Page 16 of Mad Love

She didn’t speak. Didn’t move. Hell, I wasn’t entirely sure she was breathing.

I shifted my weight, unease trickling through my gut. Finally I hooked a thumb at the vacant bed. “Let me guess—that one’s mine?”

Khloe nodded slowly, lifting her wide eyes to meet mine.

I almost flinched. Shit, I hadn’t seen eyes that haunted since I’d left the trailer park. There was zero hope left in them, just resignation and exhaustion.

“So, what’re you in for?” I tried, willing some sort of life to spark in her gaze.

The tiniest frown furrowed her brow.

“Right,” I muttered to myself, turning away to inspect my side of the room. In addition to the twin bed and nightstand, there was a tiny closet pre-stocked with clothes and no door and a small desk with a light bolted to the table.

There was a window between the beds, so that was something, even if it was covered by wire mesh and looked out into a bleak yard with dead grass under a gray sky. A hundred or so yards away, a concrete fence topped with barbed wire separated the enclosure from a line of trees.

As if that wasn’t enough of an escape deterrent, I spotted watchtowers to the far right and left.

Highwater might be an institution, but it was also a prison.

“Do you know where we are?” I asked her.

“Highwater,” she replied.

I tried not to get annoyed. “Right, but where is Highwater?”

She stared at me.

“I wasn’t conscious when they brought me here,” I explained. “So, I’m wondering where here is.”

“Wyoming.” Another soft whisper. She started wringing her hands together, her shoulders hunching as she tried to make herself smaller.

Jesus, if I breathed too hard, I might knock this girl over.

I stared out the window and noted that the mesh was bolted into place. But even if I could twist the metal to slip out, there was no way I’d survive a straight drop to the ground without breaking something.

“Guess I’m not jumping,” I sighed, mostly talking to myself.

“No!” Khloe cried.

I spun to see her literally cowering away from me. She staggered back until she hit the wall and then slid down, shaking violently.

“Whoa. I was—”

“You can’t say that,” she hissed, fear dripping from her tone. “They’ll hear, and then they’ll come. They always come, and they always know.”

I held up my hands innocently. “Khloe, I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“Promise me you won’t try it,” she begged, tears filling her eyes and spilling over her ashen cheeks. “I can’t go back to purgatory. I won’t.”

I frowned. “What the hell is—”

An alarm chirped overhead, and I jolted, my eyes rolling toward the ceiling.

“D-dinner,” Khloe stammered.

Footsteps echoed in the hallway, and girls started walking past. Most were alone, though a few walked in pairs. Only a very few spoke.

A girl with long dark hair and darker eyes hesitated in our doorway, staring at me. “New girl?” She cocked an eyebrow.

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