A local woman missing- Mary Kubica

he’s got to make sure he’s right behind me. He can’t drag his feet
’cause we’re better off dead than getting caught.
I sit now with my spoon in my lap. I keep it close. It’s not a spear. I
don’t think it’ll ever be a spear, but it’s mangled enough that it’s got a
chiseled point and could stun someone, if not kill. Stunning someone
might be as good as it gets, but it’s better than nothing.
All of a sudden, the door creaks open. I hold my breath. It ain’t the
lady coming. It’s the man. I can tell by the sound of his footsteps,
though he’s trying to be quiet, which tells me the lady is somewhere
up there, too, but she don’t know he’s coming down to see Gus and
me.
I grip my spoon. The last thing I want to do is hurt the one who’s
been nice to me—or nicer, ’cause keeping kids in your basement
ain’t ever nice, even if you aren’t the one hitting them. But
sometimes you got to do what you got to do, and the man is the least
suspecting of the two. I’m ready, or at least as ready as I’ll ever be.
I’ve thought this through a gazillion times. In my head I know what to
do. But still, that don’t mean that my heart isn’t going hog wild. My
arms and legs is shaking and I know I’ve got to get ahold of them if
I’m going to do this right. I take a deep breath, count to ten. Release
it.
“Where you at?” the man is asking, hissing his words out into the
darkness.
Gus says nothing. “Right here,” I say, gripping my spoon so tight it
hurts my hand.
He comes to me. He says he’s got a candy bar for me to eat. I
hear the sound of him unwrapping it. “Far as she’s concerned, we
might as well leave you down here to starve to death. But don’t
worry. I won’t let nothing bad happen to you.” He’s trying to sweettalk
me, to make up for her not feeding us for all this time. He feels
badly about it. He slips the candy bar into my hand. “Go on,” he
says, “eat it.” This ain’t the first time the man’s brought me chocolate.
He brought me a cupcake once, ’cause he said it was my birthday. I
don’t know if it was.