Once, We Were Stolen

by Courtney Symons

Jeremy’s face lit up. “Of course! I’m sorry I didn’t think of it earlier!” He sounded like he meant it. “Do you want some elastics too, maybe some clips? Just let me know the sort of things you need.”

  “Well… we need showers. Real showers,” Violet began to negotiate. “We can’t just sit in here and not bathe. There’s only so much washing up you can do in a sink. I’m starting to feel filthy and it’s really uncomfortable.”

  Those were magic words. Jeremy slapped himself on the head. “I didn’t even think of that. Of course you need showers. That’s no problem at all.”

  He decided that from then on, he would escort them up to the main level once every other day, one at a time, so they could shower before returning to their cage. It wouldn’t be luxury, but at least they’d be clean.

  “Ben, what about you?” Jeremy asked. “What sort of clothing would you like?”

  “Well,” he pouted his lips and made a thinking face. “I think maybe something with a wolf on it. Or a turtle.”

  Violet smiled at her little brother, in a sad, proud kind of way.

  “Okay, that sounds good, I’m sure I can find something like that. And what size are you?”

  Ben looked to Violet, who leaned over to check the tag on her brother’s pants and shirt.

  “A size 10 for his pants, in the kid’s section,” she told him. “And a medium for the shirt. But a kid’s medium, not a regular medium.” She said this with conviction. Maybe it did matter to her a little bit.

  Ben was still confused. “I don’t have any money, and my mom isn’t here to give you any. We could get some money.” He said this with an expectant look at his sister, trying to ask her, Did I do that right? Does he know that means we should go home?

  Jeremy answered as fast as he could. “I’ll pay for it. I don’t mind at all.”

  He said it so excitedly that Violet realized he expected them to be happy about it. She tried to see how that could be possible, made a list of the things that so far had made life bearable.

  Jeremy doted on them. He was there when they needed him, willing to do whatever they asked, as long as they stayed in the basement. He gave them attention and asked how they were doing. They didn’t have to worry about going to school or to work.

  Work. Until that point, Violet had put aside any thoughts of it. Her boss would be wondering why she hadn’t shown up for her shifts.

  “What about my job?” asked Violet.

  “You don’t have to do it anymore!” he said cheerfully, thinking she was finally catching on.

  “No,” she said with frustration. “I mean, I’m still on the schedule. They’re counting on me to show up and they’re probably really mad at me. Maybe I’ve already been fired. I know I’m not going to be working while I’m here, but when I get out, I’ll need a way to make money. I like it there, and I don’t want them to fire me.”

  “Oh,” Jeremy said as he looked at the floor. “I thought maybe you’d be excited not to have to go back there. But I don’t think it’s possible for you to go in for your shifts. I’m really sorry.”

  “I know that,” she said sharply, “but is there some way I can tell them I can’t make it?”

  Jeremy tried to interject, but she kept going. “You could be right there when I called. You could call for me, it doesn’t matter. I just want to let them know that I’m not just fucking off – sorry, Ben – for fun, and deciding I don’t feel like going in to work. Would that be okay?”

  He didn’t think it would be okay. Maybe she had a secret code word that she’d prearranged with her co-workers in case anything happened to her. Maybe if she said she was feeling a little “under the weather,” they would know she really meant she was under the ground, in someone’s basement. He couldn’t take the risk.

  “I’ll call for you. I’ll let them know you’re okay. I’ll tell them you’re in the hospital but you’re okay.”

  “And that I’m really sorry I haven’t been able to call before now, can you say that too?” She sounded so concerned. He thought young people hated to work. He thought this would be a holiday for her.

  “I will, I’ll say that too,” he said. He wasn’t sure if it was a lie or not. How could he call them for her, who would he say he was? An estranged uncle that no one had ever heard of? Their mother had probably already called into work, asking if they had heard from her. Maybe the police had the diner’s phone lines tapped so they could trace the call. It wasn’t worth the risk. She could get her job back when she returned home, whenever that was.

