Chapter Nine Summary

Meg has finished stacking the wooden crates against the wall of her basement captivity. She totters on them, gently climbing higher. She reaches the window. The crates wobble and crash down below her. Meg hangs on to the filthy window, but finds to her despair it has security bars outside the broken glass window which prevent her from escaping. She loses her grip and falls to the floor. She smashes into the wooden crates and loses consciousness.

Aiden cannot sleep. Alone in his bedoom, he tosses and turns, unable to get the image of Meg all alone and terrified out of his mind. Just then, commotion from outside. The FBI have seemingly apprehended an intruder. Aiden rushes outside to see his friend Richie pinned to the lawn, struggling as he's read his rights. Aiden tells them Richie is his friend and...