Page 55 of Amnesty

She was still sitting on the ground nearby, looking pale and quite frankly wrecked. I started to go to her, but Sadie called my name.

“Eddie?”

I swung around, caught in the center. Up here in the sunlight, I noticed how much they favored each other. It was easy to see why we all speculated Amnesia was Sadie.

But there were differences, ones that now made it obvious.

“I’m here,” I told her.

She glanced around as though she expected a giant eagle to swoop down from the sky and take off her head. Wind blew and the sound of the waves seemed louder.

Sadie shivered. “It looks different up here during the day.”

“You usually come up at night?”

She nodded. “That was the rule. He left the hatch unlocked while he was gone but made me promise I’d only come out at night. Someone might see me wandering here during the day. Someone might take me away from him.”

How was a man—or any sane person really—supposed to listen to these things? These insane meanderings of a lunatic that this girl spoke as if they made perfect sense. How was someone able to brainwash another human being to, in a sense, make them think they were a dog and not in charge of their own life?

“It was you,” Amnesia said from close behind me. “It was your lantern we saw here at night.”

Sadie’s eyes widened. “You saw me?”

I went forward, already knowing where her mind was going. “Just your light. But it’s okay. You didn’t do anything wrong. It probably was nice to get out of there and walk around.”

“The stars are pretty at night.” She agreed.

I wanted to scream. To yell. To punch a thousand things.

“I thought it was him,” Amnesia said. “I came here to find him.”

“Oh, he’ll be back,” Sadie said. She was so sure. She glanced past me at Am, her eyes changing slightly, but I wasn’t sure how. “He’s very angry with you. He says when you come home, he’s going to have to teach you a lesson and that you won’t get as many nice things as I do.”

What. The. Ever-loving. Fuck?

Amnesia’s face went white. So white I started toward her, worried she might fold to the ground again.

“And your hair…” Sadie went on. Amnesia’s hand flew to her wavy, short strands. “He’s going to get out the whip.”

Amnesia whimpered. I caught her around the shoulders and pulled her in, covering her ear with my hand.

“He won’t,” I said fiercely, turning to look at Sadie. “He isn’t going to touch her ever, ever again.”

Amnesia trembled against me. Sadie just stood there stock still, almost emotionless. As though she had the inability to see what her words just did.

“Don’t ever say anything like that to her again,” I said, trying to be gentle. “Amnesia doesn’t understand. She doesn’t need that running through her head.”

“It’s what he told me,” Sadie explained.

I was so close to yelling. So close to screaming. I held it in, feeling as if doing so might cost me an actual few years off my life.

I glanced down at Amnesia, pulled her away from my body, and looked into her face. “We’re going home now.”

She nodded and started walking in the direction of the boat.

“Boat’s this way,” I told Sadie, gesturing for her.

She rushed forward and took my hand, her fingers like ice. That gown was so thin I could see through it in the sunlight, and the wind was so cold her nipples were completely visible.

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