I jolted awake, flinging the thin blanket off my body. I stood up, circling in the darkness, trying to get my bearings. The rocking motion under me brought back the horror of what I’d done to protect Madison. I didn’t remember falling asleep or coming down to the lower deck. Had Elyse carried me? I took stock of my body and I didn’t feel any injuries. She was stronger than I thought. I hoped that she hadn’t put anything in the water to make me sleep. I wouldn’t put it past her.
A shiver moved through me and I wrapped the blanket around my shoulders. I climbed the stairs to the upper deck. The early-morning sun still rested under the horizon, but I knew it would be up sometime soon. The cool breeze from the night made me pull the blanket tighter around me. With each passing second, I felt the weight of imaginary chains around my wrists, binding me to my biological sister.
Elyse didn’t turn when I stepped onto the deck. A thin white wire cascaded from her ears. The wire plugged into her phone, which sat next to the controls. The faint sounds of music floated out of the headphones.
My body vibrated. This was possibly my only chance to get the upper hand. I scanned the area for a weapon but found nothing. She was clever and not afraid to hurt someone. I’d have to play to my strengths. If I distracted her in some way, then I could use the radio to call for help. I hoped it wasn’t damaged, or else I’d have a very angry captor for nothing. And, from her brief history, I knew what she did to people who pissed her off. At the very least, she’d probably tie me to the chair as she had Madison. At the very worst . . . I didn’t even want to think about it.
Elyse’s body moved as if she were one with the boat. I stepped closer to her, slowly, rocking from heel to toe one step at a time. My hands twitched at my sides.
“Slow and steady,” I repeated in my head.
I was inches from her and realized her eyes were closed, her head slowly moving to the beat of the music. Was I really going to do this? What if she was so angry that she threw me over the side? Would drowning be better than this?
I had to do something. I trusted that her devotion to her family would overpower whatever fighting instinct she had.
My foot hit something and I nearly stumbled. Two large eyes peered up at me and I almost screamed. My eyes adjusted and I took a few breaths before realizing what I tripped over. Inside a black bag was a pair of goggles on top of a wetsuit. I exhaled sharply. The goggles had reflected the light from the controls, making them look like eyes. I wasn’t sure how I’d handle seeing a dead body any time soon, so I was grateful for that.
I was right behind her when I reached out, my hand trembling. I grabbed the top of her mask and pulled, detaching that and her hair from her head. I held the mask, her wig falling to the deck. I’d had no idea her hair was fake.
She whirled on me and clapped her hands over her face. A low moan escaped her lips as she stumbled away from me, her back slamming against the edge of the boat.
Her eyes went from wide to narrow within seconds as rage flew to the surface. She moved her hands away from her face and charged at me.
“This. This is what you wanted to see? Take a good look!”
The dim light illuminating the controls cast long shadows across her face. I understood her slurred speech and why her lips seemed strange. A ball of scar tissue tugged the skin at the edge of her mouth, drawing it upward to her cheek. Her short, shaved hair didn’t conceal any of the thick scars running in zigzag lines down her face. Some scars even continued down her neck and disappeared under her shirt.
The face didn’t horrify me as much as the first time I’d seen it. “You were in the funhouse,” I said, my voice trembling.
“I wanted you to see me,” she spat. “Your reaction was enough for me to stay away until I had a better plan.”
“That’s not fair,” I said.
“Life isn’t fair.”
I couldn’t take my eyes off her. The damage was more considerable than I could have imagined.
She turned her face away, allowing me to see her profile. Even one of her ears was mangled.
“Please give that back to me,” she said, her voice small.
Exposing her weakness made me feel even worse than I had before. She was an innocent child when the world failed her. And here I was, the one person she wanted in her life, and I betrayed her. Heat moved behind my eyes as I thought of the terrible life she’d had.
I handed the mask and wig to her. She turned around and my chance to be rescued appeared in front of me in the form of a handheld radio. I didn’t hesitate. I grabbed the mic without thinking and keyed in. The sound of static was music to my ears. My heart leaped just as Elyse whipped around and lunged at me. She grabbed the mic and tugged it out of my hands.
“Why are you doing this?” she shouted. “I saved you!”
My hands were fists at my sides. “I didn’t need saving. You took me away from my family!”
“You agreed to come with me.”
“Only because you were going to hurt my sister.”
Elyse flinched. “I’m your sister.”
“So is she. We may share the same parents, but the people I grew up with are my real family. And Madison is my sister. No amount of distance can change that.”
“You made your choice. You promised,” she said.
“I did. And I would like to get to know you as my sister, but not like this. You can’t rip someone out of the only life they knew and expect them to let all of that go.”
“I have.”
“You weren’t given a choice.”
“I didn’t have a life until I met Nolan, and that is the only life that matters.”
“I understand, Elyse,” I said, pleading.
“Do you?”
“Yes, I do. But I grew up differently. And that is apparent. Your past makes you who you are.”
“Indeed it does.”
She finished adjusting her mask and ripped the mic and cord from the radio and threw it into the ocean. My stomach sank as quickly as the mic did. That was my only chance to call for help.
“Go over there,” she said, pointing at the bow of the boat. “I want to keep an eye on you.”
I had no idea how to steer a boat and, with the mic gone, I didn’t want to attempt to fight her wishes. My next chance would be when we got to shore. I sat, pressing my back against the wall of the boat, facing her.
Her eyes darted from me to the ocean. Back and forth, as if she was expecting me to do something. I was out of ideas for the moment. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back, pretending that I was on the sunny deck of a nice yacht, the sound of the ocean and rocking of the boat pulling me deeper into that fantasy.