What had I been thinking? How had I thought I could handle this on my own? Looking back, I realized I had acted like a kid. Acting out a fantasy with superheroes in Mardi Gras World wasn’t the same as dealing with live, gun-carrying criminals. I had had no idea.
After Sam and Angel Not tied and gagged us, I was scared. For the first time, I realized we might die there. Would they shoot us? Or just leave us to starve to death? Truth was, after Friday, they didn’t even need Aunt Delphine and Uncle Antoine anymore. Once they got their money, all of us might be dead.
We were tied to the chairs. The ropes were so tight, they cut into my skin. My muscles ached. My arms were pulled so far back behind me. My mouth was dry as I struggled to breathe through my nose. I could smell the fear in the sweat that poured from my body. I lost track of time, but it seemed days had passed. My stomach rumbled.
I worried that my elderly great-aunt and -uncle couldn’t withstand this pain. Belle was a lot younger, but still, she was way past middle age.
I looked around where the nightlight cast shadows. Spooky. Menacing. Distorting. Even the shadow of the scarf tied around Belle’s head looked macabre. My fears were exaggerated, as were the negative reflections on the walls. Afraid to see the expressions on their faces, I forced myself to look. To confront the reality of letting my ego get in the way of common sense.
Nestor’s eyes bored into me. He didn’t try to hide his fear.
Aunt Delphine’s face was covered in quiet tears.
Belle moved her lips in whispered prayers.
Uncle Antoine fell asleep. The only one whose emotions were hidden.
I didn’t like what I saw.
The hardest thing for me to do is… nothing. I didn’t know how much time we had, but I couldn’t be passive. I remembered Madame Destiny’s words. I don’t even know whether or not I believe in that stuff, but everything she said had come true. I let my imagination go. I thought about what I could do to escape. The obvious thing was to free my hands. Or free Nestor’s hands.
I tried to push my hands closer together, hoping to grab the knot on the opposite side. My hands felt wet. I knew I drew blood. I stopped.
Maybe I could get over to Nestor and untie him. But how?
I tensed my muscles and pushed down hard on the chair. I wriggled myself in his direction. The chair moved only a fraction of an inch, but it was something. Nestor heard the scraping of the chair legs and gave me a questioning look. I wriggled to the right. He got the message. Nestor wriggled to the left.
This went on for a while. The gap between us was still big, but very slowly, very carefully, we made progress.
I got overconfident, and did something stupid. I did a giant wriggle and leaned my body to the right. I lost my balance.
The chair fell over with me still attached. My body was twisted in pain. I fell on my face with the chair on my back, twisted hands bloodier now. Burning. Throbbing.
I couldn’t move. I just lay there on the floor. Bleeding and in pain.