Page 5 of Siccitas

I rest my walking cane against the large oak tree and smile as she continues to cautiously approach me.

When she’s finally standing a few inches away, I settle down on the grass, my eyes quickly flicking toward his house, scanning all the windows to be sure he can’t see us here.

“Daddy went to town,” the little girl tells me. She’s smart; she knows what—or rather who—I’m looking for.

“Has he been gone long?” I ask her, wincing slightly at the pain in my side.

A dull reminder of my time spent in this hell that he constructed out of lust and deviance. Every now and again, my body reminds me that I’m no longer the woman I once was, and that I need to be careful.

She shrugs. “For a little bit.”

Then I know I have plenty of time. Luke Greene goes to town when food, water, and general supplies are running low, and he also likes to stop in certain shops and talk to any friends he’s managed to convince that he’s worth having a conversation with.

“What’s your name, honey?” I ask her, patting the patch of grass next to me.

“Skylar. What’s yours?”

“Jocelyn,” I reply with a smile. “But that’s our secret, okay?”

The little girl nods and holds up the pinky on her left hand. I loop my right pinky around hers, and we shake on it.

“You kind of look like Momma,” she says as she pulls her hand away. “Do you know Momma? Is she coming back?”

“Where did she go?”

I already know the answer, but I don’t want to believe it.

Darby went where all Greene women go when Luke decides we’re no longer of use to him.

“Daddy put her in the hole.”

Chapter Three

My eyes tear up angrilyas they slowly open.

Even in my dreams, everything he did to Darby haunts me.

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