Chapter 1
The rail was cold even though my hand was sweating. I felt the chrome under Marcus's hand first, because his knuckles were right next to mine. They were all scraped up and bruised, with little white scars that looked like they had been there a long time. His black leather vest smelled like outside and gasoline and something smoky, and the patch on it said Iron Wolves. I remembered the letters because I'd stared at them while the machine next to my bed kept beeping.
Andrea stood in the doorway. I could see her dark blue shirt and her gold necklace in the corner of my eye. She hadn't come all the way in. The room was dark gray and the light from the ceiling was too white and buzzed a little. Outside the window it was black. Mommy hadn't come back yet and the clock above the door said 11:47.
Marcus was kneeling so his face was even with my pillow. His beard was short and gray on the sides. He wasn't smiling or frowning. He just looked at me like he was trying not to scare me, and his breathing was slow. I held Rabbit tighter. Rabbit was beige and his nose was pink and his ears flopped over my thumbs. I hadn't let go of him since the ambulance.
My name is Lily. I was seven and I was in the pediatric hospital room that night because Mommy told me to run.
I didn't know where Mommy was. The nurse had asked me and I'd said I didn't know. That was true. Mommy had left our apartment fast and told me to hide in the bathroom and then later to run to Mrs. Deluca next door. My throat hurt from crying and my eyes stung. Marcus had been there when I woke up. I didn't know him, but Mommy had a picture of him on her phone once and she'd said if anything ever happened, Marcus would come.
The beep from the monitor kept going. I watched Marcus's hand tighten on the rail. His scars moved when his fingers moved.
I swallowed and my voice came out scratchy. I didn't mean to say it loud but the room was so quiet it sounded loud anyway.
"Mommy said the bad man might come back before sunrise."
The words hung there. I felt my eyes fill up again and I pressed my face a little into Rabbit's head. I didn't know what time sunrise was. Mommy had said before the sky got light. She'd said it while she was shoving clothes into my backpack and her hands were shaking. She kept looking at the front door.
Marcus didn't move right away. He blinked slow and his eyebrows pulled together, but not like he was mad at me. He took a small breath through his nose. I could see the bruise on his knuckle up close.
Andrea made a little sound in the doorway, like she'd inhaled fast. I saw her hand come up to her chest. She didn't say anything but her eyes got wide and stayed wide.
Then Marcus spoke. His voice was low and careful, like he didn't want the monitor to hear him either.
"What did your mommy tell you to do?"
He said it soft. He kept his hand on the rail and didn't reach for me, which I was glad about. I squeezed Rabbit so hard my fingers hurt. Mommy's instructions were looping in my head the way they had since she knelt down and held my shoulders. She'd said it twice and made me repeat it.
I breathed in and it hitched. I looked at Marcus and then at Andrea in the doorway and then back at Rabbit's pink nose because I couldn't look at either of them while I said it.
"If mommy didn't come back, I had to tell someone what she hid at home."
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As soon as I said it, the air in the room changed. Marcus's jaw got tight and I saw a muscle move in his cheek. He didn't ask what it was right away. He just stared at me, and I realized he was holding his breath. Andrea stepped one half-step forward out of the doorway, her mouth a little open, her hand still on her necklace. The light buzzed and the IV pole cast a thin shadow across my blanket.
I didn't know what Mommy hid. I just knew where she'd put it and that the bad man wanted it. And I knew he was supposed to come back before the sun came up.
