I woke up the next morning and my clothes were on. Travis wasn't there, and Rachel was in the shower. I started thinking about the night before; I didn't know if it was real or not. Either way, I wasn't going to let Travis near me alone. My dream about my father felt so real. I didn't know what was real and what wasn't anymore. Sometimes it's best not to know.

I sat in bed under the blanket waiting for Rachel to get out of the bathroom. I desperately needed to take a shower. I waited around for about half an hour until I heard the water finally stop running. Not too long after, Rachel walked into the bedroom. She stood in the middle of the bedroom looking at me. Her eyes had so much pain; her fake smile couldn't fool me. I got out of bed and hugged her.

"What happened?" I asked her. If Travis touched her; I would kill him, or die trying. I wouldn't wait it out anymore.

"Nothing." She looked away.

"Did he hurt you?" I asked.

"No, he hurt you. I'm so sorry I didn't help you. I couldn't, he drugged me." Rachel cried. She could no longer hide the pain from me.

"Listen to me, I'm okay. We are both alive and we are getting out of here. We have to stay strong, we can cry when we are out." I tried to explain. I lied to her though, I'm not okay.

"I woke up to him leaving this morning; once I heard the door shut I came in here to see you. I felt so horrible, you were crying in your sleep. You weren't wearing anything so I put your clothes back on." Rachel reached her breaking point. She could no longer stand, her body hit the floor. She was crying like a baby, gasping for air. I sat on the floor next to her and wrapped my arms around her. I started to rock her back and forth.

"Don't cry, Rach. I'm okay and it's the least of our problems right now. When I get out of the shower we will talk about an escape plan." I rubbed her shoulder and stood up. I grabbed a new pair of clothes and took them to the bathroom with me. I turned the shower on then went in the bathroom cabinet under the sink. I pulled out a new towel and a couple of filed plastic knives fell onto the floor. I can't believe I forgot about them. I put them under a different towel so I could get back to them later. I hung my towel on the rack and got undressed. I stepped into the hot shower and just stood there. I stood there for a good ten minutes thinking of an escape plan. All I really had was sharpened plastic. The plastic knives weren't guaranteed to work. They could end up breaking, or they probably wouldn't do any real damage. They could be used but we would need something else. We needed something that would be guaranteed to work, if not to kill him then to knock him out at least. I scrubbed my body then quickly washed my hair. I turned the shower off and quickly dried my body off with the towel. I quickly got dressed and ran out of the bathroom; I needed to talk to Rachel. I walked into the bedroom and Rachel was lying in bed.

"Do you remember when I told you I tried to kill myself?" I asked her.

"Yes, I remember. Why?" Rachel asked as she sat up.

"Well what I did was file down a few plastic knives until they were sharp. I forgot about them until I just found them. They could possibly help us but we need more than that." I explained quickly before I forgot what I wanted to say.

"We will have to stay open minded." Rachel said before she went into deep thought. We both went silent once we heard the basement door slam shut.

"Hello girls, do you know what today is?" Travis looked nervous and excited at the same time. Rachel and I shook our heads in confusion. "Come on, I'm sure you know what today is."

"What is today?" I asked. I was afraid of hearing the answer. It was probably something horrible like the day of our deaths.

"It's your birthday, Princess. I have something special planned for later. I want you two to be dressed in something nice by the time I'm back. I'll pick up dinner on the way home." Travis kissed my cheek and smiled at Rachel before going back up the stairs.

"Happy birthday, Al. I'm sorry it's not ideal but I promise when we get out we will do something nice." She said as she gave me a sympathetic hug.

"That would be fun, let's watch a movie or something."

"Right now?" Rachel asked.

"After we change our clothes." I walked over to the closet and Rachel followed. I took out the only two dresses and handed one to Rachel. We turned our backs to each other and changed our clothes.

"Now let's go watch a movie." Rachel said as she walked out of the bedroom. I started looking for Precious but I couldn't find her.

"Wait! We need to find the cat." I yelled.

"Here kitty kitty!" Rachel called. I got down on my hands and knees and looked under the bed; she wasn't there. I ran into the living room and looked under the couch. I found Precious but I also found something else.

"Rachel get in here I found something we could use!"

"What did you find?" She asked me.

"Do you remember last night? Travis stuck a needle in you so you would sleep."

"I remember that's what he did to me at the school, too. What about it?"

