Chapter 9: Terms

Finnegan stepped in front of my door and put his lantern on the floor.

"Put the axe down," he said.

Declan did not answer, and my sister stepped out from behind him.

Her eyes were red and her lip trembled.

"Mr. Ferris, please. My sister is in there. I know she is."

"She isn't," Finnegan said.

He said it so flatly that even I almost believed him.

"I saw Ms. Dunning leave the lobby at four o'clock on the seventeenth. She was carrying a duffel bag. She said she was going to stay with a friend."

Britt's mouth opened.

"That's impossible. She called me at five and said she was working late."

"Then she called you from the road."

"Nobody has come into this building since the rain started," Declan said slowly.

"Right," Finnegan said. "And she went out before it did."

I sat in my tiny field and watched his face on the camera.

He did not blink.

He had never met me, and he was lying for me to a mob with an axe.

Britt turned and threw herself at the door.

"Maeve!" she screamed. "I know you're in there! I know you took the food!"

She pounded on the wood with both fists.

"Open it! People are starving, and you're sitting in there like a rat! You always do this! You're selfish, Maeve! You're just selfish!"

I looked at my own door on the little screen.

Somewhere between her fists and her scream, I realized I had stopped being afraid.

The hall filled with neighbors.

Doors cracked open, and shadows leaned out.

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