Chapter 3

By the time I had gotten back under the tunnel and onto my bed, Anne was already hacking into the cloth I lent her. "Where were you?" She asked, bewildered. I mean, I would be too, if someone just came out from under their bed after being missing for 3 hours.

"Keep a secret?" I asked, knowing she'd say yes. She nodded slowly. "Okay." I put my mouth up to her ear. " My friend built a tunnel underneath our beds so we could talk to each other."

Her eyes widened. "No," She said disbelievingly."That is impossible."

"It apparently is." I said. "But don't go looking under. We could get into serious trouble for it."

"Alright.." Anne said. "I'm going back to sleep." I helped her back into a lying position, giving her my small sweater I had worn from the first day I got here. She accepted it greatfully, her thin, pale arms being covered by the light blue color.

I fell asleep with her, sleeping late into the evening. When I awoke, dinner had already been doled out. "What time is it?" I asked Sarah.

"Well past supper. You missed a lot today." She said, greedily eating her food.

" What do you mean?" I asked, confused.

" The guard got grabbed by one of the men in the cells and got a concussion." I gasped.

"Who was it?!"

"It was Herman." She said plainly.

I covered my mouth with my hands and shook my head. "Not Herman..Was he really that dumb?"

" Apparently.. He grabbed the guard's shin, complaining that he hadn't been fed in 2 days. I don't think he meant to hurt him, but.." She drew in a ragged breath. " He's being killed without a trial tommorow evening."

" But he didn't mean to! Tripping somebody on accident is no reason to get hung!"

" Rosaline, he's not getting hung." Sarah said quietly.

" Then what are they doing to him?"

"They're drowning him." She broke down in a series of tears, causing the attention of many of the women.

"Hush." I whispered, patting her back, not that it helped. "Hey, Sarah. It's alright, it's okay." I tried to sound soothingly. " The people here are b*****s, and you know that. They are doing this to Herman for no good reason, and even though we cannot, we must except that."

"Why should we!?" She yelled.

" Because if we put up a fight, we are going to end up like Herman." Sarah went silent, and leaned her head back against the wall next to Anne.

" I cannot take much of this anymore." She said quietly, rubbing her arms. I noticed a few pink scars going up from her wrist to her elbow.

"Sarah!" I said. " Have you been hurting yourself?!"

"Yes.." She whispered, pulling down her sleeves.

"Why?!"

" Because one of the women told me it was a good way to rid of your pain." She said, nodding to the woman who had remarked 'this is where we shall be staying?" when we first got here.

"And do you believe her?" I asked.

" No.. I don't." With that said, the woman looked in our direction and stared straight at Sarah.

" Is she a real witch?" I whispered in her ear.

" I don't know.. But she's really very intimidating." I silently agreed, not wanting to say bad things about the woman at all, for the risk of ending up like Sarah was now: Hurting herself to be rid of her pain.

My stomach rumbled, signaling I hadn't eaten at all that day. "Can I have a little bit of your dinner?" I asked Sarah as politely as I could.

" Sorry.. It's all gone."

I sighed and went over to Anne, who had her bowl in her hands. " Hey, Anne." She nodded her hello." Do you mind if I have a bit of your supper?"

" If you want this, then sure." She held out the bowl to me and I instantly recoiled. She had coughed into it, leaving the whitish-yellow mash splattered with blood.

"Never mind, I can wait until morning." I said, sitting down for the night.

Later in the night, I was repositioning myself for Anne to get comftorable when we both saw Charlie's hand come out from under the bed. Anne, shocked, hacked again, blood coming out her nose. "Rosaline!" Charlie hissed. " Are you coming tonight? Benji's being a swine."

I shrugged and looked over at Anne. " Will you be alright?" I asked.

"Of course. I'll use Sarah for my warmth tonight."

"Okay. I'll be back in the morning." I said, kissing her forehead.

I climbed under the bed, going under the tunnel that led to Charlie's cell. "Hi." I said, realizing I never said hello to him.

"About time. I haven't talked to you for two days, you know." He said.

"Sorry... Anne's been really sick." I whispered, motioning for him to lower his voice.

" I can hear her all the time now.. Do you think she stands a chance any more?" He asked, concerned.

" Not anymore... She offered me her bowl tonight and it was splattered with blood from when she coughed."

"Oh, dinner? I never ate half of mine. Do you want some?"

"Oh, yes, please. I haven't eaten all day." I said. " Are you sure? It's your food."

"No, you have it. I never finish, anyways. If I get hungry I can always just eat Benji." He joked. I punched him playfully on the arm.

"Going cannibalistic, now, are you?" I asked, cracking a smile I hadn't felt for days.

" Better watch out, Rosaline. You might just be my next victim."

I rolled my eyes. " Yeah, right. Bring it."

" You never know. I could have put sleeping syrup into your food."

"But you didn't, because it's yours." I pointed out.

He was silent for a moment, thinking it over. " How are you so smart?"

" Like I said before, it comes naturally."

"Right." He said. We sat in silence for a while, me eating some of his food, Charlie studying me quietly.

"So heres the rest of your food."I said, eating half of it and feeling bad for eating that much.

"Thanks. So I really wanted to tell you that-" Just then, Benji kicked him in the jaw mid-sentence. "D****t, Benji!" He said, almost forgetting I was there.

Benji opened his eyes slowly, only faintly noticing me. "What'd I do now, Charles...?" He said groggily. He sat up and took in the image of me sitting next to Charlie, my eyes wide. "What the-" He was raising his voice.

I scrambled over to him, putting a finger over my lips in a sign of silence. I crawled under the bed, my eyes never leaving him the entire time.

When I went to get up from under my cot, I found that the woman who had convinced Sarah to harm herself was standing in front of me. I banged headfirst into her leg while coming out. Turns out, she's pretty muscular. "Oh, your in for it now." She said. "Wait until the guards hear about this, huh?" She dragged me over to her corner.

"Please don't hurt me." I pleaded.

"It's too late to change my mind." She said, punching me in the face and knocking me out.