The Toybox

by Charly Cox

  There. She’d thought it. Never in her life had she ever considered death as an enviable option. And yet she knew that if someone handed her a gun right this second, she’d shove it in her mouth and pull the trigger without a moment’s hesitation.

  …Unless she killed those bastards first. The thought came out of nowhere, and she realized her eyes were searching for… anything: pills, a knife, hell a razorblade she could steal.

  The quiet girl moved in front of her clinching the belt at Rachel’s waist, bringing a crashing halt to her fantasy. She tried to get the girl to look at her so she could ask her the questions burning the back of her throat, but the girl’s eyes strayed from focusing on any one thing for more than a second. Rachel thought she detected a bit of regret and sorrow in the girl’s gaze. Who was she? How long had she been here? Had this been her life first? Was she herself destined to become a slave to washing the other captives?

  The gurgling swirl of the last of the water rushing down the drain turned Rachel’s attention to the tub. Watching, she bit down hard on her lip to hold back her hysteria.

  It didn’t matter how much they bathed her – she’d never be clean again.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Monday, May 20

  It was nearing quarter to eight Monday night when Alyssa arrived home, exhausted and frustrated because few of the individuals she and Cord or Joe and Tony had spoken to claimed to know or remember much. Of the ones who weren’t suddenly struck with amnesia, three had admitted to seeing Rachel, but none seemed to know anything about this mysterious new friend, though two of them recalled seeing Rachel arrive with another girl. And now Alyssa was concerned that they might not have one missing girl, but two – three, if she included Anna.

  Because Jersey, Rachel, and Anna were on her mind when she walked into the kitchen, she was only mildly surprised to see Holly and her friends seated around the kitchen table, waiting to hear what she’d learned. Mabel, her mother-in-law, stood at the counter wrapping up the leftovers from the dinner she’d offered to make when Alyssa had called her husband to let him know she’d be late getting home. All four of them twisted their heads in her direction as she put her weapon in the gun safe.

  Tears formed in Holly’s eyes when Alyssa came into the kitchen and kissed the top of her daughter’s head. ‘Did you learn anything?’ The tone of her voice clearly showed she wasn’t expecting good news.

  ‘No, honey, not really. I’m sorry. I wish I could give you better news.’

  ‘Aunt Natalia told my mom this afternoon that Jersey’s dad returned her call.’ The lines around Sophie’s lips and eyes tightened. ‘He didn’t seem overly concerned, saying she’d come home when she was ready, that she was probably just out “sowing her wild oats.”’ She snorted as Leigh Ann covered Sophie’s hand with her own. ‘I think he’s mistaken his daughter for himself.’

  Just then Brock came downstairs, fresh from a shower. His smile lit up when he saw Alyssa. ‘Hi, babe. Do you want me to heat up a plate of food for you? It shouldn’t take too long. We actually just finished about half an hour ago.’

  ‘Oh, I can get it,’ Mabel offered, already moving back to the refrigerator.

  ‘Thanks anyway, but Cord and I grabbed a bite to eat about an hour ago.’ She walked over and standing on her tiptoes, kissed her husband. ‘I’m going to sit with the girls for a bit, and then I’ll be in to talk to you, okay?’

  Brock’s eyes darted in Holly’s direction before flitting back to Alyssa. ‘Sounds good.’ He leaned down to give her a peck on the forehead before turning to his mother. ‘Care to join me in the living room? I’ll even let you pick what we watch – as long as it’s not one of those hand-someone-a-rose shows you like.’ He shook his head and shuddered.

  ‘Sure.’ Mabel removed the apron she’d borrowed and draped it over the oven handle, then followed her son into the other room. As she passed Holly, she ran her arthritic hand down her granddaughter’s hair before giving her shoulder a gentle squeeze.

  Holly watched her dad and grandma leave before voicing what she was thinking. ‘Isn’t it a bit unfair for us to be going through this again? I mean, isn’t it someone else’s turn?’ The second the words left her mouth, her face flushed. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that. What I meant is enough is enough. No one should have to endure this ever, but certainly, no one should have to go through it twice.’ Her face paled as she snapped her neck in Alyssa’s direction. ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t stop putting my foot in my mouth.’

