My eyes open and I feel cold. I feel cold and yet the hot sting of pain still throbs in my face and my stomach and my groin. I close my eyes in a blink and a blurry vision of grey and then a purple square and lights, dim lights above come to me. I can hear it in the back ground, soothing, sweet:

“Someday my prince will come, someday we’ll meet again and away to his castle we’ll go, and be happy forever I know…”

I blink again and my vision clears. I’m on my side, head against the concrete looking towards her bed. She’s under the covers, all I can see is her mess of brown hair around her head on the pillow and she’s singing, watching Snow White and singing. I shiver.

“Justin?” I hear a hoarse whisper beside me and I feel someone pulling on my shoulder. I’m gently rolled onto my back, pain runs through me but also relief when I see him there. Trace. “Oh God, Are you…” He shakes his head. “That’s a stupid question. Can I do anything?”

“No.” I say but it doesn’t come out. I try again. “No…”

“Are you hungry?” He reaches up underneath his shirt and pulls out some bread. “I put a bit of my sandwich in my shirt when they weren’t looking.”

I want to smile at him. He’s finally come around and is thinking on his own now. Maybe he’s not going to be all depressed. My head aches. I feel like I have the worst hangover plus that feeling that you have when you’ve been up for 24 hours straight and you fall asleep and then five minutes later someone wakes you up. That’s how I feel. But Trace just got lunch, so that means it must be afternoon. “What time is it?”

He sighs and looks down at me. “It’s been hours since they brought lunch.”

I turn my head to Sarah. She hasn’t noticed that I’m up yet and I’m glad. I need to talk to Trace and I don’t want her getting upset about what happened last night. I know she saw what they did to me and I know that she was struggling when Keem put that pill down her throat. I wonder, I wonder if seeing uncle hurt me like that changed anything in her. It had to have.

“How long has she been up?”

Trace sighs and I look at him. He shakes his head at me. “Don’t worry about her Justin. It’s her that got you messed up.”

“No, it was my own damn fault. Can you help me up?” Trace reaches forward and tries to put his hands under my back, but its hard since he’s cuffed and all. After a few tries and a hell of a lot of effort I plop back against the wall and gently rest my head against the cemented wall.

We both turn our heads when we hear a soft moan and she rolls over with her eyes closed, mouth slightly open against her pillow, clutching Abu.

“She’s been dozing on and off all day.” I turn and look at Trace who’s staring at her. He’s freaked. “Awake one minute, singing along, asleep the next.”

“She’s on Quaaludes Trace.” His eyes dart to mine. “I promised her I wouldn’t say anything but yesterday, when you were asleep she showed me her pills. That bastard told her she has some disease, some sun disease and is given her fucking illegal sleeping pills to cure it. I think that’s what they gave me last night.”

His eyebrows bunch. “I didn’t think…”

“They don’t.” I cut him off, knowing what he was going to say. “That’s the thing Trace. He’s feeding her a hell of a lot of lies. Quaaludes have anything to do with the sun. ”

“So?” He shrugs. “He’s probably feeding us lies, too.”

I smile at him and tell him the good news about Sarah. I know yesterday I fucked up but she trusts me now. I just hope she still does. “She trusts me Trace. She showed me her medicine. I tried to get her not to take it last night and that’s what caused this.”

“Stop it Justin.” Trace bites out. “We’re…We need a miracle to get out of her. You’re not fucking James Bond or something.”

“What if she’s our miracle?” I ask and he rolls his eyes and hits his head back against the wall.

“You’ve lost it.”

“You’re giving up.” The more I talk the more I can feel my strength coming back to me. The pain is still there, but manageable and the more I talk to Trace the more it starts to affect me, like a hot cup of coffee in the morning. “Man, you got so much waiting for you outside of this, Elisha and all. And I’m not ready to say goodbye to my momma or the rest of my family. And…and I don’t care what you say.” I nod over to Sarah and steal a quick glance. She’s so sweet when she’s sleeping. God, I gotta get her out of here. Who knows how long she’s been stuck in this hell? Sleeping with that fucking pig and being told lie after lie, forcing her to act like a child. “She’s not part of this Trace. Can’t you see? She’s been turned insane by him. We gotta get her out of here. We gotta get ourselves out of here. She’s not locked up, she gets to get out of this room.”

