Chapter 13

Green, Yellow, Red

Ladina 

"Nobody should touch it," Oliver warned us.

He was standing up high on the arm of the couch. He held his bright lantern in one hand. His face was only a few inches away from the ceiling beam. 

"If this camera is turned on, and we cover it up, the stranger might count that as destroying it," Oliver explained carefully. "You both read the typed page in the basement. They will punish us if we break the cameras. Gabe, please put the heavy iron poker down."

"I am just holding it," Gabriel argued defensively.

"You are holding it like you want to smash something with it," Oliver pointed out.

Gabriel did not put the heavy metal tool down, but he did not swing it, either. A small muscle twitched angrily in his jaw. "Is the camera turned on right now?" Gabriel asked.

Oliver used his finger to trace the thin black wire. He followed it to where it disappeared right into the stone wall.

"No," Oliver answered. "The wire is cut completely clean, just like the wires in the air vents. This camera was hardwired directly to the house's electricity. And this house has had absolutely no power since the big snowstorm hit."

Oliver slowly climbed down from the couch. "This camera died the exact same night the power grid died. That is exactly why the video on the tablet stops where it stops."

"So, that means this camera cannot see us right now," I said. My voice sounding very small and scared.

"This specific camera cannot see us," Oliver agreed. He wiped his dusty hands on his blue jeans and refused to look at either of us. "But the camera hidden inside the study can definitely see us. That one must run on something else entirely. It is probably running on a hidden battery. I have searched that small room twice now, and I still cannot find the camera or the battery."

Nobody said a single word.

Down the long hallway, the wooden clock kept ticking perfectly.

"We need new rules," Gabriel suddenly announced. His voice sounded very strange. It was completely flat and incredibly calm. Somehow, his calm voice frightened me even more than his loud shouting. "Nobody sleeps completely alone anymore. Nobody goes anywhere near the locked study. Nobody goes anywhere in this house without telling the other two people first."

Then, Gabriel's intense eyes locked directly onto me. "And you need to eat something. Today. You need to eat a real, full meal."

"That is a fair rule," Oliver agreed.

"I was not asking for your permission," Gabriel replied coldly.

Oliver decided to let the rude comment go. He walked over to the drawer and took out a bright flashlight. "I am going to the basement," Oliver said. "I want to see exactly where all of these cut cables lead to. It will probably take me a couple of hours to figure it out."

"Take the iron poker with you," Gabriel ordered him.

"No," Oliver said softly. "I will just take my flashlight and my brain."

After Oliver left the room, Gabriel stood perfectly still. He waited until we heard the basement door click shut. Once we were completely alone, he turned to look at me.

"Come with me right now," Gabriel said softly.

"Where are we going?" I asked, feeling a nervous flutter in my stomach.

"We are going somewhere that I can actually promise you is safe," he replied.

He led me into the kitchen pantry. The pantry was a very narrow room. The walls were lined with wooden shelves full of tin cans. It was freezing cold inside.

Gabriel placed his lantern down on the wooden floor. Then, he began to search the small room. He went over every single inch of the space. He lifted up the tin cans one by one. He ran his hand carefully underneath every single wooden shelf. He even tapped on the ceiling and listened closely for hollow sounds. I had never seen Gabriel move so slowly and carefully before. It was like watching a giant, angry bear trying to thread a tiny needle.

He searched the entire room three different times. Finally, he reached out and locked the small metal latch on the inside of the pantry door. We were locked inside together.

"There is nothing in here," Gabriel said, letting out a long breath. "There is no hidden lens. There is no hidden wire. Absolutely nothing in this tiny room can see you. We have a few minutes, Dina. Nobody is watching us right now. The strangers are not watching you. And the scary thoughts in your head are not watching you, either."

"You cannot promise to make the scary thoughts in my head stop," I whispered nervously.

"No, I cannot," he agreed softly. The corner of his mouth moved slightly. "But I can try to be louder than your thoughts."

My heart started racing inside my chest. I was feeling very afraid, but I was not afraid of Gabriel. I was deeply afraid of how badly I wanted to say yes to him. I wanted to let go of my control.

"Before we do anything else," Gabriel said firmly, "we need to agree on some words." He held up one finger to make his point. 

"Green means go. Yellow means slow down. Red means stop completely, and we are done. If you say red, there will be no questions asked, and I will not be angry. I will just sit on the floor and wait for you to tell me exactly what you need. Say it back to me so I know you understand."

I repeated the rules back to him carefully. "Green means go. Yellow means slow down. Red means stop."

"Good," Gabriel said. "Now, tell me what you do not want."

I really had to think about that for a moment. "I do not want to talk about my mother. Ever. And I do not want anything that leaves visible marks where anyone else could see them."

"Done," Gabriel agreed immediately. He did not smile. He said the word like a serious businessman signing an important contract. "Is there anything else?"

"Please do not make me feel cheap," I added quietly.

"I will never make you feel cheap," he promised. He said it so incredibly fast that the words hit me right in the chest.

Gabriel reached into his deep pocket and pulled out a soft, scarf. He gently wrapped the scarf around my two wrists and tied it very loosely in front of me.

"Pull your hands apart," he instructed.

