Carl came in with a plate of bread and scrambled eggs.

“Be a good girl today, Hope,” he warned before he left. “Remember,” he pointed at the camera at the corner of the room, “I am always watching.”

He was already wearing his cop uniform and Hope waited until his car pulled out of the driveway and sped away before she pushed herself away from her wing chair and padded toward the wall.

She knocked. “Hey,” she called out.

No answer came, but she heard a whimper.

“Hey, can you hear me?” She waited. No answer. “It’s okay. I am a friend. I am like you. He also took me away.”

This time, Hope waited longer.

Then, after almost three minutes, she heard the sound of chains being dragged and a foot padded nearer to the wall.

“Are you hurt?”

“No,” the small voice of the girl answered.

“I am Hope. What’s your name?”

“Samantha. Are you going to get me out of here? Please, help me. I am scared.”

The girl didn’t have to say that out loud. Hope could feel her fear.

“I will try, but you have to be patient. I am also a prisoner here, but I can help you get out. Do you understand? Just don’t tell him that you talk to me. It is important that he doesn’t know.”

“Why?”

Hope closed her eyes for a moment. “How old are you, Samantha?”

“Ten.”

It was a great effort to contain the horror that she felt. This girl was five years younger than her when she was abducted. Carl was getting sicker by the day.

“You’re ten, but you can act like a grown up, right? Grown-ups keep their promises at moments like this because it is very important. Can you do that?”

“Yes.”

“And if he tries to do something to you, even if you don’t like it at all, don’t talk, okay? Just know that it will be over soon. But you have to be quiet or he will not like it. Can you understand me?”

“I am afraid.”

“It is okay to be afraid. Just be strong. I will find a way to get us out of here.”

“How? You’re bound too?”

“Yes, but I found a way out of it. Just don’t tell him we’re talking, okay?”

“Okay.”

*****

Later that afternoon, Hope was almost ready to beat herself up for not thinking straight.

She talked to Samantha.

And she was just a child.

What if she talked to Carl?

What if the girl would tell Carl everything?

And if she didn’t, how would Hope help her escape?

Her chains were surely new.

And a child could not work on those screws unless she taught her.

Hope had to find another way.

As she paced around her room, her desperation grew by the second.

She couldn’t just wait for the day that Samantha would be too weak to tell Carl everything. Or the day that she’d end up like Patty.

*****

Devin watched as the girl walked around her room, thinking.

What was she thinking about?

Was she worried?

“Hey!” he called, not bothering to lower his voice. Carl was not home and it was only one of those moments he thought it was safe to talk to her.

She turned to face him and was about to walk away when he held up both hands. “Hey, look, I am not going to ask for your name again. I just want to talk.”

“I told you to stay out of our lives.”

“You don’t trust me.” It was not a question. It was a fact he saw in her eyes.

She did not answer.

“I am trying to investigate your dad, if he is really your dad, and I will find out the truth anytime soon. I have a friend who is very good at digging stuff.”

The fear in her eyes was apparent and she almost ran to the window. “No! You can’t do that.” Her voice shook as she said that and he almost called Burton to stop digging.

“I just want to help.”

“He works with the police. You can’t trust anyone,” she told him.

He was surprised with that. He was not expecting to hear that from her. “Then tell me.”

He almost heard a scoff. “If I did, you’d only end up believing I am mad. Or you’d only do something stupid that would get me in the wrong places.”

“Try me. I’ve been through hell myself.”

She narrowed her eyes at him.

“I know you’re being held against your will. And you are chained.”

*****

Hope was not surprised that he knew.

It seemed that her neighbor didn’t have anything to do but eavesdrop and observe her.

“Why would you even try to help me?”

“I am not stupid as to just let something bad happen before my eyes, or across my window.”

Hope shook her head. “I don’t trust anyone but myself.”

She saw him shrug. “Well, if you change your mind, I am just across your window.”

Hope did not answer. She turned around to go back to her bed.

*****

That night, before Carl came in from work, she watched the news.

Her fifteen-year-old face was being flashed on the television once again and this time, it told her why her mother decided to bury her.

The DNA tested positive.

Her brows furrowed in confusion.

The authorities finally revealed yesterday that Hope Madden was the body in that barrel. They said they had extracted some DNA and it matched the hair from her old hairbrush her mother kept since she disappeared.

But that body was not her. Where did they get the DNA to match it with the hair?

There could only be two possibilities.

Someone faked it, or someone sent the authorities a sample of her DNA from this very house.

Carl.

It could only be Carl.

But did he have that great of connections to actually make it work?

She would never know that.

He never talked about his work. He never talked about who he worked with.

She only knew him as Carl.

Could he really be that powerful as to fool the authorities assigned to the barrel case?

*****

When Carl came home, he went straight to her room.

He was looking tired, but he had something to say.

He always had some news for her if he would do such a visit in his cop uniform.

“I have news for you,” he announced, lighting a cigarette.

Hope just looked at him from her wing chair. She was hungry and she could barely comprehend him.

“We are moving in two days.”

“What?” she asked in surprise.

