Double Fated (Book One)

by C.K. Mullinax

  Chapter Forty Eight

  “I don’t remember much about the time I spent at the Gray Hook, except the rapes. Those were painful and seemed to last for hours. Things are fuzzy, but some of those men and women didn’t seem human to me…maybe they were…but, it didn’t seem like it…” Audrey stated, attempting to find a way to explain it without sounding like a lunatic.

  “They didn’t seem human to me either. In fact, I called them the demon-mask guys. The only female I saw was you,” I told her.

  “I thought you said your ex-boyfriend was there…” she inquired.

  “He was and he looked human to me and so did his friends. But, you need to remember that I wasn’t exposed to the drug as long as you were. And, I knew him from before. That means my mind could already comprehend that he was a normal human being.

  “Malfo and the other guys that were in there with us did not look human to me…” I revealed.

  G-mom and Doc were hearing our conversation through an Ava’shay listening device. Audrey would get overwhelmed when she was receiving too much stimulation. We thought it might be easier for her and me to sit and talk in a one-on-one situation.

  “I kinda recall you asking them about their demon masks or calling them masked demons. But, you weren’t scared of them or anything. Why weren’t you scared, Krista?”

  “I was…I just didn’t show it,” I said and crossed my fingers because I was mostly lying. “Do you remember how we got out of there?”

  “No, not really…I remember being in the tank. That’s a place inside the Gray Hook that they kept us…”

  “Do you remember who else was with you in the tank?”

  “Sorta…I don’t remember specific names. We were all young girls, dressed in real nice clothes. They fed us good meals and we slept in something – not beds. It was like floating on water or air, but there was nothing holding my body that I could see. That makes me sound like a psycho…” she declared with concern.

  “You don’t sound like a psycho. You were drugged and I’m just trying to get to the bottom of the source. So, you remember other girls. You don’t know their names and that’s okay…think you can count them for me?” I asked gently and watched her take a mental inventory.

  “There were twelve when I first got to them because they called me unlucky thirteen. Two of the girls got taken out of the rotation. The Hook went too deep. I don’t know what that is or where they went to and I couldn’t ask any of the girls with me. None of them could communicate. The words were right in my head, but I couldn’t speak them.

  “We weren’t allowed to say anything in public or to the people who bought us…”

  “People bought you??”

  “Well yeah, not like a permanent…thing…like a library book that’s how it was for us and the people…kinda…” Audrey stated and was starting to get flustered.

  “Just relax for a minute and I’ll talk. These are the things I remember. While I was hiding in the lobby, everything was normal. The couple who I snuck in behind were talking about the ‘kinky’ things they do in the Gray Hook. They seemed normal in my estimation. He was worried that she was visiting the Hook without him and she was protesting, maybe, a little too much.

  “Then, I walked through the curtain and things went haywire. I ran into this, what I thought was a guy, but when I looked at him he appeared to be a demon. I heard, who I thought was, Dinah Lynn singing.

  “Next, my ex-boyfriend told me to stop licking the floor. He helped me to my feet and took me to that dark narrow room they brought you to. A slick, sticky residue was climbing up the wall and it ran away from my finger. That same stuff was on my skin and clothes. I was coated in it. I remember thinking the right words in my head to say to Lyle, but the things I actually said didn’t resemble what I was thinking of saying.

  “So what you’re describing isn’t any different from my experience…at least, it’s not much different. I think the drug had just worn off of me by the time you got into the room. There’s no other explanation. Before you arrived, I was babbling and hardly able to control my body. Lyle took me into a dark, back area and in my normal frame of mind I would have bolted for freedom. I followed him without protest or even giving it much consideration.

  “Only after the brain fog lifted, did I feel like something was wrong. Please stop being so hard on yourself. None of this is your fault. I’m only asking because I need your help to get the other girls to safety. I wouldn’t even know where to start without you. So, think you might be up to talking again?” I inquired.

  “I’ll try…” she said.

  I got us each a bottle of water and had to tell her to drink it. She was ready to begin once I got settled.

  “Sunday, I guess I’ll call them customers, would check us out like library books. That’s what I meant. But, they only took us from SizZle. Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at the Hook, we would perform…I’d call them requests, probably…from people that were watching. Most of the people making the requests, we never saw. They had to pay extra at the Hook to join us in the rooms. It musta been alotta moola… ‘cuz we’d only get raped by one or two…the others would call in and give them instructions…” she stated quietly with tears sliding down her cheeks.