  The future was a foggy place for Jeremy, a shape-shifting mist lingering ahead and slightly out of sight. He would deal with the future when it came.

  But that’s the thing about the future. It always stretches out before you, and never arrives.

  12

  Violet lost count of the days.

  She knew she should be angry. She should be pounding on the walls, screaming for him to let them go. She should check every time he left to see if the lock hadn’t clasped; tap the walls in search of hollow spots she could chip away at slowly. She and Ben should be working on a secret code to pulsate out into the world somehow. But for some reason, the fight just wasn’t in her.

  She knew she wasn’t where she was supposed to be, and that fact distressed her in the beginning. But she was fed whenever she got hungry. She took showers when she felt she needed to. She spent endless amounts of quiet time reading and writing and drawing, and was spending more time with Ben than she ever had before.

  Violet couldn’t figure Jeremy out. It would take a cruel, malicious person to do to them what he had done, but she couldn’t find any of those things in him when she heard him speak, or when he looked at her. His eyes weren’t hard. They were green. Bright green, actually, and they usually seemed like they were giving everything away as she looked at them. He would smile at the unlikeliest of things, and was always so pleased to do whatever it was they asked of him – as long as it wasn’t to let them go.

  One morning, she woke to the sun seeping in through the tiny window above their heads. She’d tried to look out so many times, but all she could see was grass.

  Something had begun to weigh heavily on her mind. Where was their mother? Why hadn’t she found them? Was she even looking at all? Violet knew they were ridiculous thoughts, that of course their mother was looking. But it wasn’t enough. She wasn’t here. She hadn’t found them.

  Hadn’t anyone seen her give Jeremy a ride that day? Wasn’t someone looking for her car, her licence plate? It was scary to think that the world could just go on without them, the same as always, without skipping a beat. It made Violet want to scream. Instead, she remained silent.

  “Ben,” she nudged her brother, who had fallen asleep in her lap. “Wake up, sleepyhead.”

  He opened his eyes and looked around. The fear was gone from his gaze. It had faded into cautious acceptance.

  “What time is it?” he asked. Violet thought it was a silly question. What did it matter? Nothing about their situation would change if it was 8 a.m. instead of 10. Her watch, however, still worked, so she went to check it for him.

  Violet had taken it off her wrist about a week ago – was it a week? Maybe two? – after realizing that all it did was make her feel helpless. It didn’t do her any good to remind herself that time was passing while they stood still.

  “It’s just past nine,” she told him. “Sorry I woke you, but I want to talk to you about something.”

  Ben propped himself up, nodded, and sat still. She had to give him credit. He was coping well, and his crying had stopped after the first few days. Violet’s had lasted longer. It was a good thing they had stopped crying, right? From her point of view, it was a lot easier to get through the days, the hours, the minutes, without sobbing beside Ben and knowing there was nothing either of them could do.

  “Jeremy has done an awful thing to us,” Violet started.

  They had both taken to calling him Jeremy out loud. It was less scary than that ma
n or the kidnapper.

  “But,” Violet continued, “He doesn’t seem to be a mean man. Do you know what I mean, have you noticed?”

  “Well, yeah,” Ben said. “He brings us stuff. He talks to us pretty nice, and he doesn’t hurt us. I guess he’s okay, but still mean at the same time.”

  “Right,” Violet said. “I think he likes us. And I don’t think he wants us to suffer, I think he really means it when he says that. Every time we need something, he says yes. But it’s too little down here. You’re a young boy, you should be running around, out exploring things, not cramped down here like this. It’s not fair. Right?”

  Ben nodded. “But Vi, all of it isn’t fair.”

  “I know that. It’s not. But I think that maybe, if we keep asking him for things, just little things, we might be able to move around a little more freely.”

  “He won’t let us,” Ben said. “We’re like his animals and we’re in a cage. He won’t let us out because he’s afraid we’ll run away.”

  “Yes, but we won’t run away.” Violet saw Ben’s expression shift to

  angry confusion.

