I Died to End Their Lie novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Shed

On the fourth afternoon I collapsed in the pig pen with a bucket of slop in my hands.

For three days I had been up at four, hauling feed and shoveling manure, and each night the farmer's wife had left me one bowl of cold potatoes.

My legs went first.

The bucket rolled out of my hands and the pigs went for it, and I lay in the mud with the sky going white.

Blood ran out of my nose and onto the ground.

The farmer came across the yard and kicked me in the ribs.

"Get up! Quit playing dead!"

"I'm sick," I said.

My lips didn't move right, and I tried again.

"I'm really sick. Please take me to a hospital."

His wife leaned over me and took one look at the blood.

Then she curled her lip.

"A hospital? Do you know what that costs? Your city father said we were supposed to toughen you up. Stop pretending."

"I have leukemia," I said. "I'm not pretending. Please."

"Leukemia," the farmer said, and laughed.

He took me by the collar and dragged me across the yard.

My heels left two lines in the dirt.

The shed at the back of the barn had no windows and a padlock on the outside.

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