But now she had to be told they died in a horrible crash caused by her own father.
Now was not the time for that. I wasn’t sure when the time would be, but it wasn’t now.
I went forward and took her hand. She glanced down to where I held her. “Come on.”
“I can’t go,” she said, digging her bare feet into the floor.
“What?” I spun around. “Why?”
I honestly thought she’d run out of this cave so fast it would make my head spin.
Her voice dropped low, the tone warning. “He’ll come back.”
“Which is exactly why we need to go now.” I pressed, giving her hand a little tug.
She yanked it out of mine, wrapping her arms around her middle. “He said I couldn’t leave. He said I had to stay.”
“He’s a psycho!” I roared, my patience snapping.
She wilted, and I cussed.
“I’m sorry,” I said, contrite. “I didn’t mean to yell. It just… it makes me crazy to see you here like this, knowing you’ve been tortured all these years.”
“How long have I been here?” she asked. “I tried to keep track…”
I pressed my lips together, then replied. “A long time, sweetheart.”
She nodded. “You look like a man now.”
“I won’t hurt you,” I said, thinking maybe the fact I looked like a man scared her. After all, she’d suffered extensively at the hands of a man.
“I know,” she said, but there was a hint of doubt in her tone. “But he said I was his. He said I belonged here, with him. I’m not allowed to leave.”
She was brainwashed.
I moved forward just slightly. “You don’t belong here, Sadie.” I held out my hand between us. She glanced at it, but made no move to accept. “And the only person you belong to is yourself. I’m here now. I’ll protect you. I’ll make sure you do anything you want, including leave here.”
I saw the glimmer in her eyes. She wanted to break free.
She was like a bird in a cage.
A small, fragile creature that craved freedom, but didn’t understand what it was.
Even though the door to the cage was propped open and no one stood in the way of escape, she hesitated. Because if she spread her wings and flew away, it would be to places unknown.
All she knew now was life inside here. She was kept. Hidden away. A beautiful bird, broken and locked up. A beautiful bird that once knew freedom but now only knew inhibition.
I left the door propped open but took a step back.
“Remember that time we got up just after sunrise and rode our bikes all the way to town just so we could get a fresh-out-of-the-oven donut from Joline and Jeremy’s bakery?” I asked, smiling a bit at the memory. “It had rained the n
ight before, and by the time we got there, we were covered in so much mud, Joline made us wash up in the bathroom before she would let us have our donut.”
“I told you we shouldn’t have taken the shortcut through the field.”
Her words pierced me straight in the heart. She remembered.
I chuckled. It was slightly forced because it was hard to laugh in this kind of situation. “You were right.”
“Joline and Jeremy,” she murmured.
“They’re still there. Same bakery, same donuts. We’ll get one.” I cajoled.
Still, she hesitated.
“It’s okay, Sadie.”
“He said he would—” Her voice caught. “Hurt me if I wasn’t here when he got back.”
My teeth ground together so forcefully a pain in my jaw spread down my neck.
“He lied,” I said gently. “I won’t let him hurt you.”
She debated another minute, which felt like an eternity. But then she stepped forward, her hand reaching out for mine.
“Okay.”
The weight of responsibility sank down on me. She was trusting me enough to take her out of here, to keep her safe and protected. Even after the part I played in her getting here. I couldn’t fail her this time.
“C’mon.” I led her to the ladder. “You first, okay. That way if you fall, I’ll catch you.”
“I won’t fall. I’ve climbed this a lot.”
“That’s good.” I encouraged. “Go on.”
She went, her movements definitely experienced. She even managed to avoid getting caught up in the too-long gown.
I went up closely behind her, nearly running straight against her when she paused at the top.
Her face turned back down. “You’re sure he’s not up here?” She worried.
“I swear. I searched the island before I found you.” I searched and then wanted to leave. Leave you here again…
If it weren’t for Amnesia, she’d still be down in that hole.
The second Sadie cleared the top, I practically catapulted out of that den of evil. I searched immediately for Am, making sure she was still okay.
She was still sitting on the ground nearby, looking pale and quite frankly wrecked. I started to go to her, but Sadie called my name.
“Eddie?”
I swung around, caught in the center. Up here in the sunlight, I noticed how much they favored each other. It was easy to see why we all speculated Amnesia was Sadie.
But there were differences, ones that now made it obvious.
“I’m here,” I told her.
She glanced around as though she expected a giant eagle to swoop down from the sky and take off her head. Wind blew and the sound of the waves seemed louder.
Sadie shivered. “It looks different up here during the day.”
“You usually come up at night?”
She nodded. “That was the rule. He left the hatch unlocked while he was gone but made me promise I’d only come out at night. Someone might see me wandering here during the day. Someone might take me away from him.”
How was a man—or any sane person really—supposed to listen to these things? These insane meanderings of a lunatic that this girl spoke as if they made perfect sense. How was someone able to brainwash another human being to, in a sense, make them think they were a dog and not in charge of their own life?
“It was you,” Amnesia said from close behind me. “It was your lantern we saw here at night.”
Sadie’s eyes widened. “You saw me?”
I went forward, already knowing where her mind was going. “Just your light. But it’s okay. You didn’t do anything wrong. It probably was nice to get out of there and walk around.”
“The stars are pretty at night.” She agreed.
I wanted to scream. To yell. To punch a thousand things.
“I thought it was him,” Amnesia said. “I came here to find him.”
