No hope, no smiles, no anything, the three of them sat on the couch apathetically, wasting their lives away. The power went out after a while, but none of them moved. They stayed in place and ignored his orders of going to bed. Chloe tilted her head back and rested her eyes; then the power came back on and they sat in the lit room for a while. David flipped the switch, climbed into one of the chairs and flipped the recliner out. Margaret hopped into the other one, and then Chloe sprawled out across the comfy sofa.
She fell asleep easily, easier than she wished she would have. It should've been harder to sleep at a time like this, it should've been impossible. But it wasn't, it just wasn't. Chloe rolled around a few times as her dreams went by. For once, they weren't anything secretive or revealing. They were normal ordinary teenage girl dreams, the ones about boys and rainbows and never ending bowls of cereal, cookie crisp to be specific. The time ticked by, and the clock in the hidden room under the kitchen seemed louder than ever, taunting her with every ticking and tocking, marking the seconds flying by.
Then she heard it, the screaming, the crying, the perfect storm of unhappiness. Chloe sat upright, looked to both sides of her. Margaret was sitting up too and David was already halfway up the stairs; she followed him at a fast pace. The screams were louder in the hallway. They both knew where they were coming from. Jacob's room.
David rested his palm on the door and glanced to Chloe; she nodded. He pushed the door open and then they jumped into the room. Sure enough, there Collin was, laying on Jacob's bed, a guard was backing away into the closet. Chloe ran for the baby, and David tackled the man to the ground. They struggled against each other on the ground for a moment; Margaret watched from the hallway in horror. After a moment, the guard was subdued by David's body weight, and he had their mask halfway off when Chloe noticed the bruise on Collin.
His shirt was pulled up and a dark purplish-blue bruise was spreading slowly across his skin. "What did you do?" Chloe shouted over Collin's cries; he was in so much pain, and he didn't even understand why. She felt tears well up in her eyes. An innocent child was hurt for no reason, these cruel intentions wouldn't go unpunished.
The mask came off and the guard's face was revealed. Her face was revealed. Rachel was back in the house.
YOU ARE READING
Perfect (Rewrite)
Science FictionChloe Provan wakes up in a white padded room with no memory as of to how she's arrived here. Chains bind her to the wall, and from the looks of it, there's no way out. She fills out forms, is given an ear piece, and then assigned to a house where sh...
