The snow is coming down hard by dinner time. When I look out the window, all I see is endless white. It’s scary. Maggie is long gone. If I wanted to leave here, I wouldn’t be able to. We’re trapped.
Adam comes down to the kitchen while I’m preparing Victoria’s dinner. He’s got an arm full of blankets, which he deposits on the kitchen counter. “I brought these for you,” he says. “You know, in case the heat goes out.”
Who is he kidding? The heat is definitely going out. “Thanks,” I say.
Adam gingerly touches his right cheek. The scratches Victoria made with her fingernails have scabbed over. “Let me know when Victoria is ready for bed. I put the syringe with her medications on her dresser.”
“Okay, no problem.”
He taps his fingers against the counter. “Thanks for taking care of the medications. It’s really important she gets them.”
“Yes. I know.”
“If she doesn’t, she could have a seizure.” “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it.”
I shut down the food processor and scoop out the contents onto the plate. Adam watches me for a moment, then he walks away. He seems to trust me at least.
Even though I haven’t given Victoria her medications in a week.
I climb the stairs with the plate of food. When I get there, Victoria is watching television, her right eye intently glued on the screen, even though her left is looking in a different direction. Even so, she seems much more alert than she did a week ago. She doesn’t sleep all morning anymore. She’s eaten her entire breakfast three days in a row. Long enough that I’m starting to feel guilty about the oatmeal.
“Good evening,” I say as I step into the room.
Victoria’s eyes instantly go to me. That’s another change I’ve noticed. Before, when I spoke to her, she would take her sweet time looking in my direction. Now she seems hyper-aware of everything around her.
“Sylvie,” she says.
That’s another thing. She talks a lot more now. I wouldn’t say she talks a lot. She still says one word or maybe two-word sentences, each of which is a struggle for her. But before, there would be entire days when she wouldn’t say even one word, and half the time that word didn’t make sense. Now she always has something to say.
It’s very hard not to come to the conclusion that Adam has been drugging her. The only question is why.
“It’s dinnertime!” I announce brightly.
Victoria looks at the plate of food and crinkles her nose. I can’t entirely blame her. I put too many peas into this purée and it looks sort of like vomit. But it doesn’t taste bad. I sampled it.
“It tastes better than it looks,” I tell her.
She turns away from me, out the window. “Sun,” she says. “You see the sun?” I smile at her. “Because I sure don’t.” She winces. “No. It’s…”
“Snow.”
She nods, relieved. “Yes. Snow.”
I look out the window, watching the giant flakes fall. It’s beautiful, but also frightening. “There’s sure a lot of it.”
She nods again. “Can’t… stuck.”
I laugh. “Yeah, I think we’re stuck here together.”
Her brows knit together. She looks up at my face and blurts out, “You have to get the gun, Sylvie.”
I stare at her. It’s the longest sentence I’ve ever heard her say. “Victoria…”
“Closet,” she says. “Get it. Bring it… here.” “Victoria, I can’t…”
Her blue eyes fill with tears. “Get it. Or he’ll…”
I don’t know what she’s talking about. Even within the pages of her diary, she never described Adam being violent towards her. He never threatened her with a gun. That was what she said to Mack, anyway. There’s no reason to think we are in any danger. Not unless Adam catches me poking around his bedroom.
“Let’s just have some dinner, okay?” I say.
I see the frustration in Victoria’s face. If she could, she would go get that gun herself. That much is obvious. But I’m not going to let anything happen to her.
And in a few days, the storm will be over.