He clears his throat, pauses for a moment and doesn’t look at me when he says, “What about Cam?”

“Huh?”

“You said you’re not ready to say goodbye to your mom or your family.” He stares at me, hard and I feel like I’m in definite trouble. “What about Cameron?”

“I…” I sigh and give up and tell him the truth. “I haven’t really thought about her Trace. I’m thinking about getting us out of here.” I haven’t thought about her. And the way she acted on the phone, I really don’t wanna think about her. We’ve been having problems for a while anyway, and thinking about her is only depressing to me.

So I think about Sarah and how to get out of here.

“No, you’re obsessing over that…” He points his finger at her like she’s a creature behind a cage and I want to punch him. “That thing…”

“Yeah, ok, dammit. You’re right.” I narrow my eyes at him and try to sit up a bit more, but it hurts to breathe when I do that. “I am obsessing over her. I’m obsessing over her because she’s our way out of this. And while I’m trying, trying my BEST to save us, all you wanna do is sit here and cry and be pathetic.”

He’s about to say something back to me when we hear someone at the door. We both look for a moment and see the red light turn green.

“Pretend you are asleep…” He whispers to me and I fall down against my side and wait. I stare at her for a moment. She’s still asleep, probably dreaming of Aladdin and all of her other Disney friends. I just want to hold her and protect her and tell her that from here on out I got her and I’m not gonna let anything happen to her. But until I’m out of here, until I get her out of here, I can’t do anything about it.

And that kills me.

I hear footsteps coming down, down and I close my eyes and wait.

A few seconds pass, more…

I can hear myself breathing.

“Has he woken up yet?” I hear the guy’s voice say. It’s hoarse.

“No...” Trace says. He’s terrified.

“He will soon.” I hear someone move, coming closer. God I hope he doesn’t kick me again. But he doesn’t and soon I hear the sound of a bed squeaking and hear, “Sarah…”

I want to see what he’s doing, but I don’t open my eyes. “Sarah, wake up. I got a surprise for you.”

“Huh?” She says, in a perfect, sweet, innocent manner.

“I got you a new movie.”

He is responded by an excited, but feeble voice. “You did?”

“Mmhmm. I’m sorry about last night. But when your friends disobey and are disrespectful they’re gonna get punished, ok?”

“Kay…” She sounds more terrified than Trace.

“Now be a good girl and give uncle a kiss.”

I squint open my eyes and see him laying over her on the bed, touching her through her t-shirt, his mouth open against hers.

I want to throw up.

“There…” He whispers. “I have to go out of town tonight but Keem will be down in a little bit, ok?”

She doesn’t say anything and I wait. I hear movement. It goes from my left to my right and then a minute later I hear a door slam.

“He’s gone.” Trace says.

I open my eyes and cautiously look over my shoulder. When I see he’s telling the truth… Wait, what am I thinking? Of course he’d be telling the truth. I push myself up trying to cause as little pain to my body as possible in doing so. By the time I’m resting back against the wall again, I’m out of breath.

“You’re awake!”

I open my eyes and roll my head to the left. She’s sitting on her bed, staring at me with wide eyes. She looks a little scared, a little unsure, and clearly upset.

I try to smile. “Yeah. I am.” I notice there’s something in her hand, a puffy, white VHS case, of course it’s Disney. “What cha got there?”

She looks at the cover and then shows us to it. “What’s it say?” She asks shyly.

I nudge Trace but he’s already staring at it. It’s one of Trace’s favorite movies. Good, maybe he’ll lighten up a bit when we watch it. He’s really good at doing all the voices for it, too. Maybe he’ll do some for Sarah. “Monster’s Inc. That’s a really great one.”

“You’ve seen it already!?” She’s smiling. Thank god she’s smiling. It’s a purely amazed smile, with maybe a bit of awe. She’s in awe of me right now.

“Yup.” I nod and point to Trace. “He can do some of the voices of the characters.”

Trace mutters “shut up” to me but I ignore him ‘cause she asks me a question after looking at the cover for a minute. “What’s the ‘ink’ mean?”

