CAUGHT

I noticed, three days ago from the kitchen window, that the wall there is lower than everywhere else. Maybe half a meter lower. Maybe less. But I am not going back inside that house without at least trying. I have nothing to lose.

I hear him behind me almost immediately.

"Shit," he sounds mildly surprised. His footsteps are heavier than mine but fast for someone his size. "Damn, she's fast."

I do not respond because I am still running and also because I am winning, at least for the moment. The far corner is coming up and I am calculating the jump.

I can do this. I am actually going to do this, and then my foot chooses the perfect moment to skip a step. I stumble forward, anticipating a bad fall.

A hand closes around the back of my collar and the world lurches sideways and my feet leave the ground entirely before I come back down onto the wet grass with considerably less dignity than I left it with.

I look up to find Dimitri in front of me, bent at the waist. He is breathing harder than before but not by much.

I tilt my head up to put a face to the hand that caught me, and I find Kain there. He is looking at Dimitri. If facial expressions could kill, Dimitri would probably be dead ten times over.

"I was tricked." He glances at me like I have done him dirty and I almost scoff at his victim posture.

"Go." Dimitri bows in response before turning to go back to his post, I suppose.

Kain lets go of me and steps back. I lie on my back in the garden and look up at the sky. It is very dark. There are no stars because of the cloud cover, which seems appropriate.

There is dirt on my sleeve and my collar is stretched and my hand is bleeding more than before.

"You are going to get yourself in trouble."

"I will never give up trying to leave, no matter what you do to me," I say with so much venom I scare myself a little.

Kain sighs. "Okay."

He reaches down and offers me his hand. I look at it for a moment, then take it. I have lost and there is no point in making a production of it.

He pulls me up without effort.

"The ivy on that corner is rotten," he says. "You'd have gone through it."

I look at the corner. The ivy does look rotten, now that I am closer to it.

"Don't expect me to thank you," I say.

"I wouldn't dare."

I turn to face him fully. He is watching me with amusement. "This isn't funny, Kain. Absolutely nothing is funny about this. I am in hell. You took everything from me." I scream at his face.

If only my voice were loud enough to burst his eardrums, at least I'd inflict some level of the pain I feel.

Tears cloud my vision but I can still see his face clearly. It has become crestfallen. His next words break me more.

"They took my everything." His voice is so hollow, I almost feel sorry for him.

"Kain."

"Call it a night, Tatiana," he says. Not unkindly. Just dull. "The ground is wet and you're bleeding. You can try again tomorrow. Go inside."

I stand there for another moment. The cold is getting into my clothes now. I can feel my palm throbbing. My shoulder is going to be terrible in the morning.

"I'd rather not."

"I know." He nods toward the mansion. "Go."

I turn around.

This time I actually go.

I walk down the hallway with my scraped palm and my stretched collar and my dirty shoes and I am furious.

The hallway feels longer than it did on the way out. I go back to my room. I close the window and reset the latch.

I sit down on the edge of the bed.

The clock says 3:18 when I finally stop staring at the wall.

There is a new book on the chair by the window. I had not noticed it when I left. It must have been placed there while I was attempting my very dignified exit from the premises.

I pick it up. It is the second in a series I have been reading out loud, to no one in particular, standing in the library two days ago.