She looks at me, curiously. “Really?” she asks.

“Yes. I am feeling sick now. It happened suddenly when we were playing. I’m sorry if I scared you. The water helped. But I need to get outside. Can I go for a little walk?”

She shrugs. “I guess. I think there’s a lot of woods. What if you get lost?”

“I won’t go far. Maybe just to the end of the driveway and then right back. I can’t get lost doing that.”

She nods. “That might work. When you come back, maybe you should wear the mask.”

“Oh! That would be wonderful,” I say. “Can I borrow it?”

“Sure!” Alice is genuinely thrilled to help me.

“Do you know where it is?” I ask.

She nods.

“Can you get it for me and we’ll meet by the front door? That way I’ll have it as soon as I come back.”

She smiles and bounces out of the room. I hear her skipping down the hall. I move quickly, grabbing the towel with the scissors and the knife, rushing to the living room. I open the front door and place them outside. I close the door just in time.

Alice is there now, the mask in one hand. In the other hand, she carries a pair of rain boots.

“You can’t go outside in bare feet, silly,” she says.

I look at my feet. They are bare. My shoes disappeared along with my clothes last night while I slept. I would walk with bare feet across broken glass to get out of here but I shake my head and feign self-deprecation.

“Oh, my! I am silly, aren’t I?”

I take the boots. I can’t tell if they belong to a man or woman. They are big and my feet swim inside them. But I can walk and that’s all that matters.

I smile at Alice. I force myself to pull her close to me. She nuzzles her face into my chest.

“Thank you, Alice. You are a very sweet girl.”

I release her now.

“I’ll be back really soon and I’m sure I’ll feel better. Will you be all right for a few minutes?”

She nods. “I stay here alone all the time.”

“Okay.” I kiss her forehead and open the door. She steps back from it so she doesn’t have to breathe the air from the outside.

My heart dances with the hope of freedom. It is near euphoric.

As I step outside, I hear Alice call after me.

“Be careful,” she says. “Don’t get lost in the woods.”

I look back. And she tells me, “That’s how my first mommy died.”

Chapter Eight

Day fourteen

An hour passed. Then another, and another, until Nic stopped watching the time—until a mild form of unconsciousness had shut down her mind, mercifully.