  “We don’t have to talk about that anymore. Let’s focus on the other girls. You said you were number thirteen and two girls went away. So, do you think there are still ten left?”

  “No, three of them died. Or, I think they were dead. Their eyes were like…doll eyes…no life in them. I couldn’t tell if they were breathing. The two things…monsters or whatever…that killed them didn’t get to me. They were ejected from the room. I was the only girl left with not dead eyes…I didn’t get dead. I’m sorry…I’m trying.

  “The dead girls were piled on top of me, but I didn’t move or act like I was aware of what was happening. The guy who monitors the rooms…I never saw him…but, he didn’t do anything for a long time. He just left me on the floor with the three dead girls piled up on me. No one was making requests and it was real quiet. The room eventually filled with slimy fog and I saw those dead girls get dragged away. I think maybe someone was eating them. That sounds psycho too but it’s what I heard…bones cracking and gnawing. The next night in the tank there were only eight girls besides me…” Audrey revealed.

  “Think back…do you remember any of the demon-mask people being at SizZle?”

  “No…SizZle is where the rich people go. We were on a stage that turns in a circle. Sometimes we go into rooms with another girl and we do things to each other before we leave…” she offered, embarrassed.

  “I know this is hard, but please keep going if you can. When all of you are on stage, where are the rich people?”

  “They’re sitting in booths with numbers over them. The glass is messed up or cracked…I can’t see their faces, but I know they’re there. We’re kinda…I don’t know…displayed and the rich people find out about us. I don’t know how ‘cuz I never heard anything. I just saw slimy fog and didn’t care what anyone was doing to me. Well, it didn’t hurt any…just I knew it should’ve…but, it didn’t…”

  “It’s okay Audrey. I know what you’re saying. Lyle left a horrible bruise on me. It still hurts, bad but when he did it I didn’t feel anything at all. I knew it was supposed to hurt…the sensation didn’t come until later…” I told her.

  I’m glad she didn’t ask me to show that bruise because Doc healed it, completely.

  “Yeah, that sounds about right. I got off subject…sorry…my mind doesn’t work like it should sometimes. Let me start again. Somehow the rich people know who we are and they place bids. The guy pulls us off stage when we get borrowed. This one night, this one guy and his two women borrowed four of us. It was right after the three girls were dead eyed dragged away.

  “The rest of the crowd was angry. It was scarier than normal since the other rich people didn’t
have that many to choose from. I can’t remember how many booths there are but it’s way more than the girls they have to borrow. I think the booth people sometimes share their borrowings…I mean share their girls.

  “They’d take us in limousines or luxury cars to different places. Nothing goes on at the SizZle place like it does at the Gray Hook. The SizZle nights were sometimes not as bad as the other nights. Guess they were all bad, but just not as bad as the Gray Hook nights in the tank…” she stated and fell silent.

  “When you left SizZle with these people did you have an escort?”

  “Just off the property…”

  “On the nights you were alone, who brought you back to the Gray Hook?”

  “Well, I did. I didn’t want to go back and I could think that, but I would still ask to go back anyway. The borrower would call a taxi or a car and shove me into it. I would repeat the address. The driver would take me to the Gray Hook…”

  “So, let me see if I’ve got my facts straight about SizZle. All the nights you went there…”

  “It was always just one night…Sundays…”

  “Okay…Sunday nights at SizZle, you and the other girls would be on a stage that rotates. The rich people who pay to borrow you for the evening are inside glass booths that you can’t see behind. The people who come there look like normal humans to you. Sometimes you leave the building immediately with whoever paid to borrow you. Sometimes you went into private rooms and did stuff with the borrowers before you left…”

  “No, the borrowers could only watch. Only the girls with the bracelets could do things in those swanky rooms…”

  “You had a bracelet?”

  “All the girls do that are stuck there. I didn’t have it on anymore when I woke up in your bedroom. It was gone. It has two Z’s on it in a weird monogram pattern. When Mr. Gray offered me the job, he locked on the bracelet. He did it before I even agreed. It’s platinum, I think. I shoulda known what he was posing to me was too good to be true. Nobody pays like that or gives clothes out for employees to wear. He said the outfits were like fancy uniforms. All I’d be doing was waitressing drinks. He made it sound glamorous. I told him to take his bracelet back because I wasn’t gonna do it. But, then he said I could live at his place...called it an all-girls dorm, like at college. I finally said yeah because no rent meant that I could send more money for support.