“Oh, he’ll be back,” Sadie said. She was so sure. She glanced past me at Am, her eyes changing slightly, but I wasn’t sure how. “He’s very angry with you. He says when you come home, he’s going to have to teach you a lesson and that you won’t get as many nice things as I do.”
What. The. Ever-loving. Fuck?
Amnesia’s face went white. So white I started toward her, worried she might fold to the ground again.
“And your hair…” Sadie went on. Amnesia’s hand flew to her wavy, short strands. “He’s going to get out the whip.”
Amnesia whimpered. I caught her around the shoulders and pulled her in, covering her ear with my hand.
“He won’t,” I said fiercely, turning to look at Sadie. “He isn’t going to touch her ever, ever again.”
Amnesia trembled against me. Sadie just stood there stock still, almost emotionless. As though she had the inability to see what her words just did.
“Don’t ever say anything like that to her again,” I said, trying to be gentle. “Amnesia doesn’t understand. She doesn’t need that running through her head.”
“It’s what he told me,” Sadie explained.
I was so close to yelling. So close to screaming. I held it in, feeling as if doing so might cost me an actual few years off my life.
I glanced down at Amnesia, pulled her away from my body, and looked into her face. “We’re going home now.”
She nodded and started walking in the direction of the boat.
“Boat’s this way,” I told Sadie, gesturing for her.
She rushed forward and took my hand, her fingers like ice. That gown was so thin I could see through it in the sunlight, and the wind was so cold her nipples were completely visible.
“Here,” I said, unzipping my hoodie and putting it around her shoulders. “It’s cold out.”
She looked down at the shirt, then pushed her arms through. “Thank you.”
It seemed to take less time to get to the dock. I thanked God for that. I was never coming back to this island of hell ever again.
Everyone was quiet as we made our way to the pristine white boat. Sadie was definitely weak and malnourished. She tired out halfway to the dock and began to stumble.
It didn’t help she was barefoot and the sunlight seemed to blind her.
I picked her up and carried her the rest of the way. She sighed in relief and practically went limp in my arms.
“Be careful.” I gently reminded Amnesia as she walked down the dock toward the boat. It made me nervous to watch her because so much of the wood was rotted out.
She didn’t look back at me when we made it across, instead just jumping into the boat and moving toward the back where she’d sat on the way here.
I was worried about her. Unfortunately, my worry had to wait.
Once Sadie and I were in, I sat her down beside Amnesia and fired up the boat.
I didn’t spare a single glance back at the island as I jetted over the water, but the creepy, unstable feelings it possessed definitely followed us home.
The hospital was chaos.
The second Eddie pushed through the doors, carrying a newly found Sadie, me trailing along behind them, completely shell-shocked, everything seemed to snowball into an avalanche of activity.
There was some yelling. Some crying. Possibly even some fainting. I sort of felt I was walking through fog, in danger of being lost. I knew what was happening around me, yet it was like I wasn’t participating.
Sadie was swept into a private room, and Eddie followed along. The next thing I knew, he was taking my hand, pulling me out of the chair I was in and leading me into the room with Sadie.
She looked like me. Or maybe I looked like her.
My hair was lighter than hers, and I had more freckles. Both of us had brown eyes. Both of us were too skinny, and we had the same shape face. I understood now why everyone was shocked when I first showed up.
I knew by the look on her face she was completely overwhelmed and scared. I didn’t know quite how she felt, but I thought it might be similar to how I felt when
I woke up from my coma. Except she knew these people. Or most of them.
Eddie stayed at her bedside, holding her hand. She kept her eyes on him most of the time, even when trying to answer any question directed at her. Eddie spoke more than she did. I saw his mouth moving, but I didn’t hear his words.
I didn’t need to. I knew what was going on.
A soft touch on my arm made me jump, startled. The world came back into focus. Mary Beth smiled down at me. “Why don’t you come with me. Let us check you out?”
“I’m fine, thank you,” I replied.
“You don’t look fine,” she said gently.
“I’m sure I don’t.”
“Go with her, Am. Just to be sure,” Eddie said.
I glanced at him glancing at me. He was still holding Sadie’s hand. I looked away, over at Sadie. She felt my eyes and turned her head. We connected for long moments; there was recognition there, but I didn’t know how much or why.
There was also something else. Something I didn’t understand.
Something I didn’t particularly like.
“I’ll come with you,” I said to Mary Beth and stood from the chair.
“I’ll be right there to check on you,” Eddie called behind me.
We went to a small cubical not far away. They took my vitals, asked me a bunch of questions, and determined I might be in shock but my health was fine.
I didn’t bother to say I told you so.
“You can go back in there now,” Mary Beth informed me after what felt like a hundred-year exam.
I looked back toward the room where Sadie and Eddie were. Even Maggie was there, having just arrived several minutes before. Doctors and nurses would come and go constantly.
“Actually, would it be okay if I went home?” I asked.
She looked a little surprised, but her eyes softened. “Long day?”
“The longest.” I tried to smile. I failed.
“Of course.” She patted my hand. “How about I give you a ride?”
“Aren’t you working?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Patient care is my job. Besides, everything’s so crazy here right now. No one will notice if I’m gone for ten minutes.”
“That would be great.” I accepted the offer.
“Just let me get my keys. You go tell Eddie, and we’ll meet at the elevators.”
Amnesty: Amnesia Duet Book 2 Page 11
