This is not the beginning, but part 2.

Rya sits on her mattress when we come back, staring at the walls and hugging her knees. Her ankle cuffs already secured. I slide into my cage, and Emmie locks the door, hits the light and leaves.

Silence fills the air.

“Cody?” her whisper is so quiet.

“Hmm?”

“We need to get out of here.” There are tears in her voice.

I sigh, “yeah, we do.”

“Even if she doesn’t sell me,” her voice cracks on me, and I rub my finger across my knuckles as the anger builds again.

“We will. I have to get out of this cage, first.” I feel around the metal for the millionth time, trying to find some kind of weakness or any space big enough to fit through.

“Hang on,” her voice is soft but stronger now, “don’t move. I might have figured something out earlier.”

“Okay,” I stay still, lying there in the darkness while Rya fiddles with a part of the cage. From the sounds, she’s near the keypad-looking device that locks and opens the contraption.

“Come on,” the partial grunt comes one moment before a muffled beep and a tiny hiss. Then a small gasp from her, “got it”.

Feeling for the door, there’s nothing but air and without wasting another second I slide out until there’s carpet under my back.

She hugs me in relief, the chains pressing against our skin. In the dark, we hold each other on the mattress.

“She hasn’t come in yet,” she whispers close against my ear and we both breathe again.

“Your turn,” I keep my voice a whisper. The chains aren’t too tight but she almost damaged herself in the past trying to get them off around her wrists.

I feel my way around the metal, the small links keeping the cuffs attached to the thick bar on the floor.

“I don’t know how to get these off,” her voice trembles again.

Feeling the cuffs themselves, there’s a sliver of a hole for the key, but there’s nothing we can do with that.

The links, however, are quite tiny. Not so sturdy, either...

“Try to sit behind me,”

She eases herself around, trying to keep quiet.

“If this works, I might slam into you, fair warning.”

She holds onto me in an attempt to brace herself. Using the space between her hands and the bar to wrap the links around mine, when it’s secure enough, I start pulling.

At first, of course, nothing happens but the chain tightening around my hand and slipping a little through my fingers.

I keep pulling and ignore the warming in my fingers, that soon turns into a mild burning. My arms start to ache and I can tell I’ll feel this later.

With every pull my hands burn a little more, Rya's hands move close to mine and she pulls at the chains too. I try not to grunt as the remains of my strength leave my body, my hands start to feel white hot from being squeezed so hard-

There!

I felt it, a small jolt in the pull, not enough to fling us back but I felt that. My fingers follow the chain, and close to the bar, it’s there. One of the links is broken, and when I slide it along the piece of metal, it comes free.

“I think we got it.” I move the now broken chain back to her. She crawls to the other side of the mattress and sighs in relief. “Let’s get to the door.” She whispers.

We both feel our way to the door, Rya holding a cautious hand to the doorknob while I rub the pain away from my hands.

The slow twist of the knob seems so loud to me and I hope Emmie isn’t waiting behind the door.

When the sound stops, Rya takes a deep breath and then she pulls the door back mere millimetres at a time. She stops when there is a faint light streaming inside. Once the door is open a good couple inches there is the faint sound of the shower running.

Rya pulls the door until we both could squeeze out. She looks back at me, her eyes filled with hope.

“I’ll go first,” I peer out the opening and no one is there. The shower is still running and there’s no other sounds.

We stand up and step into the tiny hallway. Emmie’s living area is one space, then a small L shaped hallway leads to our door, and the other end directly out of her living quarters.

My heart pounding, I take Rya’s hand and we both step past the area to the door. I open this door’s handle a little faster against the noise, and listen for immediate footsteps. But, there’s nothing.

“Now or never,” Our hands tighten around one another.