Chapter 5 - Susie

He can’t see me.

I peek between the boards of the cellar door, squinting. The man is walking around the field, yelling our names. Saying that we have nothing to be scared of.

But he’s still holding the gun.

Tears slide down my cheeks, and Lanie wipes them away. She tells me that I have to be brave, that I’m going to have to run for help.

I nod. I can help. Get the doctor, the police. Maybe they can save Mama and Papa.

The man is getting closer. The gun is swinging lazily in his right hand, as he saunters toward the cellar doors. I close my eyes. I have to run.

This place is much smaller than the cellar. I always imagined the well to be big inside, but I can’t even stretch my arms out all the way.

I notice my arms, then, covered with grime and slick with water, my hands smeared with mud from the walls. The girl must have been scared of me.

I’ve been down here a long time, I think.

Mama and Papa and Lanie must be in heaven, by now. I always thought I would go to heaven, too. Mama always taught us that the good people went to heaven.

But I’m not good.

I let them die.