Page 6 of Castle of the Cursed
Not without an intervention.
She knows the nurses’ schedules. She’s memorized the passcode to the drug dispensary. She always marks her escape routes.
Tonight, the world will be as silent as Estela.
She wakes up in a hospital bed.
Estela has been placed on a seventy-two-hour watch. She is given heavy doses of antidepressants.
When she returns to her assigned room, Bebe does not speak to her anymore.
Weeks pass, and Estela keeps up her silent vigil. She watches other patients improve with a regimen of therapy and medication, but no matter how the doctors adjust her dosage, all she feels is brain fog.
And she welcomes it.
In this state, she drifts closer and closer to the void of her mind. Slow and semi-sedated, she can’t focus. She can’t make plans. She can’t remember.
Then the letter arrives.
CHAPTER 3
2 MONTHS AGO
TODAY, I HAVEN’T LEFT MY BED.
Little by little, I’m managing to disappear. It’s easier now, since everyone stopped paying attention.
“You have a message from Agent Navarro.”
It’s Nurse Leticia. I don’t stir.
“They’ve managed to locate a family member of yours in Spain. You have an aunt!”
I barely register anything but the word aunt. My chin moves, just a fraction, and the nurse shows me an unsealed envelope. From within, she retrieves a folded-up letter.
“I’ll read it to you,” she offers when I don’t reach for it.
Querida Estela:
Soy su tía Beatríz, la hermana de su madre. Vivo en España, en nuestra residencia familiar, el castillo Brálaga. Si le apetece, la invito a vivir aquí conmigo.
Con cariño,
Dra. Beatríz Brálaga
Nurse Leticia waits, but I have no reaction to offer her.
“Do you speak Spanish?”
I stay silent.
“Well, she says she’s your mom’s sister, and she’s inviting you to live with her in Spain at what she refers to as your family’s castle. The FBI has already vetted her, and they say she’s a small-town doctor who runs a local clinic. Agent Navarro believes this Beatríz is equipped to look after you, both medically and financially, but it’s your choice what you want to do.”
No matter how hard I try to silence the world, my past won’t keep quiet.
“I told you, Estelita,” whispers Nurse Leticia. “You’re not alone.”
Before she leaves, Lety places the envelope on the bedspread. I stare at the paper and am reminded of its weight. The way a page’s gravity pulls one toward its words.
