Page 87 of Please Remember

No, I have to. I have to see it one last time to stop seeing it when I close my eyes at night.

We walk through the back door to retrace my steps that night except in reverse, and we slip the blue booties on that I have only ever seen in hospitals and fancy houses for sale. The light in the windows makes everything look different, and I move to the area I hid when I heard rustling before I escaped.

"I stood here and waited for someone to come out through one of the doors when I got upstairs because I heard something. It turned out to just be a really big mouse," I say with a nod and nervous chuckle.

"Did anyone else live here?" Jax asks.

Shields shakes her head. "It doesn't appear so. The chairs and small table are the only furniture up here like Allie said, and they belonged to the original owner."

I still can't wrap my head around the fact that this was Laura. I always knew something wasn't right with her, but I never expected her to have an alternate personality. Although, she is smart. She could fake it, but everything I've heard would be far too elaborate and planned. I mean, she had a second phone for someone who never answered it.

We walk downstairs, careful in the dim lighting. It feels weird walking down instead of up, and when we reach the dirt floor at the bottom, Benji gasps behind me. Lights have been set up for us to see everything, and I stare in amazement at what the space truly looks like.

"It looks… different," I say as I walk towards the cot I spent more time on than I ever want to calculate. "Smaller. I only had a flashlight or the light when I showered, so I never really took in how closed in this was."

My stomach knots as I see the five-gallon pale I used as my toilet in the corner that had been emptied that day, but the smell is still putrid. The cot has the thin blanket I used with an almost flat pillow. Rugs line the floor, and I look over to see the makeshift shower setup.

"Besides looking smaller, does anything look different?"

I shake my head as I crouch down in front of the three-shelf bookcase. "No, it's exactly the same as I left it," I say, my voice barely above a whisper. "All the books I read are still here. I have most of them memorized."

"At least she gave you something to do?" Sage offers, but I hear the panic in her voice. Looking back, I see her clinging to Drew's hand with a death grip, and I almost smile.

"Can you walk us through that day, Allie?" Parsons asks, his voice gentler than I've ever heard it.

Swallowing, I nod. "Uh, yeah. I was on the cot," I say and move towards it. "May I?" He nods, and I sit on it, noticing how truly uncomfortable it feels under me now that it’s been a while since I was last here. "They-she came down with the tray of food and a fresh set of clothes under her arm. It was shower day, and I knew the drill. She walked over and grabbed the shackle key. She unlocked me, and I walked over to the shower where she hung a light on the wall."

We move towards the shower, and I point at the spot where the mechanic's light hung. "We found a light in the garage. It must be where she kept it," Shields says.

"I stripped down while she turned on the water. I stood under it, and it was cold. It was always cold, and I would rinse off. No soap. I only gotsoap once every five showers, and I never really had a time limit. But that day, I did. She wanted me to hurry."

"And you knew this because she clapped?" Parsons asks.

I can't tear my eyes from the shower walls as I step inside and touch the dirty, grimy space that was supposed to clean me. "Yeah, that was her signal for me to move. I did, and she even hurried me along to dry off. I only ever had a raggedy old hand towel to use, and because she rushed me, I remember the clothes being damp after I put them on because my skin was still wet. I walked back along the rugs that were meant to keep me from getting the cot muddy, and she shackled me back up. She set the tray of food there," I say, pointing to an area with what looks like fuzzy mold, "and then she left."

"What did she give you to eat?"

Dry heaving, I close my eyes and will the bile to stay down. "Bread, water, and some tomato broth-like soup. Every day. It never changed."

I walk back over to the cot and sit down, suddenly dizzy and nauseous. Parsons kneels in front of me, his hand on my shoulder. "Then what happened, Allie?"

"I was laying on the cot playing with the flashlight. I wasn't hungry. I was never really hungry and only ate because I had to. Uh, I was trying to decide what to do. I wasn't tired, but I didn't know if I wanted to read. The light fell, and I noticed it reflected on something over by the shower on the floor. I realized the key had fallen off the hook, and I was able to reach it. It was just outside where my fingers could extend, but I tugged, cutting my skin a little, and I got the key."

"Can you show us?"

Pulling out a pen, Parsons hands it to Shields, and she sets it on the ground. She looks at me and asks, "Was it about here?"

I nod and move over to where the shackles are on the floor. Tugging them to extend as far as they'll reach, I get down on all fours and reach out. "Yeah, it was right about there."

"You got it and unlocked yourself. Then what?" Parsons asks.

"I froze. For some reason, I expected some type of alarm to sound, and I just stood here for a few minutes. Maybe longer. My sense of time was all screwed up, and I even considered locking myself back up because I thought it could be a test. Then I realized it was my only chance to get out of here, and that's when I went upstairs. I heard a noise and stood in the shadows, but it was just the mouse. Then I ran out the back door and into the woods."

Standing up, I dust off my knees and hands. I look at the faces of Jax and our friends for the first time, and they all look sick. I can't say I feel much different right now.

"Why... why would Laura do this?" Sage asks, tears falling with every blink of her eyelashes. "And why did she hurt Ms. Moran?"

Drew wraps her up in his arms and hugs her tightly. For the first time, I see them as a real couple. The way he cares for her is obvious as he tries to console her even though he looks as ashen as she does.

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