Along Came A Spider

CHAPTER 68

A-GGIE ROSE DUNNE was in darkness again.

She could see shapes all around her. She knew what they were, and where she was, even why she was there.

She was thinking about escaping again. But the warning jumped into her head. Always the warning.

If you try to escape, you won't be killed, Maggie. That would be too easy. You'll be put under the ground again. You'll go back in your little grave. So don't ever try to escape, Maggie Rose. Don't even think about it.

She was starting to forget so much now. Sometimes she couldn't even remember who she was. It all seemed like a bad dream, like lots of nightmares, one after the other.

Maggie Rose wondered if her mother and father were still looking for her. Why would they be? It was so long ago that she'd been kidnapped. Maggie understood that. Mr. Soneji had taken her from the Day School. But then she never saw him again. There was only the warning.

Sometimes, she felt as if she were only a story character she'd made up.

Tears filled her eyes. It wasn't so dark now. Morning was coming. She wouldn't try to escape again. She hated this, but she never wanted to go under the ground again.

Maggie Rose knew what all the shapes were.

They were children.

All in just one room of the house.

From which there was no escape.