“Maggot?” I frowned, then laughed. “Oh, is that what the keeper calls you?”
“That's what he calls everyone.”
“Well—” I stopped for a second, listening, sure I heard a distant echo in the direction I came from. “That’s not your name. What did your mum and dad call you before you came here? Do you remember?”
His dark eyes narrowed, strained concentration making his face appear aged beyond his probably only six human years. “Maxwell.”
“Max,” I whispered. “Then, that’s your name—not Maggot.” I stood up and dusted myself off. “I'm coming back for you—all of you, and I'm going to give you a home. You’re not monsters, okay? But you will have to learn to behave. Can you do that?”
“Will you let us play outside—see the grass?” A little girl appeared, her fingers around the bars, her smiling face pressed between them.
“Yes.” I placed my hand over my heart to steady it. “I promise.”
“That's what the last one said,” Max muttered.
“Last one? What last one?”
“The angel,” another piped up from the back of the cell.
“Hair of gold,” said another.
“Arietta.” A tall, almost teenage boy stood up and walked over to me. “She promised to set us free—but she never came back.”
“Why?” I asked.
“She had a baby,” said another. “People don't care about other kids when they have their own.”
“Oh. Oh, no.” I grabbed the bars and pressed my face between them. “You don't understand. She died. She never got to have her baby.”
“Then, are you going to die too?” Max asked.
“No, Max.” I touched his dirty, blonde hair. “I'm the new queen. I—” I looked at the keys on the floor beside the lantern. “I'm going to let you out. Okay?”
“Ara?” Mike grabbed my hand and yanked me back from the bars; the children fled from sight. “What are you doing?”
“They’re not monsters, Mike,” I beamed.
He swept the keys off the floor and stood up again, groaning. “When are you going to learn? You never listen. Never! One day you're going to get yourself killed, girl.”
“Mike, they talked to me. They—”
“Yeah, nice trick, isn't it? They're predators, Ara.” He stepped into me. “What did you think they were doing? They want to eat you—not befriend you.”
“No, I—”
“Yes,” Mike yelled, taking both my arms, the keys pressing into my flesh. “Listen carefully. I stayed while they were being fed. I sat there—” he pointed across from the cell, “—I watched the keeper drag a woman in—tied up, unconscious. He threw her into the cell, slammed the door, and the Damned did nothing. Nothing. Until the woman stirred.” He walked a step away, running a hand through his hair. “She started breathing heavily, panicking. Next thing I know, I hear this rip.”
“What kind of rip?”
“The Damned untied her, baby. They unbound her hands and her feet, and they let her run. They let her cower by the bars, screaming for help.”
“Mike, don't. You're lying.”
“I'm not lying,” he yelled. “This is what they do. This is not a joke. David, Eric, even Emily—what they are is not a joke. They kill people. Those Damned moved in on that woman—they ripped her clothes off, held her arms apart and fed on her, kept her alive, her blood warm and pumping until she was goddamn well dry as the Mojave Desert.”
I shook my head, covering my ears. “I don't believe you.”
“You don't? Fine.” He grabbed his phone from his pocket, thumbed it until iTorch came on, then angled it to the back of the cage. “See for yourself.”
I turned my head slowly, squinting at first, then covered my face, squealing as the last dregs of an image shivered through my spine. “That’s not real.” I looked up again at the naked woman, her body spread like a white, fleshy butterfly, glued to the back wall—her bones missing from her skin. “That’s not real.”
“It is real.”
My gut heaved as I folded over, gripping my knees.
“Do you see now? Do you take me seriously now?”
“But—” I walked slowly over to the cage and peered inside. I could hear them in there, playing, laughing, like that dead woman was just a bear-skin rug on the wall in their father’s study. “But, they play, Mike, and I talked with them.”
“I know. It’s a lure.” He dragged me away from the cage by the arm. “You open that door, they will take you apart.”
“I don't agree.” I pulled my arm free. “That boy held a civil conversation with me. If they were treated properly—fed and loved and—”
“Ara?” Mike pinched the bridge of his nose. “Really? You're too old for this. I can't keep chasing you around—trying to protect you from stupid things like this.”
“Then don't,” I said and grabbed the keys from his hand. “They won't hurt me, Mike. I'm not a kill. I'm not their next meal. They trust me. They want to be free, and I know they can behave.”
“Then open that door.” He presented it, conceit refining his grin.
I thrust my shoulders back, held my head high and jammed the key in the lock, but stopped before turning it. What if he was right? What if they really were monsters?
But David never believed that. He believed we could help them; he wanted me to help them—told me I wasn’t worth a damn if I didn't have the heart to help them.
“Ara?” Mike said gently. “Why don't we just sit down and talk about this?”
I turned my head to look at him. “If I do, will you—”
“Shit, Ara, move!” A breath of shock started my heart when he jumped toward me, my fingers scrunching together around the key as a small hand forced it in a turn. Mike grabbed my wrist, his fingers slipping along it as I jolted forward, landing on my hands and knees, the door hitting the wall with a loud metal echo. “Ara, run!”
I looked up from my dirt-covered fingers, wide eyes taking in the open cage for only a heartbeat before I sunk to the ground, covering my head as the force of twenty screaming children came down on top of me like racing horses. I heard Mike cry out somewhere under the terror of their shrieks, and then, like a storm passing in a whirlwind of racket and chaos, the noise retreated suddenly, leaving me alone on the floor, untouched, with only an eerie still surrounding me. I curled up as small as I could get, trying in vein to quiet my panicked breath.