I needed something stronger than disbelief.
The signal in the basement was unreliable.
Most nights, the phone showed nothing.
Once in a while, one weak bar appeared near the floor if I held the device at an angle beside the cage wall.
I kept trying.
I drafted the same message over and over because I never knew when the signal would vanish.
A location pin.
Three words.
A short audio file.
I sent it to my sister.
The screen froze.
The message did not show as delivered.
I tried again the next night, but the battery was nearly dead.
I had no charger.
After that, I waited without knowing whether my sister had received anything.
Marcus noticed that waiting changed me.
I stopped begging him to explain why.
I stopped asking his mother for mercy.
I started listening more carefully.
That made him angry because he could not tell whether I was broken or planning something.
