Saving Hope

V. Hope in the Barrel

Patty was Hope’s only friend for three years now.

Carl brought Patty in when she was just seventeen. She was at the peak of her high school life.

The only thing that went wrong was her boyfriend who tried to come on to her after prom. Carl rescued her only to be brought in his own home to be another victim of his fantasies.

Hope never saw Patty. Not once.

They could go down if they behaved, but never together.

She just knew that Patty had red hair and blue eyes. In their long talks at most nights, they learned more about each other than the other people they had befriended in the past.

They had developed their own signals, like the five knocks to check if the other was safe to talk and the three rapid ones they would make if one was about to be in trouble. In fact, there were too many they could have a conversation with just a series of knocks.

But in nights like this, when Carl was downstairs in his room, knocking conversations were out of the question.

“You think she really believes you’re alive?” Patty’s soft, whispered voice asked.

“Yes,” Hope whispered back, fingering the anchor-shaped pendant held by the gold chain around her neck. It was one of the things Carl had let her keep. It was customized only for her by a famous jeweler and that it was given to her by her mother on the first time she was nominated for the Oscars years ago. It was the only thing that linked her to her mother.

“How’s the window coming?” Patty asked again, changing the subject.

“Getting there.”

“Do you need help?”

“I can manage, thanks.”

Patty knew of her plan and they would escape together. They didn’t have to agree on that. It was no longer needed. Wherever the other would be, the other should follow.

Devin’s phone rang. His senses flared up.

No one else knew his number.

If the phone was ringing, it could only mean two things: He is either safe or good as dead if he didn’t move again.

“Yes,” he answered without saying a proper greeting.

“You don’t have to sound so uptight after settling down in a new place, man,” the man at the other end said with a chuckle.

Devin breathed a sigh of relief. “You’re calling to check if I am still alive.”

“Of course! That’s my job!”

“Now you know I am. Anything more?”

“How are the neighbors? Nothing suspicious?”

He thought for a moment. He remembered the girl at the bedroom across from his. And then he remembered what her father had told her the other day. “I am fine. Odd neighbors, but not suspicious.”

“Odd is suspicious.”

“I am okay. I started working again. Why? Is there a problem?”

“No, nothing you should worry about. Your papers are being worked on as we speak and you may finally have them before the month ends.”

“Which month?”

“Next month, of course, stupid. I have to go. Don’t get killed.”

Devin replaced his phone back on the receiver and climbed back up to his bedroom. He had some reading to do for a job he got just the other day online.