Chapter 6

I miss my Rickey, the diary read. I miss his touch and his goofy smile. Even the way he used to pester me about how my romance movies were stupid. I miss everything about him. But I’m warming up to Charlie. As long as I don’t try to escape anymore, he doesn’t hurt me.

Gabrielle put the diary down and wiped her dampening cheeks. This Annabel Lee, whatever her name was, she was very much a sad being. Every day in her diary she would write down each feeling she had and they were all of her family and her lover. Gabrielle understood her pain and knew why the pages of the journal were so repetitive; the girl didn’t want to lose the memories so she wrote them down to keep them alive in her mind.

Charlie isn’t bad. Whenever he tries to hug me or kiss my hand, I let him now. I barely flinch anymore. But all I think about is my Rickey. I have to force my mind into thinking it’s him holding me, caring for me. Charlie may not be entirely a monster but I still don’t want him. I want my Rickey. But Charlie is the only thing I have. And that makes me such a disgrace.

The pen on that page seemed to have run with the tears the girl had shed upon it. Gabrielle kept reading and all the while finding how the writer was warming up to Charlie. It made her feel better to know the man kept to his promise of never hurting his Annabel Lees. All was looking brighter for the young captive. But then, the last passage caught Gabrielle’s attention.

The poem, it makes sense now. “In her tomb by the sea.” He’s going to kill me! I don’t want to die. And if anyone finds this, please PLEASE don’t let him do this!!

The little passage was followed by a few blank pages. It was like she knew her ending, like the pause she took when writing it down. Knowing what this girl went through was probably the only thing to help her escape. Flipping through a few pages, Gabrielle found another one with larger and more confident words written on it. She read the last paragraph with tears streaming her face. It was titled, Alexis’s Goodbye.

Tell my family I love them and miss them. Tell Rickey I am sorry to have ever left his side. But I don’t do this for myself, I do this for the future girls he might not have to harm now. Charlie needs an Annabel Lee in his tomb beside him. As long as I lock myself away with him, he won’t harm anyone else. I have to keep my nerve for any other girl he won’t ever take again.

Gabrielle almost wanted to throw the book away and let it rot in the corner of the basement. The dream of freedom was a lie! But she had to read the little message at the bottom and so the diary stayed in her hands. The latest Annabel Lee had become close to the memory of Alexis even though she had only now learned her name. It was the only gift she could give to the girl. Written on the bottom of the page was a hard-pressed last note.

But I don’t want to die.

And that was it. Only seventy pages into the journal, only ¾ of the entire thing, and Alexis was gone. Gabrielle hugged the little brown book and brought her knees to her chest. There was stillness in the room; a silence held in the honor of Alexis. Gabrielle forced back her tears but they spilled over her bottom eyelids anyways. Her hands trembled and her heart screamed inside. But no matter how hard she tried, her thoughts would not take a break.

She was going to die and Charlie would be the one to kill them both. She couldn’t and wouldn’t let that happen.