  “I mean, eventually we will,” she continued placing her hand on his arm. “We will get out of here. Both of us, together, I know we will. But we need to gain his trust. You know how he keeps talking about that, the trust thing?”

  “Yeah. But how are we going to get his trust and be asking him for stuff all the time too?”

  Violet nodded. “I think we’ll have to do it slowly. Just start by asking for something small, like being able to go for a walk to stretch our legs. It wouldn’t hurt to ask, right?”

  “I guess not,” Ben said warily.

  “I’ll try it,” Violet pressed. “Just follow my lead and if I ask you something, just say yes. Jeremy isn’t a normal man but I don’t think he’s a mean man. And I think he might listen to us.”

  Violet was excited. She began to feel a bit of the fight rise up in her again. She had learned more about Jeremy and what a lonely creature he was, and she knew she could use that to help them escape.

  Jeremy came in with breakfast not long after their discussion. Eggs, bacon, and fresh grapes.

  “Thank you so much,” Violet said with what she hoped sounded like sincerity. “This looks delicious. Jeremy, do you think I could ask you something?”

  “Of course,” he said eagerly. “What is it?”

  She took a deep breath.

  “I’ve been thinking and… It’s been a long time that we’ve been cooped up in here. I mean, I know we’re still learning how to get along with each other, but this is a tiny space. Have you ever been stuck in one tiny room for this long before? It’s not easy.”

  She read the shame on his face instantly.

  “Oh,” he said sheepishly. “I didn’t think of it, I was thinking it would be nice and relaxing here and you wouldn’t have to do anything you didn’t want to.”

  He paused and his eyes wandered around the room. “I guess a walk to the bathroom every now and then doesn’t count.”

  “No,” Violet said. “And we’ve started to get these leg cramps, deep in the muscle. They sort of seize up and I think we’re really losing muscle mass. Ben couldn’t sleep last night because his legs hurt so much.”

  Violet looked over at Ben with expectant eyes.

  “Yeah,” he said. “It really hurt.”

  Jeremy was easily convinced. “I’m so sorry,” he said. “That’s awful. I just didn’t think of it.”

  All the things he hadn’t thought of reminded Violet of Jeremy’s poorly laid plan. He was so disorganized, she thought. There was no way he had spent months plotting, stalking her and learning her habits. He had grabbed them and was trying to figure it out as he went along.

  Violet found hope in this. He would mess up. There would be something he never considered that Violet would think of and use to get them out.

  Jeremy’s face lit up. “I’ve got it! Wait here,” he said before quickly leaving the room and shutting the door behind him.

  What a cruel comment, Violet thought. Wait here. As if they had a choice.

  Nearly an hour later, Jeremy returned.

  He grunted as he lugged a large box into their room that he wedged through the doorframe and squished the pillows against. Violet squinted at the description on the cardboard.

  “A treadmill?” she observed incredulously.

  “Yes!” Jeremy said, his voice full of excitement. “I’ll help you put it together, and you can go for runs or walks on it whenever you want! It’s electrical, but we can put the cord under the door and plug it in from the hallway!” He saw something flicker across her face. “I have extension cords,” he added.

  Violet’s hands balled into fists and her body shook. Her rage swelled over her like a tidal wave.

  “YOU IDIOT!” she screamed. It spouted out of her before she even knew it was coming. “We don’t need a treadmill! We want OUT of this cage! We don’t want a fucking hamster wheel that we just run and run and run on and never get anywhere!”

  Jeremy’s eyes went wide and his lips glued together in a rigid, pink line. He didn’t move. She couldn’t stop now. Her plan to gain his trust had taken a backseat.

  “Do you have any idea what it’s like to be trapped in here all day long? Have you ever had anyone do this to you? Is this some sort of crazy revenge because you were tortured and you want someone else to feel your pain?” she screamed.

  She sounded so angry that Jeremy was scared to respond. His heart contracted when he heard the word torture. That wasn’t what he had done. That’s not what he had meant to do.

  “No. I haven’t. That’s not it.”