I pulled my hands apart, and the scarf slid right off my wrists easily.

"Do you see that?" Gabriel asked, looking right into my eyes. "You can leave at any time you want to." His  thumbs rested gently on my wrists, right where he could feel my pulse beating. "I do not want to hold you in here like a prisoner, Dina. I want you to actively choose to stay with me."

Then, he tied the scarf around my wrists a second time. This time, he tied it just a little bit tighter. He gently lifted my hands and placed them against the wooden shelf high above my head.

"Keep your hands right there until I tell you to move them," Gabriel commanded softly.

"Why?" I asked, my breath catching in my throat.

"Because I asked you to," he replied.

I probably should have laughed at that answer. I should have told him that "because I asked" was not a real reason. But I did not laugh. Instead, my hands stayed exactly where he had put them.

And suddenly, the loud, scary noise in my head just stopped.

This was not like the quick, quiet feeling I got yesterday when they touched me. That quiet feeling was like pulling a plug, and it only lasted for a few seconds. This new quiet feeling was wide and slow and beautiful. It felt like the entire sky had gone perfectly still. Somebody else was finally driving the car, and I could finally let go and rest. I did not have to make any decisions. I did not have to worry.

"Good," Gabriel whispered, his voice very low and deep.

It was just one simple word, but it went straight through my body like a wave of warm water. All my life, I had always been a "good" girl for a specific reason. It was good to keep the peace in the house. It was good to keep my mother smiling. I was good at stopping people from leaving me. Nobody had ever said the word "good" to me as a gift before. They always said it like I was paying off a debt.

I suddenly realized how much I wanted more of this feeling. That was the exact part that scared me the most. I felt overwhelmed.

"Yellow," I whispered softly.

Gabriel stopped everything so fast that the wooden shelf rattled. Within a single second, the scarf was completely off my wrists. His warm winter jacket was wrapped tightly around my cold shoulders. He had gently guided me down, and I was sitting safely on a heavy sack of flour before I even realized I had moved.

Gabriel crouched down on the floor right in front of me. He held both of his palms wide open to show me he was not going to touch me. "Talk to me, Dina," he urged. "Was it me? Did I do something wrong?"

"No," I said, shaking my head. My teeth were chattering slightly from the cold and the adrenaline. "It is not you at all. I actually liked it. I liked it so much that I completely forgot to be afraid of the stranger and the cameras. I just did not know that a normal person could want something like that."

Gabriel did not smile, and I was incredibly grateful for his serious face.

"What kind of girl actually wants to be told what to do?" I asked, feeling a wave of shame.

"The kind of girl whose head never gets a single moment of rest," Gabriel answered. His voice was rough but incredibly gentle. "Liking this does not mean you are broken, Dina. It just means you are very, very tired of having to control everything."

I looked down at the faint, pink marks on my pale wrists. The marks were as thin as tiny pencil lines. "What if I cannot stop wanting this?" I asked him nervously.

"Then you simply tell me, and we will figure it out together," Gabriel promised. He gently reached out and tilted my chin up so I had to look into his eyes. "Remember the rules. Yellow just means we slow down. Yellow does not mean never. So, what do you say now?"

I swallowed hard, pushing my fear down. "Green," I said clearly.

We finally walked out of that narrow pantry forty minutes later. I had white baking flour on the knees of my jeans. My wrists were slightly pink. But for the very first time in days, my head was completely empty and peaceful. Gabriel walked closely beside me. He kept his  hand resting gently on the lower part of my back. I swear I could hear him quietly humming a happy tune.

Oliver was already waiting for us at the kitchen counter. He was not holding his bright flashlight anymore. Instead, he was holding a very small, silver sticker. It sat completely flat in the middle of his open palm.

Oliver looked up as we walked in. His sharp eyes immediately noticed my pink wrists. He noticed Gabriel's hand resting protectively on my back. He noticed the white flour on my knees. I saw a quick flash of pain or anger cross Oliver's face, but he smoothed his expression out a second later. He made his face blank again.

"I came back upstairs to the living room after I finished in the basement," Oliver announced softly. "I wanted to look at that hidden camera lens one more time."

"You specifically told us that nobody was allowed to touch it," Gabriel reminded him sharply.

"And nobody did touch it," Oliver explained. "This silver sticker was stuck to the beam, just a few inches below the camera lens. It looks like someone tried to scrape the sticker off in a hurry, but they missed a corner. I was able to peel it off." Oliver held his palm out further. "I did not tell you about this sticker this morning because I wanted to be absolutely sure first.

Gabe, please take a deep breath before you read the words on this."

Gabriel reached out and took the tiny  sticker. I watched the warm color completely drain out of Gabriel's face. He suddenly looked sick. He crumpled the sticker tightly in his fist, and nobody said a single word.

I stepped closer and gently pulled his fingers open. I read the words right over his arm.

There were two lines of tiny, black print printed on the sticker. The words said: Property of Blanthen Group, Security Division.

And right underneath those words, there was a printed date.

The date on the camera sticker was exactly twelve days before my mother's wedding.

Twelve whole days before I had ever even seen Gabriel or Oliver's faces, someone in their father's company had already decided exactly what they were going to do with me.