“I’m happy you found us, I wasn’t sure how much longer I could handle my parents,” she said, trying to laugh.
I laughed. “Well, it’s okay. You’re like the first person that I have talked to in two months.”
She looked at me. “Don’t you have any friends?”
I nodded my head and lifted up Hope. She just laughed. I ended up asking, “How old are you?”
“I’m sixteen,” she said.
“Me too.” We both smiled widely. William called us for dinner, and we both came out. William had cooked up some steam veggies, mash potatoes, and mac and cheese. The Prieten family dove right in. Mihaela sat with her mom, and they talked. They didn’t speak English, and it made me nervous.
I just sat there without anyone to talk to. It was like Christmas with my family all over again, until Mihaela playful kicked me under the table. I looked up and smiled.
“Hey,” I laughed. Mihaela laughed, but her mother got on to her. We ended up both laughing, though. William was glaring at me from across the table.
I wonder if he didn’t like having outsiders in this house. I wonder if they were somehow a threat to him. He couldn’t control me in front of others. He couldn’t get in my head with people around.
I tried not to notice him; I was trying to focus Mihaela. I wanted to talk to her, and I wanted to get to know everything about her.
I think she felt the same way. When she and her mother were talking again, I just looked at my plate. I was feeling out of place until she said to me, “We are talking good about you.”
I smiled but didn’t look up.
“So, in the morning, I’ll drive you to town. It’s too dark right now, but Tatianus, you and your wife can sleep in my bed, I’ll sleep in Tavi’s bed, and Tavi and, um, Mihaela can sleep in the living room.”
After dinner, I showed her the secret room. She loved it so much. We decided that we wanted to draw on the chalk walls and get all the artist stuff we could do.
Mihaela and I found the clear Christmas lights that William and I had put on the tree two months ago. They were in boxes and plastic tubs. We took them along with tape to the living room.
We plugged in the lights to the cord next to the wall. Once we entered the box room, we started to tape the lights on the walls and stuff.
It took two rolls of tape to keep it all up along with extra sheets from my closet and made a door to the room.
We grabbed pillows and my favorite books. She told she loved to read a lot. It made me happy to hear that. She said that reading had helped her and her family learned English. Back and forward to the art room, I ended up running into William.
Mihaela went to the secret room without me, leaving me in the hands of the monster. His claws were ready to tear into me, his teeth ready to rip apart my flesh.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Um, stuff. Didn’t you say I could do anything to that room?” I asked.
“Yes, the room next to the fireplace, sure,” he said.
“Ok, just making sure,” I said running back the art room with Mihaela. We were laughing, and it felt just wonderful to laugh again. We grabbed markers, crayons, oil pastels, buttons, stickers, glitter, and just about anything that we could find that we thought would be useful to our work.
Mihaela said that William had amazing art. I didn’t say much when she told me that. I didn’t want her to like the monster. I didn’t want her to think that he was safe. She needed to know how dangerous he was and how he would ruin her life.
Her parents had taken a shower. After her mother had been done, her mother forced her to take a nice warm shower. I was alone for a little while, but that was okay.
William did corner me and asked about my new friend. “I like her. Can she stay?” I joked. I don’t know why I was kidding with him, after everything. I guess I wanted to pretend that the house was a happy home.
“Sure, why not,” he said with an off-putting look in his eyes.
It scared me. I didn’t want to cause any harm to this family who was so sweet and kind. I narrowed my eyes, “I was just kidding. She should have her freedom if I can’t.”
He gave me a frown. “You have freedom. I thought you were happy here.”
“You keep saying that, but when did I agree?” I asked, frowning, feeling the blood boil under my skin.
He shrugged. After she had got out of the shower, Mihaela parents had hugged and kissed her goodnight. They even hugged and kissed me. They were so sweet. It had been so long since I had got a happy, warm hug from someone
I wasn’t scared of. It was so nice that I almost cried. They were so kind and caring, and oh god, I wish I could have gone with them.
William said goodnight to me, coldly, and went to my room.
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