“We are moving. We’ve been here long enough. You better say goodbye to your friends,” he added with a laugh as he exhaled smoke. He walked out of the room as if nothing happened, as if he did not drop a bomb in her room.

Hope panicked.

Everything she had worked hard on would be for nothing if they left in two days.

Everything.

But what urged Carl to move? What happened?

Did it have anything to do with the news she watched on the television?

Why move her now when all the world thought she was dead?

Hope shook her head. She turned to the wall that separated her and Samantha.

She couldn’t let the girl go through the same things she and Patty did. And the girl could talk, thanks to her stupid ramblings earlier.

Then she turned her head toward her window, saw her neighbor’s room’s light still on.

She stood up and went to bed.

Two days.

That meant she had one more day to think and come up with the best solution.

She could not move to another house with Carl. She’d rather die.

*****

Burton arrived that morning dressed in his usual cargo pants and bohemian shirt.

“Still alive, I gather,” he commented, looking at Devin after he closed the door.

Burton was a big African-American guy, not beefy but very lean. One look and you’d know you couldn’t mess with him. In the years Devin had known him, he never considered Burton a friend despite what he told the girl yesterday.

Burton would never consider one of his subjects his friend, he had said. If things went bad, he might take it personally and he couldn’t work well if his emotions were in control. He had once had a subject he grew to care for and it did not end well.

“Here’s the burger you ordered,” he said in his jolly voice, which was not meant to be; he just sounded that way. He placed the cold, wrapped burger on the small table. “No living room?”

“Not planning to stay a long time,” Devin answered, picking up the burger and unwrapping it.

“Here’s the other thing you ordered,” Burton added, slapping a thin folder on the table. “What’s with this guy, anyway? You said he has a daughter. He doesn’t have one. Are you in deep shit? Tell me now so we could move you to another place.”

Devin let go of his burger and grabbed the file, a frown on his face.

“What now?” Burton asked impatiently.

“He doesn’t have a daughter?”

“He doesn’t. Why? What’s wrong?”

Everything, he answered inside his head. “Nothing. I thought it was his daughter. Maybe I was wrong,” he lied. He remembered what the girl said. She couldn’t trust anyone. And so did he. Even Burton though he might scratch the guy off the list. But not now.

“You told me last time he has a daughter living with him,” Burton said suspiciously.

“It must have been someone else. She’s not there anymore. Never saw her again. I just jumped to the conclusion.”

“Yeah, right. Your conclusions were the reasons you are here, you idiot.”

Devin closed the file and threw it on the table, pretending it didn’t matter that much, but silently itching for Burton to leave so he could dig into the file alone. “How’s the case?”

“Still going on,” Burton answered sarcastically.

“When are they going to call me in?”

“Just be patient. You are the ace in this game. You have to have a big entrance. The red carpet is still being rolled.”

“I should not have agreed to do this,” he said. Well, he had been saying it in all Burton’s visits.

“If you didn’t, you’d be dead by now,” Burton answered, the same answer to that last statement.

“I am getting convinced by the passing day that my condition right now is no different from being dead.”

“Just stay patient, man. You know we are doing our best. Once this is all over, you’ll have a new life.”

“I don’t need a new life. I need my freedom.”

“Yeah, right. Make a speech about it and post it on Wattpad. You might just get thousands of reads.”

“What’s Wattpad?” he asked innocently.

“Online stuff. My kid reads it, teens have them on their phones, I don’t know. Don’t bother, it was meant to be a joke and apparently, you don’t get it. You’re living in a cave with…” he looked around the apartment and finished, “locks and guns and paranoia.”

Devin fell silent and finally said, “Well, now you saw for yourself that I am still alive.”

“Well, nobody really knows that you’re still alive. They all think they buried you alive.”

“Yeah, right. That’s why I am on witness protection,” Devin said sarcastically.

“We’re just trying to cover all holes. We can never be too careful. You know you made big enemies and they are not stupid. They might know by now or they may not. We can never be so sure.”

“You don’t have to remind me that. Are we good now?”

Burton’s gaze fell on the folder on the table. “Are you sure you’re not up to something here? Do you want us to move you? I don’t think I like that file I dug up.”

“No, it’s cool. The guy keeps to himself. I just got curious because he has these weird activities. But as you’ve said, I live in a cave with paranoia.”

Burton nodded, looking unconvinced. “Give me a call if something as your spoon goes missing.”

“Will do,” Devin said, leading him to the door. “Thanks for the burger.”

“You are not welcome,” Burton answered grumpily, squeezing out of the door. “Until next time. Stay alive.”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

*****

Hope was already waiting for the guy in front of her window.

Carl had taken the day off to gather his things, he said. He told her he needed to pack.

It was only when he went to get some stuff from the hardware store did Hope make up her mind.

She saw the car stop outside the guy’s house through her window and not five minutes later, a black guy exited his door and drove away.

One minute later, the guy was in his room, reading something in a folder in his hands.

He looked surprised when he saw her standing in front of her window, waiting for him.

“Hey, so, did you make up your mind?”

Hope took a deep breath. And when she finally exhausted her lungs, she stared at him and nodded.

“I’ll tell you what you need, but you have to help me in return.”