“Oh…” She throws me off, but finally I’m able to pull myself together. It still shocks me when I realize how much stuff she doesn’t know. “Um, it stands for incorporated…” She just blinks at me. “Like a company or a business.”

“Ok…” She says, but I’m pretty sure she doesn’t understand anything I just said. She stares at the cover some more and I stare at her, wondering what she’s thinking about, trying to get into that head of hers. It’s hard but it’s something I so desperately want to do. I wanna figure out what’s going on in there and maybe get some answers about what makes her act the way she does, well, besides the dick upstairs.

And if it gets us out of here in the process then that would be perfect.

“You gonna put it in?” I ask her.

She looks at me with those huge eyes and I find myself getting lost in them. That’s so cliché, but really, I forget where I am and I can’t help but wonder how much those brown eyes have seen. I find myself wondering if she has an eye problem, a lot of people do. A lot of people need glasses or contacts and I know she has neither. I use to have contacts but I got that laser surgery a few years ago. I doubt she’s ever had that. And with as much TV as she watches… But maybe that was just a myth momma’s tell kids to get them away from the TV.

I don’t know. That’s stupid, she probably doesn’t need glasses. But, if she does, and if we get out of this, I’ll have to take her to my old Doctor. Dr. Morris. He was great. Yeah…

“Justin…”

I snap out of it and she’s closer now and kneeling down in front of me. I shake my head a bit and plaster a smile. “Yeah?”

She crawls over and sits right beside me. I hear Trace go “oh god” in a groan but I ignore him. He really needs to lighten up about Sarah. She’s not gonna hurt us. I feel her shoulder press into mine as she sits against the wall and she looks up at me with watery eyes. “They hurt you.”

“Nah…” I lie, not wanting her to worry about me.

I feel her fingers touch my face and I suck in a breath. It’s sore, yeah, but I’m more amazed that she’s touching me so…not intimately, no, that’s not it. But…I don’t know. It’s something. She holds my face and I just stare at her. “Uncle hurt you…” She whispers.

I let out the breath I had been holding in and nod slowly. “Yeah, he did.”

As she stares at me and takes her hand away I can almost see the battle going on in her head. Uncle hurt me, her friend, and that’s something that she’s not going to be able to forget. Asshole made a mistake. He made a big mistake. If him beating me up helps her lose trust in him and get us help, then I’m glad he did it.

He could have done without kicking me in the balls though.

“Why don’t you go put that in and we’ll watch it?” I tell her and she smiles again and scrambles up and towards the TV.

“I don’t get it Justin.”

I whip my head to the other side. He’s staring at her with narrowed eyes. “What?”

His eyes cut to mine. “What makes you trust her? What makes you think she’s not in on all of this…”

I lower my voice and grit out to him. “Cause I know her.” God, what does he take me for? A Fool? Well fuck you Trace. I’m trying to save us here. Fucking wallow in your misery for all I care. Maybe they should just get rid of you before you ruin our chances of getting out of this…

No.

No.

I don’t mean that. God, I don’t mean that. You hear me right? I take it back. Maybe he’s right. I mean, not about me trusting Sarah. She’s harmless. But maybe I am being a little bit foolish with out chances of getting out of here.

“You don’t know shit about fucking shit.” He growls at me and turns his whole body away from me. I stare at his back and know that if he wasn’t handcuffed, he’s arms would be defiantly crossed over his chest. Whatever. I’m not being foolish and I know more than he ever could.

I take back what I said before. I don’t want anything to happen to him and I don’t want him to be rid of. But his attitude is in a need of a change. A major one.

“Fine…” I say arrogantly and push myself off the floor. I wobble a bit and brace my shoulder against the wall. I’m kind of dizzy now and out of breath. I wheeze a bit when I take in a breath and I feel my heart thumping. I need to lie down.

“Come sit over here.” She smiles at me and pats the space beside her on the bed. She’s lying on her stomach, like always. She’s so sweet and so pretty. At least I have one friend down here that’s got a positive attitude about things. She might be a little demented, but she’s a cool girl.

And lying on a bed is a hell of a lot more comfortable than a floor. I take her invitation with a smile and sit down carefully before pulling my legs up on the bed and sitting up against the pillows. Her feet are near my chest, cute little bare feet. She looks over her shoulders and smiles at me then says “Yay! It’s starting” when the opening credits start to roll.

