Page 20 of Lost In The Dark

“Shut your fucking mouth and move, bitch!” The man hissed, then the hit came. A back hand across my face, so hard my vision dimmed and my legs almost gave out beneath me. But the beast didn’t relinquish his grip on me. He was huge, a mass of muscle and fat, on a frame that had to stand well over six feet. His head was completely bald and the look on his face was cold and menacing, especially when he hit me again. He seemed to enjoy that part, clearly. He’d already hit me twice as he was dragging me from the first derelict house, which I’d been held in for a matter of hours, and into the van.

He wasn’t the one who took me. That had been a group of three men who had all been slimmer and smaller than this monster. They’d found me broken down on the highway. My useless heap of rust I called a car had given up on me late at night, as I drove home from my job. I’d been waiting for the tow truck Ihad called when the large, modern SUV had pulled up behind me, and I’d been too busy worrying about how on earth I would find the money to pay for the tow truck and car repairs to pay much attention.

The three men had approached me, feigning kindness, and offering help. I had remained wary, fully aware how at risk I was on the deserted highway alone so late in the evening, but that hadn’t helped me fight back when two of them grabbed me. My fight had been completely useless and pretty pitiful. The next thing I knew a needle was being stuck into my neck, then everything went dark.

Now here I was, being dragged to God knew where by this beast with a penchant for laying his hands on me.

As the fuzz in my head, from the hit, started to clear, we were already walking through the door and into the warehouse. The smell was the first thing to hit me, a mix of extreme body odor, what I was sure was sewage of some kind, and damp. Then I heard the noises, a mixture of quiet sobs and desperate pleas.

“Oh God!” I gasped as I lifted my head and looked around the huge open space. Before me, lining the three long walls of the cold, drafty warehouse were cages, so many of them I couldn’t keep count. Inside each and everyone were women, tens of woman in filthy clothes, their faces marred with bruises just as I’m sure my own was. Most were huddled on the concrete floor, crying. Some paced back and forth past the metal bars that hold them prisoner. And that’s clearly what they were. Prisoners.

In the middle of the space sat a table and chairs, just like a family might use for dinner each night, but no family sat around this table. Instead there were six men, all veryobviously armed with guns which sat before them, on the table, as they drank from bottles of various liquors and played cards. The prison wardens I realized.

I’d seen scenes like this on the crime shows I loved to watch. I knew what this was. Trafficking. Human trafficking.

Tears filled my eyes and my heart beat sped up ten times faster as I realized I had to get out of there. I couldn’t be one of those woman, trapped behind bars, just waiting to be sold and brutalized.

I tried to wrench my skinny arm from the beast’s grip, but he held me too tightly, so I started to kick out as hard and fast as I could, kicking at his tree trunk legs with my bare feet over and over.

“Looks like you got a feisty one!” One of the men sat at the table laughed from behind me, but I didn’t turn.I can’t stop. I have to get away!I told myself.

“She’ll learn,” the beast sneered as he threw me to the ground with just one shove, releasing my arm so I landed hard on the concrete. “They always learn,” he added, then he started kicking me. His heavy boots landed on my side over and over, and all I could do was scream in agony, powerless to even stand against his tirade, let alone fight back.

A shrill, terrified scream ripped me from the nightmare and back to reality. I sat up, gasping for breath and covered with a sheen of sweat. I looked around frantically, completely terrified.Where am I?The fact I had no idea of the answer to that question only added to my panic, and I threw myself from the bed and to the carpeted floor.

“Addy?” The lights overhead in the room came on as someone called my name loudly. I didn’t recognize the voice and I couldn’t make myself think straight through my terror and the panic that had a firm grip on me.

I shuffled backwards until I hit the corner of the room, then I curled up as small as I could, knowing I’d be a smaller target that way. I wrapped my arms around my knees and began to rock. I could still smell that warehouse, hear the cries of those girls held prisoner. I still felt as if I were there and the footsteps approaching me could only be those of the beast, come to hurt me again.

I clamped my eyes closed and slammed my hands over my ears.Maybe if I can pretend he’s not there, he’ll disappear, or maybe I will. I’d take either option over what I was so sure was coming.

“Addy?”He knows my name! How does he know my name?“Addy, it’s just us, sweetheart. It’s just Asher and Eli. Can you look at me?” The words were muffled by my hands over my ears, but I heard them.

The names pulled me further from the images I was trapped in. I knew those names.Asher and Eli. They came for me. My brothers.

“Asher?” I whimpered, not moving my hands from my ears, or opening my eyes. I couldn’t. Not yet.

“I’m here, Addy. Eli too. You’re safe. We’re at the hotel, remember?” he said softly. “Can you open your eyes for me?”

“No,” I shook my head violently. “I…I’m scared he’ll still be there. He hurt me…I…I can’t go back there.”

“He’s not here, shortcake. It’s just me and Ash, and we will never let anyone hurt you again. Come back to us. You’re safe, I promise,” Eli spoke up.

It took me several moments to take in what he had said.Safe. You’re safe, I told myself over and over until finally I felt able to lower my hands and lift my head just enough to peek over my knees, which were pressed to my chest. When I finally dared to look I was no longer in that warehouse. I was in a warm, bright hotel room, and before me on their knees were Asher and Eli, both looking pale and panicked. They must have been asleep, since both of them had messy hair and were changed into relaxed looking t-shirts.

“I d-don’t want to remember an-anymore,” I squeaked, before the tears and sobs consumed me. I pressed my face against my raised knees and cried hard. I had been so stupid to think I needed to know what happened to me. Now I had been given back just two snippets of the memory I had lost and I was terrified and breaking apart. I couldn’t take anymore. I couldn’t handle reliving two years of this hell. I wouldn’t survive it.

“We’re going to sit either side of you, Addy, okay?” Asher asked, and I gave a weak nod. I heard them moving, then I felt them on either side of me, pressing against me just slightly, and surrounding me with their warmth.

“If there was any way we could take all of this pain from you, we would,” Eli told me. “We’d do anything to change what you’ve been through, Addy, but we can’t. All we can do is promise you that you’re not alone. You’ll never be alone again. Whatever comes, whatever memories you have to deal with, we’ll be right here beside you, helping you, holding you, and giving you everything you need or want, every single step of the way.”

“We’re here, and we’re not going anywhere,” Asher added.

For several minutes there was just silence and my quiet sobs. My brothers remained at my sides, holding me up between them as I felt like I was falling apart. They made no move to touch me anymore than the contact of our sides brushing, and I was relieved for that, since I was pretty sure I couldn’t handle any more than that at that time.

“My car…” I began when I was a little calmer. “…I was on m-my way home and it br-broke down. It was dark and I…I was waiting for the tow truck. That’s when they got me. Three men. They dr-drugged me.”

“Do you remember what they looked like?” Asher asked.

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