  Alyssa placed her hand on Holly’s cheek and forced her daughter to look at her. ‘It’s okay, sweetie. You’re worried about Jersey. I know where your heart is.’ Since it had been just last month when Isaac was kidnapped, it was still a fresh wound, and Jersey’s disappearance only aggravated it.

  Holly’s shoulders sagged. ‘God, Mom, how do you do this day in and day out? I mean, you’re always searching for someone. It’s your job.’

  ‘Because I will always try to help families have a happier ending than my family did.’

  Minutes ticked by as the four of them sat around the table, each lost in her own thoughts. The weight of silence lifted as soon as Isaac slid into the kitchen, drawing up short when he realized his sister’s friends were still there. His eyes darted around the room, landing first on Holly, then his mom, the refrigerator, and back to Holly.

  ‘Still nothing on Jersey, huh?’

  Though his voice was steady, Alyssa recognized the spark of fear as he recalled his own experience. To keep herself from standing and wrapping him in a hug, her hands moved from the table to grip the sides of her chair.

  ‘Still nothing.’

  Isaac rubbed at his neck and bounced on the balls of his feet. When he finally opened his mouth to speak, nothing came out. Instead, he grabbed a drink from the fridge, and after guzzling half the bottle he wiped his mouth and turned to his mom. ‘Hey, if you have a second when you’re done here, I need to talk to you and Dad about something.’ His eyes fell on Sophie and Leigh Ann, his forehead creased. ‘If that’s okay.’

  ‘Alright. I’ll knock on your door in a bit.’ In the back of her mind, she wondered if it had anything to do with seeing his therapist this afternoon. Brock had taken him this time, and even though it was only Isaac’s fourth visit, to her relief, they seemed to be helping. He no longer left his bedroom door ajar, but she knew he still slept with his bathroom light on. Baby steps, perhaps, but at least they were steps forward and not back.

  Before heading back upstairs, Isaac snagged a strawberry Pop-Tart, which caused his sister’s mouth to drop open. ‘Where does he put it all? He has to have a hollow leg. I mean, he had three plates of fettuccini alfredo at dinner,’ she muttered.

  ‘I’m a growing boy,’ he yelled over his shoulder.

  Both Holly and Sophie watched as Isaac disappeared around the corner, their eyes lighting with love and concern for the teenager they both called ‘little brother.’ Leigh Ann hadn’t known him for as long, so she didn’t have the same relationship with him that Sophie did.

  Once Isaac’s bedroom door closed, another round of silence fell on the kitchen. Sophie was the first to break it. Voice cracking, she asked what all of them had to be thinking. ‘What if something bad has happened to her? I’ll never forgive myself.’ A single tear rolled down her cheek and splashed on the table, darkening the light wood.

  Leigh Ann placed her hands over Sophie’s. ‘We don’t know if anything’s happened. It’s still possible she’s just trying to teach us all a lesson for not caring enough about what she was going through. I mean, really, we could all just be overreacting here.’

  Sophie snorted and yanked her hand from beneath Leigh Ann’s. ‘You mean, teach me a lesson for not caring? And how is worrying about her overreacting?’

  Leigh Ann blanched under the anger in Sophie’s voice. ‘That’s not what I meant, and you should know that.’

  Holly twisted her hands together. ‘Listen, we all know Jersey can be dramatic, and maybe we could�
��ve been more understanding, but we can’t focus on that right now. All we can do is apologize when she comes home safe and promise to do better next time.’

  Suddenly, Leigh Ann straightened up, excitement in her eyes and voice. ‘What about the Find-A-Friend app? Could we locate her that way? I can’t believe we didn’t think about that already!’ Her excitement was short-lived because Sophie knocked the idea out of play.

  ‘She doesn’t have it anymore. She deleted it when she discovered Beau was tracking her every movement. She couldn’t understand how he always seemed to know where she’d been and for how long until he left his phone out one day with the app open and her location blipping on the screen. She didn’t even know he’d downloaded the app onto her phone.’

  Alyssa was careful to keep her expression neutral. If Jersey’s boyfriend hadn’t already been at the top of her list, this information would’ve just skyrocketed him there. ‘How long ago was that?’ She ignored the sharp look Holly shot her way. It was the look she wore when she accused Alyssa of using her ‘Detective-Mom’ tone.