I smile at her and then look over at Trace. He’s still not looking at me, still has his back turned. Fine, shut me out. See if I fucking care.

I lay there and watch a few minutes of the beginning of Monster’s Inc. but soon find my eyes get heavy and before I know it I nod off.

-------

I can’t sleep. I guess all the Quaaludes are out of my system now and that afternoon nap really did me in. I slept for a long time. Sarah woke me up with a nudge and when I opened my eyes she was hovering above me, smiling. “Sleepy!” She giggled at me and I smiled at her, yawned and then proceeded to get off her bed and walk back to my spot beside Trace.

I didn’t know when the uncle guy or Keem would be coming down again and didn’t want to get into trouble. She didn’t question me but instead went and grabbed a drink from the fridge and pulled out a few little American singles of cheese. I plopped on the floor and watched her unwrap the cheese and eat them. I use to do that as a kid, now…well, it’s kind of gross if you think about it.

Trace didn’t talk to me the rest of the day and I didn’t try to get him to talk to me, so I went back to sleep. I woke up later and Keem was down there, waiting outside the bathroom door. Sarah was inside and Trace was eating a sandwich. There was one in front of me and a bottle of water.

My stomach growled and I sat up, even though the pain of yesterday was leaving me, the ache was increasing. I felt sore everywhere and my breathing was getting worse. Still, I slammed into my sandwich and devoured it in less than a minute.

Sarah came out in her pjs and jumped into bed and pulled the covers over her. “You do everything you’re supposed to?” Keem said and I think that was the first thing I had ever heard from him besides that first thing…that oh shit is right comment back a week or, two or…whatever ago.

She nodded. “I took my medicine and brushed my teeth and used the potty and now I’m tired.” She sunk down under the covers and smiled up at Keem. He didn’t smile back. I stared at her and she didn’t look at me. She took her medicine. I just know it. I realized I hadn’t made much progress the other day. I drank back some water and then sighed.

Keem said that he’d turn the lights out in a few minutes and then left all of us there. Trace and I threw our empty bottles over into the corner of the room like we had been since we were put down there. There’s a pretty big pile there now.

The lights went out and we were surrounded by darkness. A few minutes passed. I heard her move in her bed, heard the sheets sliding. Then it was quiet. I waited and lay down on my back and stared up at the ceiling, trying to see if my eyes would dilate enough to get any bit of light and see anything. But it was dark, completely dark.

I was surprised Sarah didn’t get scared of the dark. Most kids do. Trace started to snore, loud and then it quieted, he coughed and I heard him sigh and roll over.

That seemed like forever ago and I still can’t sleep.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll work on Trace some more. Maybe I can get him to open up, do some of those voices for Sarah. He always did a great impression of that old slug lady in the movie. I don’t remember her name. I probably should have stayed up and watched that movie this afternoon with Sarah, but her bed felt so nice. I forgot what it was like to actually sleep on a mattress. I mean, it’s probably nothing to mine back home, or even the one at the ranch we were staying at, but it’s better than a cemented floor.

Anything’s better than that.

This sucks.

Like really…

I’m stuck in a dungeon and…there’s like, nothing to do but sit here in the darkness.

Stuck in a dungeon no where to go.

Wondering why I didn’t just say no.

But there was a bird and Trace had to see it.

And now, right now we’re in deep, deep shit

This is pathetic.

There’s this crazy girl who stays with us

She’s really messed up and Trace makes a fuss.

He says I shouldn’t talk to her, shouldn’t get in her head.

But if I don’t, him and I both are soon to be dead.

Here’s the chorus now, let’s go…

In a cement room

No windows looking out

I really wanna run

But the bad guy’s gotta gun.

I sit here and think

What’s it all about

I wanna go home

I wanna get away

But all I can do is sit here and say...

I’m in a cement room

No windows looking out

I really wanna run

But the bad guy’s gotta gun.

Man, I haven’t sung in so long, or written anything. This is so bad, but whatever. Something to pass the time. Maybe I can whisper it, just ya know, sing real softly. This is by far the gayest song I’ve ever written. I stifle a laugh.