  “Aunt Angie always told me to watch out for snakes in the grass that prey on single girls. He was snakish and I didn’t use her words…” she remarked and her language slipped, the more agitated she became.

  “We’ve thought enough about this for one day. Thanks for helping me…” I offered.

  I sent her to use the bathroom before she went back in to play with Tucker.

  “That poor sweet girl…violated…” Doc whispered as he walked into the room with g-mom.

  “We need to make some arrangements, fast. Those girls are leaving employment tonight…come Hades or high water. …” g-mom informed us, resolutely.

  “Liz, don’t go barging into this by your lonesome…or with just your, Bunny Baby! Promise you won’t…” he stated and would have kept on frantically talking, but I interrupted his panic to have a meltdown of my own.

  “She doesn’t have to promise you because I’m not gonna let her! We go into this with huge, male, gifted back-up or we don’t go – period!” I exclaimed in a voice laden with apprehension.

  “I promise you, both. But, we’ve only got about nine hours left to pull all of it together. I’m going to find the rock Nigel Gray is burrowed underneath…”

  “No g-mom! I don’t want you anywhere near him alone…please,” I begged and grabbed her.

  “I’m not going to meet him alone. I’ve already promised you that, my Bunny and I’ve never let you down…

  “That goes for you too, Doc my dear. You two need to calm down for me. I have to find Nigel. I’ll do my dead-level best to get him to swing an entrance for us at this SizZle shindig tonight. He won’t give me anything if I just call him on the phone, though. It’s gotta be the real, personal deal. That’s how this type of thing works…we all know it.

  “Krista, I want you to make a quick trip home. I need you to check on your other parents and siblings. It’s very doubtful, but maybe one of them has some free minutes to spare this evening. Before you ask them for anything, you need to make sure our request won’t be interfering with their schedules. The Hosting, your grandma’s dinner party, the wedding and then, the boys are off on vacation – all of that takes priority – understand?”

  “Yes…but, we need them…at least, one or two of them…” I revealed.

  “No, we don’t. They are our preference. But, rest assured we have many other options. Seems you’ve forgotten the fact that I know several people…” she reminded me, jokingly.

  “Your list of people is slightly memorable…that stress is a real brain cell killer…” I quipped.

  “You should keep that in mind…” she responded.

  “Which part??” I asked.

  “Both…now, don’t even hint that we’ve got a situation evolving – not a word to any of them, including the kids. I’m a tad bit concerned because none of them have checked on you. They assured me and your grandma that they would keep an eye on you while we were on safari…” she told me.

  “I’m sure they just got their wires crossed. You know, one thinking the other had checked in on me. It’s no big deal. I’ll pop to our various homes and tell them I was homesick to see them. That’s the truth. I won’t make a peep about anything related to this matter unless I think one of them has a spare minute tonight…” I promised.

  “Edie has no free time. I don’t expect our other family members to be in much better shape. I miss them too. But, I’ve got an evil Polecat to chase down, an invite to Hades on earth to wrangle and I’ll finesse us a few protectors if our loved ones can’t spare the time. Tell them I’ll be by tomorrow and we’ll have a laugh about how those wires crisscrossed…” she said to me before she turned to Doc. “I might need you…”

  “Someday, you’ll drop the ‘might’ from that statement…” he revealed with an edge of hurt in his voice.

  “You didn’t let me finish! I might need you to accompany my Bunny Girl tonight,” she told him.

  “Great save…in that case, the might definitely needs to be dropped. I need to be with Naked Wiggly. I’m the only one who can administer the vaccines. And, I’m not interested in letting your daughter get afflicted with some other foreign mystery disease. It’s helpful for me to see what’s coming at her – better chance of my fixing it, immediately…” he declared.

  “Don’t you go off and get exposed yourself…” g-mom told him, worriedly.

  “Been exposed to plenty and yet, here I stand. Don’t you sweat it, My Love. Now, I’ll stay here with them while you two make arrangements. I’ll make myself useful and give Audrey, Tucker and Angie a full physical. But, my two favorite ladies better shove off, daylight’s wasting…” he reminded us.

  G-mom handed me my new cell that was locked inside an indestructible case. Then, she called in the authorization for Command to resume trans-versing me in five minutes. She used the delay to hold me in her embrace and rock me.

  “I promise you…you’ll never feel like an island again. That, I’ll make sure of…” she whispered and kissed me before she left to make arrangements.