is smashed, shards of it lying scattered across the floor. She’s gone. Vanished into thin air.
“Oh, no …” Tobias mumbles, his voice strained and weak as though it hurts him to see Anna is gone.
And I know just who the culprit is. Only one person would even try to get away with this insanity.
My hand balls into a fist. “Amelia.”
What the hell did she do?
Chapter 23
Amelia
A few minutes ago
I stare through the keyhole, waiting and waiting until the guy guarding our doors finally leaves. Within seconds, I’ve rushed across the room and grabbed everything I need. I wrap my dress around my fist and punch the mirror until it shatters, and I gather a few of the shards and tuck them into my pocket. Then I grab a few bobby pins from the drawer in the wardrobe, and I shove them into the lock.
It takes a long while, but I’ve been practicing on the lock for quite some time now. Whenever I was alone, I would try to make these pins work because it beat re-reading books over and over. That was Eli’s biggest mistake … thinking I would just sit and wait for him.
Being here on my own might’ve mentally broken me down … but I’ve only gotten more and more cunning because I’ll do anything to escape this predicament.
And I know Anna is just as desperate. She may not think it, she may not even say a word to me, but I know deep down she never wanted any of this.
And if she’s already lost, it’s on me to save her.
That’s what good people do, so that’s what I’m gonna do.
I poke at the lock, hoping, praying it’ll work. I’ve waited so long for this moment, and the guard is finally gone. It has to work. It just has to.
CLICK!
The sound makes me jolt back. I stare at it for only a second. Then a beaming smile pops onto my face.
“Yes!” I whisper to myself.
I rip out the bobby pin and tuck it into my other pocket. Opening the door feels like magic, like I’ve done something no one else ever has, and it feels so damn empowering that I could shout it off the rooftops.
But I have to stay quiet, play it cool, pretend I’m still in my room and that nothing is going on. I don’t want to alert the other guards who are still walking around. One of them saunters up and down the stairs regularly, and I need to stay out of his sight.
I only have a few more minutes left before the guard who normally walks these halls comes back from his toilet break. This was a big one. I know because I’ve watched him all this time to figure out his schedule—when he pees, when he eats, when he relieves himself, and when he changes shifts.
I know everything I need to know in order to make a swift escape. So I quickly go to work on Anna’s door, jamming the same bobby pin inside. It only takes me a few seconds to get this one too, and when the lock pops, my heart begins to race.
I swiftly open Anna’s door and burst inside, shutting it behind me.
She’s lying on the bed, but her eyes are open, and she leans up when she spots me.
“I thought Tobias was coming to—” she mutters.
“It’s me,” I interrupt, trying to keep my voice down. “Amelia.”
Her eyes widen, and she sits up straight, her black locks falling over her shoulder. “Amelia?”
My eyes water, and I nod. “Yes. I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner.”
“But how?” she asks, shaking her head as though she’s utterly confused. “I thought only Tobias had a key?”
“They all have a key,” I reply, and I hold up my bobby pin. “But now I have one too.”
“That’s not a key. How did you …?” Her pupils dilate. “What’s your plan?”
“Escape,” I say as I approach her bed and grab her hand. “C’mon.”
When I try to pull her up, she resists and jerks her hand away. “No, I can’t.”
I frown. “C’mon, Anna, we don’t have time for this.”
“I can’t leave,” she says, folding her arms.
What’s wrong with her? “What? Why not?”
“Tobias told me to stay. Said I needed this,” she replies.
“Tobias is a liar. They all are,” I spit back.
She makes a face. “But you don’t know him. How could you say that?”
“I don’t need to know him. They trapped us here, Anna. We’re prisoners.”
“Only because we deserve it,” she replies.
I grab her shoulders. “Anna.