No it’s not the movies

No it’s not tv.

I’m really in this place

This really is me

And soon he’s gonna get tired

And we will no longer be.

Oh yeah I’m in a cement room…

“Justin…”

I stop singing and get really quiet. It was a whisper and I don’t know where it came from or who said it. Great, now I’m making horrible songs and hearing things.

I’m quiet. I hear nothing.

Then there it is again, “Justin…”

It’s her. “Sarah?” I call and the next thing I know I hear sheets moving again and the soft pad of feet against the floor.

I feel her body heat against me and she’s right there, next to me. I can’t see her, but I can sense her. Then I feel her hand timidly touch my chest, trying to make sure I’m there. “Is this you?”

“Yes…” I say. I’d sit up, but I don’t see the point if she can’t see me. “What’s going on?”

“I’m scared.” She means it. I can hear it in her voice. She sounds like Steven, just like him, when he can’t sleep.

“Why are you scared?” I chuckle. “Was my singing that bad?”

“No, I liked it. But I can’t go to sleep ‘cause I keep hearing something.”

“It was just me singing.” I whisper and move my hand just a bit, to see if I can feel her. I’m not trying to like, touch her. I just wanna see how close she is. I’m not that psycho.

“No something else.” She whispers back.

I almost ask her what it is that is keeping her up, but then, amazingly, it hits me. She’s awake. She’s not passed out. “Wait, you can’t sleep?”

Her voice is still hushed, but excited, proud when she says, “I didn’t take my medicine. I put it down the potty.”

“You didn’t take it!” I’m ecstatic. She’s smarter than I give her credit for. Keem let her do all her stuff by herself, trusted her to do it, and uncle trusted Keem to see that she got it done. And she took advantage of the situation, trusted me instead, and now, now she’s not passed out.

But she’s clearly wide away. “That’s my girl.”

“I did good!” She touches my chest again and soon I feel her against me, hugging me. It kinda feels nice to have that kind of affection. She pulls away.

“Yeah. You can still take the stuff in the white bottle and the little flat one. Yeah, you should definitely take the flat one if you keep going upstairs to spend the night with uncle. But the stuff in the orange bottle is bad.”

“Ok.” She’s exited and I don’t know what to say. But as soon as I try and search my brain with something useful to say and do, hear voice is back scared, terrified and she’s clutching my arm with one of her hands. “Will you sleep in my bed?”

“I don’t think I can.” That kind of freaks me out that she wants me to sleep with her. I mean. I did it this afternoon but that was by accident. And no matter how much I try and compare her to my brothers and how they act, it doesn’t change the fact that she’s not a little kid. She lying beside me and I can feel her body pressed up against me. It…it would just be wrong.

Right?

I change the subject. “Why are you scared Sarah?”

“I heard something.” She pauses and then I feel her lean further against me. She’s lying beside me, clutching my arm with hers and then she puts her face near my ear and whispers. “I think Randall is over there.”

Randall…Randall. Who the hell is Randall? That’s my middle name. Hmm…Oh yeah, right. That guy from Monster’s Inc. The bad one that can change colors.

“Oh, I’m sure it’s not him.” I say.

“Then what is it?”

“Probably a mouse.” Shit Justin, she’s probably terrified of mice.

“Mickey?!” She almost squeals. Good, whew…

“Maybe. Here why don’t you scoot over some so we don’t wake up Trace.” I hear her move again and I push my self over a few feet, towards her bed and away from Trace. I bump into her.

“I’m going to sleep here tonight.” She whispers and I hear her bed squeak. Just great, now she’s gonna sleep beside me anyway.

“Don’t you wanna sleep in your comfy bed?”

Something soft lands half on my face and I reach up with both my chained hands and feel it. It’s a pillow. Then something else lands on me. I reach for it and it feels like a stuffed animal. “No, I wanna sleep here, beside you.” Before I can say anything more I feel something else, with a bit of weight but soft, cover me and her. It’s a blanket. She curls up to me and I lay there, rigid as she hugs my arm and Abu. She rests her head near my shoulder.

