I looked at Ella, and she looked at me, and that was the moment I realized it wasn’t ever the plan for me to make it out alive.

I reached out and touched her cheek. “I know. I understand.” Around us, the room we were trapped in began to dissolve. Chunks of rock fell from the shaking ceiling. Floorboards came apart underneath us.

I stared into Ella’s eyes for one agonizing second. I prayed to whoever is up there that she would understand, too.

And then I collapsed to the floor.

Ella wailed.

The next few moments were only sounds and sensations. Ella’s arms slipping under my head, her voice screaming my name. Her chest pressed against me and her collarbone nudging against my nose. My name, screamed over and over, matching the way the whole room shook itself up and down.

“No…Tia…Tia…no no no…”

It stopped. The room went still, and only Ella remained. Her fingers caressed my hair, tracing patterns against my scalp. Little hearts and stars. Each one punctuated by a cry or a choked scream.

My body had never been more still. My neck lolled to the side. My arm was bent at a strange angle.

The door opened.

The voice that came from the other side was harsh and cruel. Laughter echoed, and then my body was jerked away from her.

Ella screamed again. “No! Don’t take her! Don’t take her from me! Please!” And the harsh voice just laughed at her, and told her it was too late, she was too late, and now everything she loved was gone.

A door opened and closed. My body, again, jerked one way and then another, and then set down somewhere cold and hard.

Low voices, mean-spirited laughter. Someone’s boot collided with my stomach. A twitch, maybe even a jerk, but no other movement. More laughter. A cheer. And then…

A door opened. A door closed. Silence.

Stillness.

Three minutes of it. Exactly three.

And then I opened my eyes.

Of course, I never could have made it out of that room alive. Neither of us could. So I had to make it out dead.

I thought back to Ella as she cradled me, to the hearts and stars she traced against my scalp with her pointer finger.

Two hearts. Three stars. One more heart.

Two left turns. Three right. One more left.

Ella was always good at figuring out where someone was taking her, even gagged and blindfolded. I’m less skilled at that, but I am much better suited to making my entire body look strikingly similar to a corpse.

I hopped down from the metal table and opened the heavy door just enough to check that our kidnappers had gone. Once I was sure the way was clear, I slipped out and used Ella’s silent instructions to find my way back to her.