I returned to my parents and covered them with the blankets again. Making the decision to leave them after I’d just found them was the hardest thing I’d ever done. My eyes stung as I wrapped the chain around the bars and padlocked it.
“I’ll be back soon, I promise,” I said under my breath.
I surveyed the long, narrow basement. Faris’s cage was near the stairs at one end, and my parents’ cage was at the other. In the middle, there was a single window that had been boarded up with a piece of plywood. I could fit through it if I could pry the plywood off, but a search of the basement turned up nothing I could use. Aside from the cages, there wasn’t much else down here.
I went to the foot of the stairs and peered up at the dark landing. There was no other option. I had to go up there if I w
