Letters From Cages

Author's Note: It's an update! I know, huge deal right?! Since I literally haven't updated this story in months, I'd advise you to just go back and read the last couple chapters just to recap your memory. You don't have to, but it's just a suggestion.

It was cold outside as I placed my hand against the frosted window pane. It was pouring rain and the ground outside my large window seemed to be covered in mud and water. I frowned and closed my curtain as my house shook from the loud thunder. It was an eerie night, I had thought to myself, but my thoughts were interrupted when there was a knock at the front door. I quickly grabbed my coat, threw it on and darted towards my door and into the hallway. My father was getting off of his recliner.

“I’ve got it, dad,” I said quickly. “It’s a friend, I’ll be back in an hour.”

“Where are you going?” He asked me. I smiled and kissed the top of his head.

“Just going to try to figure some things out is all, nothing big, I love you.”

I then turned and walked down the hallway and opened the door to see Adam standing there with his hands in his pockets. He gave me a closed mouth smile and we both retreated to his car from the rain that was still keeping up.

After we were both in the car and driving down the road away from my house, we finally spoke to each other.

“Do you have the key?” I asked. Adam nodded and motioned towards his glove compartment.

“It’s in there,” He replied. “Gwenith, do you think this is such a good idea?”

I sighed, “Adam, we went over this.”

“I know, but don’t shoot me for having second thoughts. Sneaking into my dad’s office doesn’t seem like a very fun thing to do, plus it was a bitch trying to get that key without him noticing,” Adam remarked, an edge was in his voice. “I tried getting that file the other day by dropping by to ‘see how my dad was doing’ but they literally keep financial files in the middle of the freaking office. Everybody’s files just smack dab in the middle. Imagine me trying to pull out a file while every geek in there is just typing away on their computers. So I guess it’s resulted to this, but Gwen, I just don’t feel right about this.”

He turned a sharp left causing my shoulder to hit the door but instead of reacting to the pain I looked over at him. His jaw was clenched and his nose still had some water from the rain dripping off it. He glanced over at me and I quickly looked down at my lap.

“We don’t have to do it if you don’t want to,” I finally said. “I just thought we were in this together. To figure this all out. If we don’t find anything tonight, we can just stop, I promise.”

Adam didn’t respond, instead he just kept driving and after a few minutes of silence, we slowly pulled into the back of a normal looking two story office building. No other cars were around, mainly because it was almost ten o’clock at night, and the whole place just looked dark and abandoned. The trees surrounding the whole place were blowing violently in the wind.

“Well, we’re here already, so let’s go I guess,” Adam stated softly before reaching in the back seat for two flashlights. He handed one to me and managed a small smile, and then opened his door to get out. I grabbed the small flashlight and put it in my back pocket and got out myself.

We both walked slowly from the car into the back door which’s lock Adam quickly pushed the key into. The door opened and we walked into the large office which was dead quiet and pitch black dark. I breathed heavily as Adam grabbed my hand and we quickly walked towards a door towards the left of the building which opened into a staircase. We walked up the steps slowly and quietly, shining our flashlights. We were almost to the top when I thought I heard a door close downstairs. Stopping right where I was I leaned over the railing of the stairs.

“What was that?” I asked.

“What was what?” Adam whispered back. I clutched his hand tighter and we both leaned over in silence, waiting for a sound, but we didn’t hear anything.

“Sorry, I must have just been imagining,” I replied. Adam eyed me for a second before nodding and leading me up the rest of the stairs.

The upstairs was almost exactly like the downstairs office, full of cubicles and small rooms, but in the middle, like Adam said, there was a large filing cabinet organized alphabetically. Adam shined his flashlight against them, and opened the drawer that read “L-R”. He skipped past the L’s and went straight for the M’s while I stood next to him watching.

“McDowell, McDowell,” He muttered under his breath. The pitch black room was only illuminated by our flashlights as we searched. My heart thumped loudly in my chest with adrenaline as all of the M last names were passed. Martin. Marlow, Maeker, McClain, McDowell.

“There!” I whispered. Adam grabbed the file that simply read D, McDowell on the tab. We both quickly opened it to read whatever we could find. There was a label that read ‘Financial Reports’ and I pointed towards it before excitingly opening it to read its’ contents. Right when we were about to flip it open, we heard a door slam behind us.

“Stay where you are and put your hands up right now,” We both heard a firm and deep voice say. We both tensed as Adam grabbed the file from me. I lifted my hands up and heard heavy footsteps behind us and felt a large hand place itself on my shoulder.



“Remember senior students to clear out your lockers by this Thursday or else whatever is in them will be donated or thrown away. Although it is the last few days of school, that does not mean to disregard politeness towards your teachers and fellow students…”

We had only two days left of school before our graduation ceremony as our principal’s voice filled the whole school on the intercom. I placed my books into a large bag as Carter leaned against the locker next to me.

“Do you think he knows how to stop talking?” Carter asked, “Or do you think he is just incapable?”

