Page 2 of Make Me Scream

We can’t be too obvious, in case he’s still watching. The cameras above pick up everything.

We let an hour pass, then another.

When Pet rises to her feet, my stomach clenches.

Moment of truth.

She kicks the locking mechanism of her cell door, but nothing happens. With her feet bare, it can’t feel good. Pet takes a deep breath, then tries again. Her heel bangs against the steel.

“It’s not going to work!” I hiss.

“Shut up.”

I cover my ears, but I can’t look away.

Pet tries again, and again. She kicks the door so hard she loses her balance and falls over. Growling, furious, she keeps going. It took her weeks to sneak little bits of chewed gum into the lock while the door was open and Master was focused on me. Only a little at a time — she couldn’t jam it up all at once or he’d notice. The door had to close, the lock had to slide — but not all the way.

There was no way to test the plan, or know when we should go. Sometime today, Pet decided.

Another kick, and this time it sounds different. Not just a thud, a scrape too.

Pet takes one more shot, and this time the door busts open.

A wave of dizziness spins the world around me. I barely comprehend as Pet races over to the dungeon control panel and unlocks my cell.

“Come on,” she says, opening the door for me.

My legs don’t want to move. If I stay here, maybe Master won’t punish me. Maybe he’ll believe I had nothing to do with this, that I only went along this far because I was scared.

“Chloe. We have to go.”

I look up at Pet. Sweat collects on my forehead. I haven’t heard that name in two years.

My name.

Master once withheld our dinners for a week to punish me for saying it.

You’re Toy, now. Don’t forget that.

“What if there’s no way out?” I say.

“Don’t think of what could go wrong. Think of what could go right. We escape, we make him suffer. We burn this place to the ground. Every single one of those fucking paintings, gone. He’ll never see them again. He’ll never seeus, Chloe. Not ever.”

“I don’t want you to get hurt.”

She has no idea what waits for us outside the dungeon. We know we’re on Master’s estate, but where is that? What if it’s secluded by hundreds of acres? How will we find help? We have literally nothing — not even clothes.

“I know, but we have to try,” she says. “I’d rather die than stay here another day. What about you?”

“Fine.”

I agree, dying would be better than staying — but the consequences of failure will be worse than death. Pet should know that.

“And if we see him, you know what to do?” she asks.

“Yeah.”

If possible, knock him out and drag him to my jail cell. Otherwise, beat him senseless. Hurt him until he stops breathing.

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