Chapter Four
She couldn’t sleep, laying in a stranger’s bed surrounded by a stranger’s darkness.
The phone rang and she couldn’t bring herself to answer it.
Mari had gone and taken their home with her.
A secret known to two is no secret.
Two people already knew long before she did.
But he was gone now, Mari wouldn’t have to be scared to go home- to stay. She wouldn’t have to be afraid to tell them.
The message alarm on her phone beeped, wouldn’t stop beeping, so she set it to vibrate and pushed it under her pillow.
Had they assumed that she would want to be alone when they moved her to this new room?
When she finally felt like eating again, there were no familiar faces left at their table. Whatever delicate bond they had formed had fallen apart.
It was her fault- she hadn’t really cared why they were there.
Jackie was in the drama club, Mari told her.
Kirsten was a journalism major, Chris told her.
Chris? He liked a band…
Sarah clutched her hands to her ears to block out the sounds of her own heartbeat, deafening in the silence, calling the stranger’s darkness to fill it.
It wasn’t her fault she couldn’t focus, couldn’t care.
Those people, they had no right to make her live alone because of the way she was. She would never intentionally hurt anyone.
Kaci.
Never!
Why had they put her in this room all alone?
She didn’t want to be alone anymore.