I feel uncomfortable. I shouldn’t be lying with her like this. I mean, she’s a grown woman. But...but she’s not. I gotta think of this like when my brothers can’t sleep, or something. I have to. I don’t wanna be a sicko like that uncle character. She soon is moving the pillow so it’s under my head. Oh god, Heaven. She’s letting me share a pillow with her and has covered me in a blanket. Maybe this isn’t so bad.

Her body curls up more against mine and she clutches my upper arm tighter. I kind wish I wasn’t handcuffed so I could hold her, but no, that’s a stupid idea. God, Justin. You freak.

“Justin?” She whispers a minute later.

“Hmm?”

“You’re my best friend.”

I don’t know what to say to her. That…that means a lot. I mean, I know I’ve been making myself be that for her, but still. I’m…I’m honored or something. I wonder if she has ever had one before. “Will you stay forever Justin?'

I clear my throat a little bit. “I can’t.” That’s another lie, as far as I know this is gonna be my burial ground.

“Why not?”

“Cause like I told you the other day. This isn’t my home. I have a house and a family and friends and dogs and a job and everything else out there, outside this room and this house.”

She’s quiet and then asks, “Then why aren’t you with them, too? Why don’t your other friends come play?”

“Because…” I sigh and try and figure out how I’m gonna explain this situation with out destroying her. “In any of the movies you watch, do…do people get kidnapped? Taken from where they want to be by mean, evil witches, or men or something?”

“Yeah. In Lady and the Tramp, she’s put in the pound and…”

I interrupt her. “What about One Hundred and One Dalmatians? When Cruella Deville takes the puppies…”

“That movie is scary.” She clutches me tighter and whispers, “I don’t like it.”

“That’s…that’s what’s happened to us.”

I don’t think she heard me. “Oh and there’s The Rescuers.”

“I haven’t ever seen that one.” I say, realizing this is pointless. I yawn, starting to feel a little sleepy now.

“Well these two mice, not Mickey and Minnie though, they find out someone needs help and they go and save this girl from this…” Her breath catches in her throat, and well, so does mine. Her voice betrays her. She doesn’t want to say it. But it’s too late and it comes out. “Fr-from this bad man.”

I swallow hard and she doesn’t make a sound. “Really…”

“Uncle’s not bad.” She rushes to say, trying to not only convince me, but to convince herself as well. “He just got mad at us the other day.”

“He gets mad a lot doesn’t he?”

She just sniffs. It’s quiet again and stays that way for a while. I realize it’s over. She’s not going to push it anymore and I don’t want to traumatize her anymore so I just stay still. It kind of feels nice to have her against me. I hate it though. Sometimes I make progress with her, but other times, when I hit these brick walls, it’s so, so frustrating. Maybe one day she’ll figure it out and realize that uncle is the bad guy.

I hear something like a very faint squeak and then hear something sound like its over near where our empty water bottles are. She clutches me tighter and I feel and hear her gasp.

“It’s just Mickey,” I say.

“Promise?”

“Mmmhmm. Ever heard of Disney World?”

“Maybe. Sometimes they talk about it before the movies come on, but I don’t know what it is.”

“Oh my goodness Sarah. It’s this place that you would love. Mickey Mouse lives there, and so do Cinderella and Peter Pan and Snow White and all your favorite people from your movies. It’s the city that they live in. And there’s all this fun stuff to do.” I chuckle to myself and say, “And, actually, I use to work there when I was a kid.

“There…there really is a place?!”

I laugh and I think I can almost see the excitement in her face, though my eyes barely let me see the outline of her form, now leaning over me. “Shh, don’t wake up Trace. But yeah, and you can meet all of them. And everyone is so nice and friendly. And you can meet Belle, and the little mermaid and Jasmine and…”

"Jasmine?!" I’m shocked that Trace doesn’t wake up, but he doesn’t make a sound. “I feel her rest beside me again, her head back against my shoulder. “Wow…” She says. I’ve amazed her. I’ve done good.

It’s weird. The way she talks and how she acts is exactly like a child, but feeling her pressed up against me, holding onto me, well, she feels like a grown woman. I don’t mean to say this like I’m a pervert, like that dick head is, but, but she really does have a woman’s body. She’s soft and, and yeah…

STOP IT JUSTIN!

