Fallout Dreams

mia 07

trevor laid on the linoleum floor facing the monitor above him. forty-three times he used the weight of his dumbbells to lift his torso upright, then grunted and lowered himself back to the linoleum. (it had been more than a month since he used the weights to release anger instead of endorphins, throwing them two at a time against the green-painted steel, adding to the collection of dents from previous lapses in self-control.)

with every sit-up he caught another glimpse of the twins as they teleported from room to room preparing for their anniversary excursion to eureka springs. mia was excited to shop. ava wanted to get her palms read by one of the mountain hippies.

whatever their plans, they'd be gone all day.

although ava wore her usual sweater and mia donned her usual jacket, they agreed to bring their matching red dresses for a fancy dinner.

fifty sit-ups. trev rolled the dumbbells across the floor, wiped away sweat with a pair of boxers, and watched the girls scamper outside the green door and into the detached garage.

ava wasn't wearing the watch. trev instinctively glanced to the master bedroom to see if she left it on the nightstand, but the room was still an obsidian square on his screen.

the garage rumbled above him. seconds later, mia's honda appeared in the driveway feed. the car moved halfway across the screen before easing to a stop between the magnolia trees. arms reached from both windows and simultaneously caressed the enormous blooms.

the brake lights dimmed and the car drove away.

trevor closed the grid of security cameras and opened his GPS tracking application. a map of the surrounding countryside filled the screen with two blinking dots in the center. one dot drifted down the driveway before turning on the main country road. the second dot remained in the garage, stuck to the underbelly of ava's car.

trevor waited until the girls were twenty minutes outside town before gloving his hands, snatching two (no... THREE) pills from the ashtray, skipping through the bunker, cellar, and tunnel, then climbing the ladder to the real world.

ava's closet served as an intoxicating transition between dungeon and home. on the rare occasion trevor had time, he liked to pause, close his eyes, and breathe in the potpourri of GIRL: fabric softener, body odor, and the leftover spritzing of artificial fruit. today, he dug through ava's underwear bin, found the panties with the black lace (and the tiny rip in the left cheek), and moved them to the top.

he left ava's closet and stepped carefully through her blacker-than-black room, groping the walls until he found the bathroom door.

the brown peroxide bottle was laying sideways in the cupboard beneath the sink. trev shook it. there was more than enough to get him through his last nine days.

he meandered to the kitchen, set the peroxide on the counter, and opened the fridge. a brand new pitcher of tea.

he pinched the pills from his pocket. a month ago, three yellows would have knocked the twins on their asses, but their tolerance was growing. plus, mia was the twin who drank the most tea... she was also the twin who needed to chill the fuck out.

he crushed the pills between two tablespoons, scraped the powder into the pitcher, and stirred. he set the tea back inside the fridge—

THUNK.

"gosh darnit!" someone cried.

the front door popped open before trevor could run and a woman stumbled inside, a bushel of flowers in one hand, a bloody ankle in the other.