Page 144 of Almost Rotten

Why isn’t it rattling?

I slam into it using my shoulder. Then kick at it.

Still, it won’t fucking rattle.

He hates when I rattle the cage.

He’s liable to kick back or roll the whole thing onto its side, but I don’t care.

Once the cage is sideways, there’ll be a new pattern to the grates. Another set of imprints in my skin tonight. New paths in my flesh to trace and memorize.

I scream until my throat is raw and I start to taste blood.

I spit it out, then spit again.

A thick sticky substance flows in rivulets down my chest.

Its warmth is a welcome embrace.

I pound on the door. I just need it to fucking rattle.

I just need a modicum of hope.

If I can get the latch to shake on its hinges, I’ll know there is a way out, even if it’s still days away from being an option.

It’s all I need to keep going.

I need to hear it.

I need to hear it.

Why won’t the cage fucking rattle?

Tears stream down my face and onto my chest. My shirt is soaked. Far wetter than it should be.

The scent of blood hits my nose. It covers the front of my body.

Blood.

It’s all I am.

All that’s left to prove I was even here.

Grief and pain. Heartache and hopelessness.

Somewhere, far away, she’s calling my name. She’s here and she’s soft and she’s good. She wants to be with me. And I’m worthy of all that she is.

I try to smash through the door again and again. I lose all sense of time. Finally, I drop to the ground. I give up. If there’s no rattle, this really is the end.

At least she let me hold her that night.

At least she let me kiss her, and she kissed me back. She kissed me. Just that once. But once was enough.

She was always enough for me.

Chapter sixty-five

Noah