She couldn’t believe she’d forgotten to show her forced gratitude. Anna quickly wiped her face and plastered on a contented smile. Not too wide, not too thin; the smile needed to be exactly as he expected. Her cheeks twitched at the effort it took to keep it in place but she did not falter. After he ate, she cleared his dishes and washed his plate, coffee mug, and pans. He only used plastic cutlery and disposed of them himself, she assumed out of fear they would be turned into weapons. When she was done, he inspected every dish before leading her back to the room. He chained her to the wall before he left, locking the door once more behind him.

Mary scooted over to Anna. ‘You okay? You look sick.’

‘Yeah, it wasn’t that bad this time. Only got slapped once for dropping an egg,’ Anna replied with a short laugh, her eyes still glistening with tears. Mary gasped. ‘The worst part was he made me eat the raw egg off the floor.’ She clutched a hand over her stomach. ‘I’m so sorry if you have to witness me hurling it up, it took everything in me to keep it down.’

Mary ran a hand over Anna’s hair and patted her shoulder. ‘Oh my God, gross. If you need some privacy to throw up in peace, just let me know and I’ll stare at the other wall.’ Anna gave her a small smile. ‘Guess I’ll be making lunch then,’ Mary continued, putting her hand in the pocket of her dress and pulling something out. ‘But, look what I found.’ She held up something curved, red and plastic.

‘What is that?’

‘It’s an acrylic nail,’ Mary replied matter-of-factly, and Anna looked at her for a long second, her face scrunched up in a morbid fascination.

Anna took the nail from Mary’s fingers and inspected it. ‘Ugh, that’s so creepy. It’s broken and looks like it has rust or something on it. Maybe she was trying to jimmy the lock with her nail?’ Anna raised her eyebrows, thinking of the possibility. ‘Not a bad idea really but I doubt it worked. Seems too large to fit in the lock.’

The man pounded his fist on the door. ‘Keep it down in there.’

The women looked at each other, then Mary retreated to her mattress and lay down. Anna did the same, running her finger over the jagged edge of the broken nail, imagining the life of the girl before her that it must have belonged to. A girl who would never wear acrylic nails again.

CHAPTER 17