Stolen

Carmen woke up again with her arms wrapped tightly around someone. Their chest was rising and falling slowly and she understood they were asleep. She looked up, expecting to see Kevin. Instead she saw Vincent. She blushed deep red.

“It’s about time you woke up.”

Kevin was standing in front of her, his arms crossed. She slowly unwrapped her arms from around Vincent. He stirred but didn’t wake up. Kevin held his hand out and she took it, letting him help her to her feet.

“What time is it?” she asked.

“Just after five in the morning,” he said, his eyes narrowed. “Want to tell me why you think I gave up on you?”

Carmen sighed and limped back to Vincent’s room, Kevin supporting her. When they got there, he shut the door. She curled into a ball on the bed.

“I could tell I was there for two years,” she whispered, staring at Vincent’s computer. His screensaver was a series of car and house pictures. “After that, though, I lost track. I stopped paying attention because I was sure that, if you were really looking for me, then you would have found me by then. I didn’t know it at the time, but I wasn’t far.”

“I would never have given up on you, Car,” he whispered back, stroking her hair.

She looked at him. “But you have Tara now.” Tears were building in her eyes and she swallowed the lump in her throat. “And you’re about to have a baby with her. Why would you keep looking for me?”

“Are you serious?” he asked. “Carmen, you’re my sister! I love you more than-.”

“More than my breath,” they said in unison and she laughed a little, her tears falling down her cheeks.

“I’ll always need you, Carmen,” he said. “You’re my other half, my better half. When you disappeared, I thought my world was crashing around me. I couldn’t function. The only people there for me were Vincent and Tara. She never stopped supporting me, you know. We fell in love and everyone kept pushing for me to take a break long enough to marry her. Then she got pregnant and Vincent pretty much forced me to take a back seat.”

Carmen was about to speak then saw another picture flash on his computer screen.

“That’s me,” she said with a slight frown and he followed her gaze.

It was one of their track pictures. She had taken it with Kevin after she won the gold medal. She didn’t recognize herself. She was looking at an athletic teenager, flushed with pride at her victory. She wasn’t looking at bones poking out from emaciation. She wasn’t looking at choppy hair and pale skin.

Then the image was gone and she sighed.

“I almost didn’t know it was me,” she mumbled, toying with a loose thread on the blanket.

“How did you get out, Carmen?” he whispered. “Can you at least tell me that much?”

“I made a friend,” she sniffled. “He was in the same room with me. He could turn invisible. Our powers cancelled each other out so we were roommates. I couldn’t use mine and he couldn’t use his. We got to know each other and became close friends. I told him all about you and the town. He felt bad for me. Not just because of the situation, but also because I had left a life behind. He hadn’t.”

“Did you fall in love?” he asked.

“No, it wasn’t like that. He was old enough to be my grandfather. One day, we found out that we could use our powers if the door was open. I don’t know how. It was like a barrier was broken or something. He slipped out one day very briefly. He got to see the first hall. We came up with a little routine: I would start having fits to give him more time to look for an exit.”

She started to cry and he gave her a tissue.

“They found out what we were doing, though. I remember the night they took him,” she said. “We were communicating telepathically while they cleaned out the corner where we used the bathroom. He showed me how to get out, showed me the different rotations. Then he was gone.” She sobbed. “They made me watch his death. They were so cruel to him! They tortured him then killed him slowly.”

Kevin sighed and lay in bed with her. She buried her face in his chest.

“I vowed to get out,” she said when she calmed down and could breathe without gasping. “I wasn’t going to let Braden die for nothing. I almost didn’t make it.”

“I’m so sorry, Carmen,” he said and she could tell he was crying. “God, I’m so sorry. I should have found you sooner.”

They cried together for a while before he sighed.

“You said they aren’t far from Kendrick?”

“Right. I’d say about fifty miles.”

“You ran for fifty miles?” he asked in shock.

“The only benefit to adrenaline,” she mumbled. She sighed. “Kev, I need to tell the police but, if I go out there, they’ll find out and everything will be over. They’ll know and you and Vincent will get in trouble.”

He kissed the top of her head. “Don’t worry about us, Carmen. Honestly, I think it’s pretty much over. People are going to see that report and we’ll be harassed. I don’t like the idea of you leaving the house, though.”

“I’ll have to eventually.”

He sighed. “At least come decorate the tree with us this afternoon.”

She giggled. “Okay.” She yawned. “Why am I so tired?”

“Did you have a bed?”

“No. Just the concrete floor.”

He made an angry noise but said, “Vincent said you’ll probably be tired for a while. He said that you’re most likely sleep deprived. I don’t know but it makes sense.”

She looked at him. “Are you mad at him?”

“No. Why?”

“Every time you say his name, you look pissed off.”

“It’s nothing,” he said quickly.

“You’re lying to me. Did you two fight?”

Kevin looked into her eyes. She forgot how similar they were. It was like she was looking into a mirror. Finally, he shook his head.

“It’s not important. Just guy stuff. Well, get some more sleep. I’ll wake you up for lunch and we’ll decorate after that.”

“Okay.”

=

Carmen’s feet were still sore so she sat on the couch and helped Tara put hooks through the top of the orbs. She would pass it to one of the guys. A few times her fingers would brush Vincent’s and he’d hesitate. At least, that’s what it felt like. She could just be imagining things. Even though Kevin was her brother, she had a strange pull to Vincent.

They had finished decorating when it happened.

They were admiring their work when she had a flashback of her escape. She saw the men with machine guns decorating their tree. She saw them putting a star on the tree and laughing as if they were normal men. She saw them resting their hands on the barrels of their guns and the sound of gunfire filled her ears.

She started to hyperventilate. Kevin was talking to her but she was seeing stars. It was as if they were talking at the end of a tunnel and like she had a heavy weight on her chest. She took a step back and tripped over the coffee table and onto the couch.

Gunfire. Pain in her back. Her kneecaps feeling as if they broke. Braden being beaten with a whip that had hooks on the end to rip through his flesh.

She shut her eyes and screamed at the top of her lungs.

“Keep her mouth open! Swallow this. Come on, Carmen, swallow this.”

She tried to spit it out, though. “I won’t take any more of that! Let me go!”

She thrashed in someone’s arms until they managed to get her to take some kind of medicine. After what felt like an eternity, she stopped. The weight was gone and she collapsed onto the couch, panting as if she had run faster and longer than ever before. She blinked her eyes open to see Kevin, Vincent, and Tara watching her anxiously.

“What happened?” she asked in a hoarse voice.

“Panic attack,” Kevin said as Tara dabbed at her forehead with a rag. “What were you thinking of?”

She closed her eyes and a tear slid out the corner of her eye.

“They were decorating a Christmas tree,” she whispered. “I saw it as I was escaping. It-It was like they were real people, not men that were trained to torture and kill.”

Kevin sighed and sat beside her. She felt Vincent sit on her other side and she automatically leaned into him. He froze under her but she was too tired from the adrenaline and whatever medicine they gave her that she fell asleep.