The Forgotten Girl

Chapter 28

Lily

Her eyes shut for only a few minutes, exhausted from fighting the crap that they injected into her veins, along with the shit she saw while she was under. She never was good at the emotional stuff and that’s why she had me to help her out. I’ve always been there for her—I’m slowly remembering now. She’s growing weaker, but maybe that’s because she’s seeing the truth more and letting the strength within her rise. The strength being me. It’s why she chose to create me, after her sister, the stronger of the two.

It takes me a while to shake off the drugs, but I’m stronger and wake up sooner. The second I get control, I get to my feet. I need to get out of here. Now. I can’t take being imprisoned again by anyone. It’s time for me to take matters into my own hands and figure out some stuff. Like what Preston and her mother are hiding from her. Who Evan is. Why there’s so much fire in our memories. Why I was running through the trees that night and in front of a car. Whatever it was, has something to do with the driver. He knew me, knew me enough to know my protective instincts are to kill. But somehow he knew I wouldn’t kill him, even though I was acting like it.

I get up from the floor and make my way out of the room, picking up the key Maddie found in her mother’s room on my way out and slipping it into my pocket. It’s dark, only a few lights on in the house. I can hear the television on in my mother’s room. She’s awake. Good.

I rap my hand on the door, deciding how to go about this. Should I just pretend or fuck with her head. I’ve never liked her much and am pretty sure she knows about my existence. I’m not really sure why she won’t admit it. I wish I could find out what she doesn’t want me to find out. And hey, maybe one day I’ll torture it out of her. It could be therapeutic.

The television turns down and moments later my mother opens the door, tying her robe. Her hair is up in a messy bun and without any makeup on she looks aged.

“Are you okay?” she asks with concern in her eyes. “I’m sorry Preston had to use a sedative on you today, but he’s just worried about you and so am I. You haven’t been sleeping very well and he said you had a little episode when he put you under hypnotherapy today.” She squints at my face. “You look like you feel a lot better, though.”

“Oh, I am,” I assure her.

“Good.” She seems thrown off by my indifference.

“I need to leave the house,” I say calmly with my arms resting at my side. “And need you to come unlock the alarm so we don’t draw the police here.”

She shakes her head, her face reddening with anger. “You’re not allowed out when it’s so late, especially when you were so upset earlier and you’re probably still going to feel a little groggy from the sedative.”

Patience, I tell myself. “There’s somewhere I need to be.”

She steps forward, to intimidate me, but she’s scared of what I’ll do to her. Maddie doesn’t see it clearly, but I do. She’s afraid I’ll hurt her and I’m guessing I have once in the past. I’m guessing that’s why she kept who I used to be hidden. The blond in the photo, the girl who was once me, not her sister. I understand that, can see past the blindness unlike Maddie sometimes.

She raises her chin, appearing confident. “Maddie Asherford, you aren’t going out and that’s final.”

My patience vanishes. “Oh dear Madison, how ridiculous you are,” I say and her face drains of color. I think she knows who I am. I’ve suspected all along that she might have; the obsession to make her daughter good based on the fact that she knows me and what I’m like. “You better be ready.”

“F-for what?” she stammers, her knees wobbly and she almost falls to the floor. She has to grab on to the sides of the doorframe for support.

I let a slow grin expand across my face then turn away toward the front door. She follows me, demanding for me to stop, but I disregard her, walking out of the house. The alarm screams and she starts shouting at me over the loudness. I shrug her off and go outside into the cold air and walk away beneath the stars and the crescent moon. By the time I reach the end of the driveway, the alarm has silenced. I pause, waiting to see if she comes out of the house, but she doesn’t. She just stares at me from the window and I can picture how relieved she looks that I’m out of the house.

Smiling at her, I give her a little wave and then stroll out into the night, breathing freely.