ONE. TIME DOES NOT BRING RELIEF;
YOU ALL HAVE LIED

JANUARY 30, 2011
EICHEN HOUSE
A MONTH LATER

There's a lot of people that would describe Lacy Austin as the happiest person they know. She's always smiling, she's always talking, always laughing. She has a lot of friends, lots of people who know her and her father. Samuel Austin's a good man with a good daughter. For a while, Lacy was known as the girl with only a father. Her mother died when she was six. Suicide. Her body was found four hours after she committed. Sam never told her all of the details because she was too young. But even now that she's older, Lacy's never asked. She only wants to remember the good parts of her mother like how much they look alike. They're both tan with dark hair, their eyes are dark and kind like a doll's. The only difference was their noses. Lacy had her dad's nose. Sophia Austin was described as a social butterfly. That's where her daughter got it from, apparently.

But now Lacy can't remember the last time she spoke. Maybe it had been to her father. Maybe it had been to the cops when she was taken to the station. She can't remember what her last words spoken were. Her mouth's been dry for so long. It's like she doesn't have a tongue to speak with. The only thing she can remember is being taken. It's in her brain on a constant loop. She remembers the sound of her friend's screams, the sound of her own screams, as he tortured them for days on end. Her body still aches on the inside even after being rescued but she feels numb on the outside. She can't speak. She can't hardly more. She can't hear anything. It's like she's soulless.

"Lacy. . . Lacy."

Lacy blinked her eyes, coming back to reality. She tried to stay away from reality as much as she could. She looked ahead of her, Marianne Anderson looking back at her. She's a counselor at Eichen House. She realized everybody was staring at her. They meet in group in once a day. It's been a month.

"It's been a month since they brought you in and you haven't said a single word about what happened to you," Marianne said in a gentle voice. She's an older woman, grey hair and dark eyes. She's been a counselor at Eichen House for three years, she tells them. Lacy wondered all the time how she's not lost her mind yet. "In fact, you haven't said anything at all?"

Lacy stared at her. She fought the urge to chew on her lip because her mouth was still in pain. Even after a month and the scars around her lips fading, Lacy can remember the excruciating pain of getting the stitches removed, even the comfort of Melissa McCall holding her hand not helping like it usually did whenever she went to the hospital. Small little scars all around her mouth, serving as little reminders of what happened to her.

"Lacy, what do you remember about that night?" Marianne asked her again, not raising her voice.

Her arms crossed around herself, her fingers digging into her sides. They were still broken and messy, the nails chewed off to almost nothing.

"Do you recall anything after being rescued? What you told the police? Do you remember any of it?"

How could she forget?

DECEMBER 30, 2010
BEACON HILLS POLICE DEPARTMENT
TWO DAYS AFTER RESCUE

Lacy focused on everything else around her instead of what was in front of her, instead of the two detectives sitting across the table from her. They're both female, Lacy's request. Noah Stilinski stood in the corner of the room observing, also her request. Her father was in the next room with Hannah as they talk to her with two more detectives. Kayla and Daphne were dead. She's known this for a while now. Perhaps she'll never be able to forget it.

"Lacy," the detective on the left, Sarah Tillson, spoke her name. Her eyes were kind as well as her face, something most detectives lacked.

The lights above her flickered and made a buzzing sound. It was dark in the room. Lacy's seen this kind of thing before on TV. Her father would always tell her about it when he comes home from work. Never in her life did she think she would be in the same situation. Lacy's eyes shifted to Sarah but she still didn't speak. She didn't know how to.

"Lacy, can you tell us what happened?" Sarah asked another question. Her partner, Ashley Dowrey, was silent next to her.

Noah watched her sit there, completely frozen and incoherent. There was no life in her eyes, no sign of presence on her face. She was out of it and it made him sick to his stomach.

"What happened to Daphne Torres and Kayla Joy?"

"Do you know who did this to you?"

"You can tell us, Lacy. We're here for you."

As the questions continued, Noah watched Lacy's breathing turn heavy. She sucked in air through her nose but her lips remained shut as her eyes grew wide. It's a panic attack. He recognized it because of his son. Noah moved quickly on his feet. "Okay, that's enough," he demanded and crouched next to the girl, "Lacy, it's alright."

Lacy quickly looked his way, her eyes still wide and her breathing still heavy and rigid.

"Sweetheart, it's okay. You're safe now. You're with people who want to help you. Your father's here. I'm here. He can't hurt you. Nobody is going to hurt you."

Her dark eyes filled with tears and she looked on the verge of crying. The whites of her eyes appeared red. Lacy knows Noah Stilinski. He's friends with her father. He's one of the kindest men she knew. She knows his son Stiles. They go to school together. They're not close but they talk occasionally. Noah's always been kind to her. His wife is dead. Her mom is dead. It's like their families were meant to meet somehow.

Lacy's jaw tightened as her breathing steadied. Her eyes glossed over with tears. Flashbacks of what happened over those two months appeared in her mind and she saw her and the other girls trapped inside of a room. The walls were solid stone, the kind that nobody could you scream. It was so small that they were almost toppling over each other. She could see and hear Daphne crying and Kayla trying to comfort her. She saw Hannah silent freaking out while she tried to calm them all down.

There was so much blood. She could still smell it. It still makes her sick. The tears in her eyes finally fell. Her throat was so dry and raw that she couldn't  break out into sobs but she suddenly got the urge to claw at her chest. She felt as if the walls around her were closing in like she was back in that room. The lights made her sweat. She's been kept in the dark for so long. She stared at the man below her and finally got the courage to speak. "He made us do it," her voice was weak and cracked.

The three adults looked at each other. "Made you do what, Lacy?" Ashley spoke that time, her arms crossed.

Lacy's eyes traveled back to the wooden table. "He made us choose. One of us had to die." She looked up at the women, her face streaked with tears. A shaky breath passed her lips. "I didn't know how was going to do this to us. He promised to let us go."

"Lacy, what happened out there?" Noah asked her, still crouched by her.

She slowly looked down at him again, her eyes burning red and her lips parted slightly. All she could do is stare at him.

JANUARY 30, 2011
EICHEN HOUSE
A MONTH LATER

"Lacy."

Lacy looked back at Marianne, coming back to reality again. "I'm sorry, Lacy. I didn't mean to mean to bring back any memories. I just want to know how you're feeling. We want to know how you're feeling."

Her heart was pounding at a painful rate. She sank lower in her chair and continued to dig her nails into her side. Her mouth began to hurt again. It happened when she felt anxious or afraid. It happened when people would point out how quiet she was being. Lacy couldn't remember how long her mouth had been sewn shut for. She couldn't remember how long Hannah went without being able to hear or how long Kayla had been dead for. But she remembers their screams. She remembers hearing Kayla wail as he sewed her eyes shut and she remembers them drowning out when he sews her lips shut. She remembers Hannah screaming when he stitches her ears closed and then her mouth. Her eyes and ears were the only things he left untouched. Just her mouth. He wanted to take away her voice, to take away Hannah's hearing, to take away everything Kayla had.

Her mouth hurts because it was a reminder that she couldn't speak. How can she go back to talking when her voice was taken from her for so long? How can she be herself again when everything was almost taken from her? Her friends are dead. Hannah's probably got permanent hearing loss. She hasn't heard anything about her since they left the police station. She knew she was back at school. Lacy couldn't go back so soon. She always feels like she's still there in that room and then back in that shed where she remained a prisoner. She couldn't sleep so she'd wake up screaming. Her father did everything he could. He loves her so much.

Lady stared at Marianne, the question heavy on her shoulders. "Trapped," she answered shortly, "I still feel trapped."