  “Then what is it? Do you even know? Do you even have a reason for keeping us here? It’s not for money, then what is it?” She threw her hands into the air. “Are you going to rape us, is that it? Is that what you want?” Her voice was hoarse.

  She was disgusted, at both herself for saying these things in front of Ben, and at Jeremy for forcing her to do so.

  “No!” Jeremy said, so quickly and genuinely that she almost felt a twinge of guilt.

  “How the fuck do we know that?” she stampeded onwards. “You took us away from our family, from everything and everyone we love. Do you know how cruel that is?”

  Every word was shouted. It felt good to yell.

  “I didn’t mean for… I gave you food and shelter and I wanted you to be safe in here,” Jeremy stuttered.

  “Safe? Safe in here? Are you listening to yourself? YOU are the reason that we are not safe! We’re trapped here! We’re kidnapped!”

  “You stole us!” Ben’s little voice jumped in. Violet and Jeremy both looked at him for a moment, alarmed, but then Violet started up again.

  “You did steal us,” she said. “Like we were something dispensable that you could just pick up and drop whenever you felt like it. We’re humans, Jeremy! We need sunlight! We’re trapped down here and we can’t even stretch our legs or look out at the trees or sit in the sunshine. Don’t you know how important those things are?”

  “I’m so sorry,” Jeremy whispered, his eyes leaking fat, salty drops that he kept having to wipe away. His hands lingered on his cheeks as he did it, grasping his face as if to say, What have I done?

  “Then let us go!” she screamed. “Let us go if you feel so damn sorry! Because you saying sorry, and that you didn’t think of it, means nothing. Absolutely nothing! Do you realize that?” She pointed at him. “I don’t want your apologies. I want my mom. I want my friends. We want our lives back! You can’t just ‘sorry’ all of that away, that’s not how it works. Why can’t you see that, Jeremy?”

  The strained way she said his name cut right into the deepest part of him. All he wanted to do was keep saying he was sorry, but she’d taken those words away from him. Now he had no idea what to do. He didn’t want to walk away from her while she still had things to say, but he didn’t know how much more he could take.

  “I can’t let yo
u go,” he said. “I can’t do it right now.”

  He didn’t explain why. It wasn’t because he was afraid of the consequences. He couldn’t because in his heart, they were becoming his family. They were what he woke up in the morning thinking about.

  Some feisty part of him wanted to scream back at her, to say, I’m giving you everything I can, why isn’t it enough? Don’t I mean anything to you? But he already knew what the answer would be it and it broke his heart.

  “You can’t let us go, like hell you can’t,” she spit. “All you have to do is open the door. We’ll walk. Just don’t follow us. It’s as simple as that. We’ll never have to see each other again.”

  She was so far from understanding all that Jeremy wanted her to.

  “Just let us go, please? Please!,” she pleaded with her hands on her collarbone. “Look at this, you have two human beings trapped in your basement, begging you to be let go. Does it feel good to see us beg? Are you happy? Fine, I give up. I’m not going to dance around it anymore. I’m begging you to let us out of here. Please.”

  Her eyes full of tears stung her pale, puffy cheeks. She shouldn’t be crying. She’d lost almost all of her dignity, and she didn’t need to lose tears as well. But she couldn’t help it.

  “I can’t,” Jeremy said. “I’m sorry.”

  He didn’t know what else to say. He couldn’t form more words without his throat closing up. It felt as if someone was choking him, like Violet held her palms around his neck and squeezed tighter and tighter with every angry word.

  He couldn’t take any more. He turned and retreated for the door, arms out in front of him to make up for his blurred vision.

  “I’m not done!” Violet screamed. “Don’t you dare leave while I’m talking to you! You at least owe us that! Hey! I’m not done!”

  He shut the door behind him, locking it quickly, afraid she would storm it, kick it until it crumbled to bits. Jeremy pressed his back against the door. His breaths came out in frantic gasps. He gulped and sputtered and wiped his cheeks.

  “YOU COWARD!” she screamed right behind him, pummelling her fists into the door. He could feel every blow. They reverberated throughout his whole body, jangling his organs, shaking his insides around.