Wish You Were Here

10

Dean came from behind Gina and stepped towards us. He had something in his hand. As he stepped into the light, I could tell it was a baton. It reminded me of those billy clubs that police carried. In one fast swoop, he struck Aaron across the back. Aaron made a sound as though the air had gone out of him and he fell to the ground. He immediately tried to get up, but Dean hit him again.

Cal yelped and hid her face in her hands. Grant backed away, his eyes wide. I quickly crawled closer to Cal. Aaron coughed and gasped for breath before turning to look at Dean. I closed my eyes before he got struck again. I didn't want to see any more. Even as I covered my ears and squeezed my eyes shut, I could still hear Dean beating Aaron.

When it was over, Gina wore a wicked smile on her face. Dean straightened himself up and Gina grabbed him, giving him a big, mouthy kiss. Cal had looked up, but then turned away in disgust. I tried to not let my emotions show, but I couldn't help it. Tears welled in my eyes as I got a sight of Aaron.

Will remained seated, a strange look of satisfaction on his face. As soon as Gina and Dean left, Grant rushed over to assess Aaron. His right eye was swollen shut, his nose bloody, and he was barely awake.

Grant whispered 'oh man' and briefly looked away.

"Dean's a coward!" Grant shouted. "He hit him with that club first and then punched him. That's not a fair fight."

None of this was fair, I thought. Aaron groaned in pain and Grant did his best to calm him down. He grabbed his water bottle and helped him drink it. I silently cried to myself, wiping my tears off my cheeks. Aaron coughed and then held his ribs, groaning in pain.

I'd never seen anything like that before. Besides movies or TV, I had never experienced real violence. Even fights at school, which rarely happened, got broken up immediately.
I hadn't ever witnessed someone getting beaten up like what Dean did to Aaron. I couldn't get it out of my mind as I watched Aaron lay there in pain. Even when I closed my eyes, I'd hear the sounds of Dean beating him again in my head.

It took three days until Aaron seemed to feel well enough to move around. I wondered if he had any broken ribs, but didn't dare ask him.

Gina had come in the day before with bottles of water. She seemed to only be dropping water off to us so she could get a close look at how Aaron was doing. She came in again that morning to drop off food and more water. We were all so disgusted by her after what happened to Aaron that we wouldn't look at her. But this time, I did look. I needed to look and find details.

As soon as she'd left, I made eye contact with Grant. He raised an eyebrow.

"The keys," I said to him. "If we get them, we're free."

"How're you going to get the keys, sweetheart? Huh?" Will asked. "You wanna end up like big mouth over here?" He nodded at Aaron.

Aaron tried to say something back to him, but was in too much pain to bother.

I looked at Aaron and then back at Grant. We locked eyes.

"When she comes in here," I said. "She's never close enough within our reach, right?"

"Right. She only comes in a few steps," Grant confirmed.

"Not just a few steps," I told him. "She walks up to a specific point. There." I pointed at the floor. Grant followed with his eyes.

"When Dean came and..." I looked at Aaron. "Well, when Dean came, I noticed he stopped at the same spot Gina always does. I mean, until he came in further. But before that? He knew where to stop. Gina does the same thing."

"Okay, so you think they know exactly where to stop before they'd be close enough for us to touch them? Like a certain number of steps or something?" Grant asked.

Aaron opened his eyes and was listening. Cal turned to hear me also.

"They stop on that mark," I told them, pointing to a tiny scratch mark on the floor.

"I don't see anything," Cal said squinting.

Grant's eyes grazed across the floor.

"I see it. Right there!" Grant looked up.

I nodded.

"You want to erase the scratch in the floor?" Will chuckled.

"No," I rolled my eyes. "We can't get rid of a scratch in the floor that we can't even reach."

"Well then, your plan is brilliant so far," Will huffed.

"We make a new scratch," I said to Grant. "Closer to us. Aaron is probably the closest to the door besides you, Grant."

"So you want me to make a new scratch?" Grant asked.

"Aaron," I said in a soft tone. "How tall are you?"

"Six three," he answered in a raspy voice.

Grant and I looked at each other again. His eyes lit up.

"That's taller than Gina and Dean probably expected, isn't it?" Grant smiled.

I nodded. "I bet it is. If we can make a scratch in the floor just a little closer to us? Aaron could reach her."

Grant clapped his hands together. "That's it! Ryleigh, that's it! That's the plan!"

I smiled. "It's worth a try."

"Let's say it works," Cal added. "What about Dean?"

"He'll be at the main cabin, right?" Grant asked.

I shrugged. "I'd guess so."

"And when Gina doesn't come back?" he asked.

"He'll come looking for her probably," I answered quietly.

"I'll take care of him," Will blurted.

"We have to wait until Aaron's well enough to do this," Grant told us.

"I'm fine," Aaron hissed. "You make it so she gets close enough and I'll take her down." 

"We need to make a new scratch in the floor. Let's see how far Aaron can reach," I directed.

Grant helped Aaron determine how far he could reach and where Gina would have to walk to in order for him to be close enough to her. It wasn't too far from where the scratch in the floor currently was. Aaron placed a water bottle cap on the floor to mark the new spot.

"Now we need a way to scratch the floor," I told them.

Gina and Dean has taken the guys' belts. We didn't have anything in our pockets either.

"There's nothing!" Cal cried.

"The toilet!" I shouted.

Grant jumped up and got to it just before I did. We searched the whole thing until he found a small screw.

"I'll have to unscrew it. I don't think it'll make a difference considering this thing is already leaking all over the floor anyway," he said and started to get the screw out.

As soon as he got it, he handed it over to Aaron so he could start scraping it against the floor to make a new line. Aaron moved slowly, stretching out.

"It's pretty deep, so make it match that one. Then when you're done, make a few more, but smaller, and scatter them around. Just so she won't notice there are two lines, you know?" Grant suggested.

I nodded. We finally had a plan.