  Sophie considered the question. ‘A month ago maybe? Could’ve been a little more or less. I don’t really remember.’

  Leigh Ann’s shoulders dropped. ‘Why didn’t Holly and I know about this? Wait… did you know?’

  Holly shook her head. ‘I didn’t know, either.’

  ‘Should we put up flyers like we did for Isaac?’ Color rushed to Sophie’s face, and Alyssa was sure she hated bringing up the comparison.

  ‘I think that’s a great idea,’ she told her.

  Sophie’s eyes swung to the window, and her shoulders dropped. ‘It’s probably too late for them to do any good tonight. But first thing tomorrow? You and Leigh Ann can come by my house, say around seven, and we’ll print some out and start putting them up?’

  While the girls worked out the details, Alyssa moved into the living room. As she stood, she spotted Isaac standing in the doorway of the kitchen again, the same odd expression on his face that had been there earlier – thoughtful and curious at the same time. ‘Something on your mind, sweetie?’ she asked as soon as she was close enough to whisper.

  His head jerked her way as if he hadn’t noticed her standing there, but since Alyssa knew he’d become hyper aware of his surroundings, she didn’t think that was what had startled him.

  He shook his head then smiled at her. ‘No. I’m good. Is now a good time to talk to you and Dad?’

  ‘Sure.’ Alyssa hooked her arm through her son’s and walked with him into the living room where she released him and moved over to sit next to her husband, who muted the television. ‘Okay, what’s up?’

  Brock didn’t seem surprised that Isaac wanted to talk to them about something, so he must’ve already known.

  Like he had earlier, Isaac began bouncing on the balls of his feet, one of his tells that he was nervous. Alyssa tried to calm her racing heart by reaching over and clasping her husband’s hand in her own.

  ‘So, Trevor asked if I wanted to go camping with him and his family this weekend for Memorial Day. His parents already said I could. In fact, it was their idea.’

  Alyssa’s stomach plummeted, and her nerves felt like a match had been set to them. When she was certain her voice wouldn’t betray her fear of letting him go away without her for the weekend, she asked, ‘When are they leaving?’

  Not hearing an outright ‘no,’ Isaac’s voice was filled with excitement. ‘Well, we’d leave Friday, early.’

  ‘Isn’t there school on Friday?’

  Isaac rolled his eyes, and while it should’ve bothered her, it actually made Alyssa smile because it was just one more thing that showed he was bouncing back. ‘Technically, yes. But you already know it’s nothing but a waste of time since eighth-graders graduate Thursday evening. It’s stupid. It’s like insisting seniors go back to school after they’re handed their diplomas.’

  It was a fair argument and one his sister had offered four years earlier.

  ‘So, can I?’

  What Alyssa wanted to ask was: ‘Are you sure? You’ll be in the mountains, in the woods, just like you were when you were kidnapped.’ Instead, she lifted her head and caught her husband’s gaze, knowing his fear was similar to her own, and that made her feel better, though she wasn’t sure why.

  The next words out of Isaac’s mouth clinched the deal. ‘Janelle said she thought it would be a good thing for me to do if I felt comfortable with Trevor’s family.’ Then he stared directly at Alyssa. ‘I agree. I think I need to do this, Mom. I can’t be afraid forever.’

  Something ballooned inside her, making Alyssa’s heart feel too large for her chest. She trusted Isaac’s therapist because she’d made such strides with him in a relatively small amount of time. When she caught Brock’s eye again, she saw the acquiescence in his expression. He squeezed her hand tighter, and she turned to Isaac.

  ‘You can go—’

  Isaac whooped loudly, pumping his fist in the air.

  ‘—but I want to speak to Trevor’s mom before you leave.’

  ‘Thanks M and D!’ He swung around and raced to the stairs to let Trevor know, but stopped at the bottom step and whirled back around, a mischievous glint in his eye. ‘You know what else Janelle recommended? Getting a dog. Very therapeutic, she said.’

  Alyssa and Brock both chuckled. ‘Don’t push it, mister.’ As soon as he disappeared upstairs, the echo of his slamming door reverberating through the rest of the house, she tilted her head up to Brock. ‘How much do you want to bet we hit a rescue shelter sometime after he gets back?’