Maybe being stuck down here is making me crazy. God, maybe I am being turned into a freak like her or something. I wonder how long that sick asshole is gonna keep us here.

A question rises in my mind and I have to ask. "Sarah..."

"Yeah…"

"How old are you?"

“I dunno.” She says casually.

"Well, when's your birthday?"

“I don’t have one.”

I chuckle a little. “Everyone has a birthday.”

“I don’t know mine.” She says, now not so casual, now a little sad.

Shit, now I’ve depressed her. I gotta get her happy again. “Oh yeah, and Disney World isn’t the only place. There’s also Disney Land. And I have a house near both of them.

"There's TWO!?" She all but shouts, forgotten are her birthday woes.

"Oh yeah,” I say and she just says “wow” in her amazed childish voice. Now, now I gotta get her to think about getting out of her. Yes, yes Justin. Get her to want to get out, and then, then she’ll help you. “I'd really like to take you there Sarah."

“I’d like to go with you.” Funny. She doesn’t sound very childish anymore.

“I’ll introduce you to Jasmine and Aladdin.”

“You know them?” She’s in awe, again.

“Yeah. We’re not that close, 'cause well, they’re really busy, ya know? But, I’ve met them before.”

“I can’t wait.” She says in her little amazed voice. I smile in the darkness. Yeah, now we’re getting somewhere. Now I can use that to my advantage.

I feel her move and almost ask what she’s doing and where’s she’s going but feel her against me again. It’s weird. What the hell is she doing? She’s like laying half on me now.

She’s close, I can feel her. Her lips press into mine softly and… Oh my god.

“Stop!” I say and push her off me. It takes a moment, another. One more. And finally it sinks in. She just kissed me on the mouth. “No Sarah, no…”

This is fucked up. Trace was right. I can’t trust her. She’s…she just…oh my god, she just kissed me

“But…” She sniffs and the whine in her voice comes out. She’s about to panic. “But uncle says you do that to someone when you love them.” I gasp and close my eyes. Oh no, now she’s in love with me.

No…no Justin. No, now, come on. Get a grip. She’s not in love. She doesn’t even know what that means. She loves you, like a friend would, like a sister would, but…but she doesn’t know the difference ‘cause that pervert told her that kissing and, probably other things are expressions of love. And well, they are. But not…not for platonic love. Oh fuck. How the hell am I supposed to explain the difference in love and love…? God, I don’t even know what platonic means.

“You don’t kiss your friends Sarah.” I say slowly, calmly, well as calm as I can.

“But I love you.” Great, she’s freaking out. “You’re my best friend Justin, my…my only friend besides uncle and Abu.”

“Yeah but, uncle told you wrong.” She gasps and clutches my arm so tight it hurts. “Well, I mean. You kiss someone you love, yes, but not this kind of love.”

“I don’t understand.”

Neither do I.

I sigh and think about it for a moment. I lick my dry lips and stare at the ceiling that I can sort of see now that I’ve been looking around in the dark for I don’t know, hours. Ok, maybe, maybe this will work. “When a mommy and daddy love each other it’s the kind of love where you can kiss. Or the love between a boyfriend and girlfriend is when you kiss but not…”

“But you are my boyfriend.” I sigh and roll my eyes up into my head. This is torture. Smart thinking Uncle Patrick or whatever the hell your name is. You’re succeeding at torturing me. I’m dying here. “Right? I mean, you’re my friend and a boy. Right?”

I give up. “Yes Sarah. I’m your friend and I’m a boy. But, just don’t kiss me anymore, ok? Hugs are fine. Hugs are wonderful but, kissing. Well, I’ll just explain that to you later, ok?” I can’t control myself and I yawn, big, long and loud.

“Ok.” She giggles and I feel the blanket, which had kind of been shifted around, being placed back around me, neatly, perfectly. She tucks me in. “I’m kind of tired, too.”

“Alright. Goodnight Sarah.” I say as she rests beside me.

“Night Justin.” She clears her throat and with a sigh says, “I love you.”

“I…” I sigh as well. “I know.”

I wait and listen as her breathing quickly deepens and evens out. She relaxes completely against me and as weird as it is and as messed up as this night’s been, I feel a little comfort with her holding onto me.