I laughed quietly and placed my final book into my abnormally large bag and attempted to pick it up. Carter sighed dramatically, pushed my hands away and picked up the bag for me.

“Thanks,” I said and swooped some of my hair off of my face.

“It is actually more than seventy five degrees outside, this is kind of big deal,” Carter thought out loud. “I want to do something.”

“Carter Wright!” A boy with hair as red as fire, who seemed literally across the school from us yelled. “We’re all going to the dunes tonight! Bring Gwenith!”

Carter turned to me. “Well, I guess that solves that.” He said with a laugh. I closed my locker and he leaned in close to me and placed his forehead against mine. “What’s wrong with you today flower girl?”

“Nothing is wrong with me,” I replied. “Why would you think that?”

I reached forward to grab my bag Carter was holding but he pushed it back so I couldn’t retrieve it.

“C’mon, I can read the ‘Gwen is unhappy’ face from miles away. What’s been on your mind?” He asked and placed his firm hands on both sides of my neck. I lifted my hands to cover his and leaned my head against the locker. “What’s wrong?” He asked again.

“You got accepted into Dartmouth,” I said quietly.

“Gwen, we’ve already been through this,” Carter replied softly. “I only applied to those schools for my dad, especially Dartmouth. I’m not going.”

“You have until graduation to decide whether or not you’re going to go,” I retorted. There was a long pause until I finally spoke. “You have to go.”

“I’m not moving to New Hampshire, Gwen,” Carter said coldly. “That is the absolute last thing I would ever want to do.”

“Is that decision based on me? And how I’m staying here to go to school in Oregon?” I asked. Carter became quiet and took his hands off of my neck. “Exactly. Carter you have to go. Promise me you’ll think about it and make a decision by Friday? Please? I can’t have you stay here solely for me.”

“Alright, I promise,” Carter replied quietly. “Although I don’t understand why you’re asking me to do this because you already know the answer. Gwenith, I’m never leaving you.”



Suddenly, what seemed like only one police officer grasping onto my shoulder tightly turned into two of them.They had brighter flashlights which they had no hesitation to shining them in our faces. They pulled us up and brought us downstairs and onto the front steps of the office building outside. The rain was still pouring heavily as we stood under the clearing and a police officer put handcuffs on both of us. I was shivering, scared out of my mind. Was I being arrested? Will they even give me a chance to explain? How could I even explain this? Oh officer, don't arrest us, I was only trying to steal a file to prove that the successful Demetri McDowell's son really killed Daniel Cody, not my ex-fiance...

The officers asked for our identification, and we handed them both our drivers’ licenses. One of them grabbed it from us and began writing our information down.

“A fellow in the office building across the street saw a suspicious car pull into the parking lot of this office and called us. We happened to be in the neighborhood. Do you two understand why we are taking these types of precautions with you? Do you understand that you were caught breaking and entering?”

“But we didn’t break into the building, sir,” Adam responded. “I had a key.” Adam unfolded his hand that was pulled behind him and the officer grabbed the key from it.

Although Adam’s voice had sounded calm and responsive, I could see him shaking and I think at that moment I felt the most guilt I had ever felt in my life. Not for myself for being arrested, but for Adam who shouldn’t have been put in this situation to begin with. I made him do this. I convinced him that this would be a good idea, and all he had been was a good guy.

“And how did you find a key?” The police officer asked.

“My father works here,” Adam replied.

“And why would you feel the need to steal his key and enter into the building then?
Especially when you could come at any time since this is where your father works?” He asked back. I saw Adam tense and I remember him stuffing the folder back into the file before the police officers could see.

“We just went inside because we thought it would be fun,” I spoke up. “You know, shining flashlights in a cool dark place. We’re young adults in a small town, it was all we could think of doing.”

Adam looked over at me and I just widened my eyes at him, not even knowing if they were ever going to believe that. The police officer just scoffed and they pulled us both up.

“We’re not going to take you to the police station, but we have your information, so don’t go running too far,” The second police officer spoke. I glanced at his name tag: Walter Kreankali. His voice was raspy and his gray hair matched his thick gray mustache. He leaned down until he was eye level with me and formed his sandpaper voice into a whisper. “You’d think that a girl who had her fiancé convicted of murder would be staying out of trouble, hmm? I suppose maybe she should take that into consideration.” His eyes lowered and he grinned a toothy smile before standing up and adjusting his belt located on his round hips. “Get up you two so we can take the cuffs off, and we will wait to watch you leave the premises. Avoid trespassing in your nearest future. We will let you know if the owners will press charges.”

After getting the handcuffs taken off of me, which I hoped would be the first and last time that would ever happen, I followed Adam to his car. We both got in and drove off slowly, feeling tense and on edge at the police officers whose lights were still on, watching us drive away. We both knew that we were lucky and that they let us go instead of arresting us. But we both knew that this wasn’t over and Adam would be in the most trouble when his father found out.

“I’m so sorry Adam, I-”

“Let’s just get you home, Gwenith,” Adam said, and that was the last thing he said to me that night.