Page 79 of Hostile Saint

My wife numbly replied, “I am in a cage with my friend.”

“You have a friend? What is her name?”

“He’s a boy. Tate.”

On its own accord, my spine stiffened, having me sitting up board straight.

“The fuck?” mumbled Dagger.

All eyes locked on me again. I was clueless as to why she was mentioning me.

Through the speaker, Lacey warned, “He says I need to be quiet.”

Under the heavy stares, I shook my head. “I-I’ve never been in a cage.”

Composedly, Doc’s voice echoed from the laptop, “Why do you need to be quiet, Lacey?”

The first crack in her numb demeanor presented itself in a whisper. “So, they won’t chase us.”

My chest tightened as my heart raced. “This never happened. I don’t understand.”

Doctor asked, “Who are they? More friends?”

“No.” Her whisper was now shaky. “Bad men.”

Doctor Landon’s voice lost a tad of its steadiness. There was a hair more urgency. “Lacey, can you see these bad men right now?”

“Mmhmm.”

“Are there four of them?” Knowing of the four shadows, I understood why he would assume this.

She sniffled before her next whisper, “No. More, and they are coming for us.”

My hands slammed to the table as I tried to support myself, trying to not fall from my chair. I kept repeating, “This never happened,” but my sudden gasps for air were telling a different story. Fear, as if a physical being—or many of them—was running up behind me, trying to capture me. “T-This never happened…”

Lacey’s little whispers dared me to remember. “He’s holding me, telling me to run when they let us out.”

“When the bad men let you and Tate out of the cage?”

“Mmhmm. All of us. So many keys.”

“Keys? Lacey? Is there more than one cage?”

She hiccupped a cry. “Mmhmm.”

Doctor Landon was sounding winded. “With children?”

“Mmhmm.”

The doctor’s voice was now beginning to wobble. “How many cages do you see?”

She started to softly cry. “I can’t count that high. I can only count to ten.”

My eyes slammed shut. “This never happened—”

Lacey’s breathing heightened, prompting the doctor to ask, “What is happening now, Lacey?”

She sounded even more scared. “We’re all running.”