"Look at what I found." I held the needle up to show her.

"What are we going to do with that?" Rachel raised her left eyebrow in confusion.

"Are you kidding? There is a couple of things we could do with that." Rachel still gave me the same confused look. "You know when you go to the doctor and they give you a shot?" Rachel nodded. "Well before they give you the shot they make sure there isn't any air in it. We could give him a shot of air and he could have a heart attack, a stroke, or respiratory failure. The other thing we could do is put chemicals in it, but the problem is we don't have any. Besides, I don't know what cleaning product would work." I explained.

"How do you know all that?" She questioned.

"I asked a doctor once, and then I looked it up because I was curious." She looked at me like I was crazy. Truth is I have to be crazy if I play Travis' game. I took the needle to the bathroom and stuffed it under the towels where the plastic knives were. I straightened out the towels so it didn't look like they were messed with; then made my way back to the living room. I picked up Precious and sat on the couch next to Rachel. I put precious on my lap and waited for the movie Rachel picked to start.

A little while after the movie, Travis came down the stairs. He was carrying two bags, one was big and the other one was small.

"I hope you girls are hungry, I brought home Chinese food." Travis smiled and placed the big bag on the table. "Come and eat before it gets cold." Rachel and I sat at the table while we waited for him to give us our food.

"Thank you Travis." I said while I looked up and smiled, I can be fake when I need to.

"Anything for you, Princess." Travis placed our food in front of us. Rachel gave me an awkward smile. We all opened our oyster pail boxes and started eating. It was actually good but it wasn't like I could enjoy it. Nothing down here could ever be enjoyable.

After dinner Travis cleaned up and told us to stay seated. He went back upstairs. When he was coming back down the stairs he had a white box in his hands. He put it on the table and went into the kitchen to get paper plates. When he was back at the table he opened the box. There was a medium sized cake. There wasn't any writing on it. It looked disgusting; there were cherries all over the top. Travis put a piece of the already sliced cake on each plate. When he noticed I only took one bite, his face grew angry.

"How come you're not eating your cake?" Travis asked while he looked at me with the eyes of death.

"I'm just full, I'm sorry." I was full but that wasn't the reason why.

"I understand, I guess that was a lot of food." Travis' face went back to normal, he looked happy again. "Rachel, why don't you throw the plates out and put the cake in the fridge for us?" Rachel stood up quickly so he didn't have to tell her again. Travis stood up and took out a box from the small bag. "Open it up." He looked nervous. I opened the box and inside was a jewelry box. He took the jewelry box out of my hands and opened it up. Travis took out a ring and slid it on my left ring finger.

"What is this for?" I asked nervously.

"You are going to be my wife, isn't that great?" His smile grew big.

"Yeah that's uh, great." I lied. His wife? That must be some kind of joke. Rachel came back to the table and her eyes lit up in fear.

"You are to keep this ring on; if I see it off even once you're friend dies. Do you understand?"

"Yes, it's beautiful I never want to take it off." I smiled. I was getting better at his game, he better watch his back though. I'm like a snake; I can strike at any moment.

"I'm happy you like it, guess what?" Rachel sat in her chair in silence as Travis and I talked.

"I don't know what?" I asked while I pretended to care.

"I can legally marry people in the state of Nevada. I can do our own ceremony so we don't even have to leave. Isn't that great, Princess?" His eyes lit up in happiness. I couldn't wait to burst his bubble, sadly I had to.

"That's amazing, it makes it so special." I replied while trying to hide my disgust. Rachel's eyes widened. She better not think I'm being serious.

"We can start a family and it's going to be perfect." He said as he pushed his glasses back up. I almost puked in my mouth.

After what felt like hours Travis left and Rachel and I got ready for bed. Once we were in the bed Rachel started talking.

"You weren't serious, were you?" She turned her head towards me.

"No, of course not. He's disgusting, I just have to play along and so do you." I tried explaining.

"Good, I was getting worried for a minute. It seemed like you were actually serious."

"At least I made it seem real, I have a plan. It's going to be horrible but it will be worth it in the end if it gets us out." I told her.

"What's your plan? Remember we only have one shot." Rachel reminded me.

"I know but this could possibly be guaranteed."

After I told Rachel my plan I closed my eyes and fell asleep. I saw my dad in my dream again, but this time it was just a memory.

______________________________________

What is Alice's plan?

Comment and vote if you want ❤️