  Her husband’s response was to smile, shake his head, run his fingers over his face, and mutter, ‘Nothing. I want to bet nothing because that would be a sucker bet.’

  When Mabel cleared her throat, Alyssa realized she’d forgotten her mother-in-law was still there. Her eyes swung in Mabel’s direction in time to see her wipe her eyes with one of the ever-present tissues she kept stuffed in her smocks. ‘He’s going to be okay, our boy.’ Her words were whispered so low that Alyssa wasn’t certain if her mother-in-law was speaking to them or herself.

  ‘Yes, he is.’

  Shortly after that, Holly walked Sophie and Leigh Ann to the front door, all of them promising to call immediately if they heard a hint of anything at all. After waving them goodbye, she joined her parents. ‘What was Isaac so excited about?’

  ‘He’s going camping with Trevor and his family this weekend.’ A shadow fell across Holly’s face, and Alyssa was quick to reassure her. ‘He’s going to be okay. Besides, he can’t stay a prisoner in the house forever. He needs to get back to doing the things he loves.’ Even as she spoke, she didn’t know if she was trying to convince herself or her daughter.

  Tears filled Holly’s eyes. ‘I know. We definitely have to start treating him like he’s going to get past this, otherwise it’ll just take him that much longer to heal.’ She angled her head toward the stairs. ‘I’m going to head up to my room. I really hope Jersey’s out there somewhere just trying to punish us for not being sympathetic and understanding enough.’

  ‘Me, too, sweetie.’

  The sudden disappearance of both Rachel and Jersey – and possibly Anna, though they still didn’t have much information on Rachel’s new friend – was another reason Alyssa wasn’t entirely comfortable with one of her children being out of her sight for several days. But she knew she couldn’t afford to live – or allow her family to live – in that type of fear. If they did, none of them would ever leave the house again.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Tuesday, May 21

  The darkness of this living nightmare gripped Jersey in its relentless grasp, refusing to release her into unconsciousness. Instead, every movement, every breath sent arrows of burning pain shooting along her nerve endings. Wincing, she touched her side. Of course, she couldn’t be sure, but she suspected her ribs were bruised from the beating she’d received when she refused to obey the lady’s commands. And because she bruised so e
asily, her legs were already covered in various shades of green, yellow, and purple where she’d been restrained by powerful arms.

  From the trunk of the car she’d been transported in, she’d been escorted – actually, dragged was more accurate – inside this house and taken down into a basement where she was thrown into a cell with several other girls, all of them dressed in colorful silk robes. Pretending a boldness she didn’t feel, she’d swung around to demand to know what was going on, but the metal door had clanged shut, barely missing her face.

  Shaking, she’d turned around to find several sets of eyes staring back at her with varying degrees of disbelief and pity on their faces. When the cell door reopened behind her, her heart had leaped, taking up residence in her throat, only to plummet when she watched in horror as two men roughly escorted another girl – this one dressed in coral – down the steps. One of the men unlocked the cage and shoved the girl inside, sending her sprawling onto the floor. Jersey stared as the lingering disbelief that she’d been kidnapped began to sink in. The attractive girl in the coral robe had brown hair streaked with strands of gold, but it was the raw, red marks scattered along her skin, and the way that she curled herself into the fetal position, even as full body tremors shook her violently against the floor, that Jersey hadn’t been able to tear her eyes from. She’d wanted to ask what had happened but didn’t really want to know the answer. Mewling whimpers of pain had escaped the girl as, silently, two others moved to her side, helping her stand so they could lie her gently down on one of the mattresses dotting the cell.

  ‘What is happening here?’ Jersey’s voice was brittle and high-pitched as she’d forced the question out. A subarctic chill penetrated her as every dead-voiced, numb answer chipped away another part of her soul. Words like forced sex, beatings, The Toybox, and pleasure in pain ricocheted around in her head. Somehow, she had fallen into the blackest of all rabbit holes. Never in her life, not even when Beau had convinced her to go through the state’s self-proclaimed scariest Haunted House of Horrors, had she experienced such mind-numbing terror.