Bang (Black Lotus #1)(21)

The time passes slowly, and I try to keep myself distracted by daydreaming, pretending I’m anywhere but here. I imagine I’m with my father, and we’re riding together on his white steed he used to tell me he had when we would play make-believe. We ride through the countryside and find ourselves in that magical forest. Carnegie is there, and we go hunting for berries. Some berries give us special powers, and some are just delicious to eat. When rain falls, we hunt for mushroom tops to hide under until the storm passes, and we meet fairy butterflies that fill the air with glitter as they fly.

My thoughts get interrupted often with the pain that surges through my hands and arms. I’m so tired but can’t find a way to get any real sleep, and now with my stomach knotting up from hunger, I find myself constantly shifting from sitting to standing.





“ELIZABETH?”

Pike’s voice brings me out of a light sleep, and I try to bend and flex my wrists as the leather cuts into my skin. “What time is it?” I ask.

“It’s Saturday night. Almost midnight,” he tells me.

“I’m hungry.”

“Hold on.”

I move to my feet to soothe my arms. I feel so gross with my pants soaked in my own pee. It stinks, and I know Carl is going to be pissed whenever he decides to let me out, which hopefully will be tomorrow since I have school on Monday. Plus, Bobbi should be coming home soon. At least I hope she is.

I hear Pike sliding something under the door. I lower to my knees, but didn’t think this through, because my hands are bound.

“Pike, I can’t get whatever you slipped under the door.”

“Shit. I’m sorry, I didn’t even think,” he whispers. “Is there any way you can lean your head down to get it with your mouth?”

“No. The bar is too high.”

“Use your foot and try to push it back out,” he instructs. “I don’t want Carl to know I was trying to sneak you food.”

I shuffle my foot around, but can’t feel anything, so I just start sliding it against the floor and towards the door, hoping by chance I get it out. After a second, I hear, “Got it.”

“What was it?”

“Just a tortilla,” he says. “I heard Carl talking to Bobbi. She’s gonna be home tomorrow afternoon.”

“I feel sick.”

“What’s going on?”

“I’m just so tired and hungry,” I tell him. “My arms hurt really bad. He’s got his belt pulled so tight around my wrists.”

“He’s a sick f*ck.”

“Pike?”

“Yeah?”

“Please don’t leave me. You’re all I have.” The tears return, and I let them come without fighting it. I feel so hopeless.

“I’m not leaving you. You’re my sister. We’re not blood, but you’re my sister.” His words hit my heart, knowing he’s all the family I have. “Did I ever tell you about the time I fell off the roof at my last foster home?”

“No.”

I sit back down and listen as Pike tells me story after story. He even tells me about his mom, that she was a drug addict and that’s how he wound up in foster care when he was only two years old. Hours pass and he never stops talking to me, keeping me company until I drift off into a fit of restless sleep.





WHEN I HEAR someone messing with the door handle, I swiftly move to my feet, wedging against the wall. Light pierces my eyes, and I immediately close them.

“What the f*ck is that smell?” Carl snarls as I slowly try to open my eyes against the stabbing light.

His hands start undoing the belt around my wrists. You’d think I’d be happy to be getting out of this closet, but I’m so tired that all I feel is numb.

“Did you piss yourself?” he asks with anger, and when I nod my head, he yells, “You better clean this shit up.”

The belt is finally off, and my hands are free. I grip my one wrist in my hand and stand there, scared to move, until he tells me to get out. Before I can go upstairs, he makes me clean the floor where I had been going to the bathroom. I finally look at my wrists to see they’re covered in blood from the broken skin where the leather was cutting into me.

When I get upstairs, Pike is sitting on my bed, but I’m too embarrassed, so I ignore him and go straight to the bathroom, shutting the door, and stripping out of my soiled clothes. Before I get into the shower, I look in the mirror to see the black eye Carl gave me. I step into the spray of water and fall apart.

After I finish my shower, I wrap up in a towel and go back into my room. Pike is still on my bed, so I grab some clothes and go back to the bathroom to get dressed. Coming out, I finally look at the bruises on his face as he reaches his hand out. I walk over to the bed, take it, and let him pull me down and hold me. I stay in his arms, the only comfort I feel life has to offer me right now, and close my eyes.

I was locked in that closet for two days with nothing—nothing but Pike, who snuck down each night to talk to me through the door so that I wouldn’t be alone. Knowing that he would do that for me makes me want to hug him harder, so I do.

“Thank you,” I mumble against his chest.

“What for?”

“Staying with me at night.”

“Like I said, no matter what, you’re my sister,” he says, and I respond with, “And you’re my brother.”