She almost didn’t believe it when she heard the lock click. It took several tries at different keys before it finally worked. Doris threw on another sweater before she carefully creaked open the door and peeked into the hallways. She wasn’t sure how it had gotten so dark in such a short time, perhaps Jospeh took all of the light with him.

She quickly pushed his kind face away from her mind. Kindness counted for nothing when she wanted to survive—she learned that the hard way. Lessons are always learned the hard way and she had gone through more than a few of her own.

Slowly, Doris creaked the door...