NEARLY Trilogy

by Ashley, Devon

  But it wasn’t Friggs who came into the bedroom and locked the door behind him, it was the guy who carried me in here to begin with. A disgusting smile spread across his face as he moved to stand in front of me. “Damn I wish we were allowed to carry our phones around here. Wasted Kodak moment. But that’s alright, ‘cause we’ve been given the go ahead.”

  I knew what he meant the moment he began kicking his shoes off, stripping himself from the jeans down. I threw my head back and really began fighting my binds. He wasn’t worried though. And seeing as how I wasn’t getting anything to slacken even a quarter of an inch, I could see why. I finally threw my head back and let the tears soar. I was choking on them, but it partially distracted me as he jumped on and took his turn. He was rough. And aggressive. And abusive as he gripped and pinched and bit, determined to make everything painful above all other sensations. At one point he got off squeezing his hands around my throat, constricting my air flow even more. I already had a gag and mucous in my throat. It didn’t take long for my lungs to burn, for my eyes to flutter as blurry spots took over my vision.

  But he wouldn’t let me pass out. He too, wanted me conscious all the way through. And when he was done my internal muscles felt like they’d been lit on fire, burning and screaming and aching with soreness. My tears were hot and never-ending.

  After he put his clothing back on, he climbed over my whimpering body, and all I could think was please, make it stop. “Here’s the deal,” he said harshly. “Boss wants you back downstairs so I’m going to release your restraints.” He snatched my jaw and forced me to look his way. My eyes were so filled with moisture I couldn’t see him anyway. “You give me one second of trouble, and I’ll drag you to the breakroom on the way there and let every guy have a go. Got it?”

  Weakly, I nodded my head, just wanting it to be over already. He released the ratchet on the straps holding my legs and I screamed through the gag as the muscles in the back of my thighs immediately cramped ten-fold. He didn’t care, throwing me onto the floor and forcing me onto my feet before I was ready. I hastily tied the top of my chemise as he half-carried, half-pushed me through the halls, my legs seriously shaking, on the verge of total collapse. The gag I couldn’t untie, so I pulled it down, forced to keep it as a horrible noose they could easily tug.

  We passed a couple of windows on the way. Finally, it was dark outside. My tracker might’ve already been activated. Please be swift.

  I was taken to a new room much like the cell we were in earlier. Bare walls, minimal furniture. There was a table with a handful of bloody metal instruments that I refused to focus in on, and a large galvanized tub that lost a lot of water to the concrete floor. Friggs stood over Zander, but moved away as I was shoved down beside him on the floor. Zander looked even worse. He was drenched from the waist up, blood seeping from fresh cuts along his bare chest and arms. Some had been busted open from fists, some from those godawful instruments. He looked like death run over.

  “Zander?” I whispered, completely fearful for him.

  “So did you enjoy fucking Motts?” Friggs asked me. “You can thank Zander for that.”

  Zander’s eyes went from exhausted to sorrowful, that lively gold shimmer in his eyes shattered. I was too drained to have much of a reaction either.

  “Seems our tactics weren’t working, but let’s see how well he’ll hold up now that I’m threatening you. Talk to him. Convince him to give me what I want. Because if you don’t, you’re going to be raped every hour on the hour until he does.” Disgusted, my neck swung Friggs’ way. He stood there with his hands in his pockets, all four of his guys casually leaning against a wall or piece of furniture. With a mild shrug, he heartlessly added, “Or until you die. Some of my boys don’t hold back when they’re fucking stock. I’ve lost a lot of girls that way.”

  He looked at his watch. “You’ve got twenty minutes until the next hour.”

  Friggs turned and quietly spoke with his fucking gang of delinquents. Two left shortly after. Unfortunately, Motts wasn’t one of them. He resumed his position at the wall, kicking one foot up against it. He crossed his arms and leered, giving me the creepiest of winks.

  A chill made its way through my body as I turned to look back at Zander.

  He cleared his throat, which obviously pained him. “I’m sorry,” he said weakly and out of breath, “I’m so sorry.” His face pinched together. If his ribs weren’t broken before, they probably were now. “You know why they can never find it, right?” I nodded weakly. Because the app for my tracker was on there. They get that computer and we could kiss any possible rescue goodbye. “Either way, the moment I tell them we’re dead.”

  “I know,” I replied miserably. That’s why I couldn’t place all the blame on him. We were both taking hits, trying to stay alive long enough to be rescued. He was being tortured, I was being raped, and I didn’t think my mind had completely processed that yet.

  His face wouldn’t stop contorting, and I couldn’t help but feel compassion for all the hits he’d taken. I didn’t know how to help him. All I could do was softly stroke his cheek. “It’s dark out now. Help is coming.”

  He was slow to respond. He found it hard to open his eyes and his breaths were slowing, too much silence ensuing between each one.

  “Zander?” I rubbed his face more roughly. “Zander?” His heart might’ve been slowing down, but mine was speeding up. Blood was seeping out his mouth, his nose, even his left eye. His hair was sticky with blood, its copper scent suddenly burning the inside of my sensitive nose. He was damaged worse than I thought, two of his fingers broken, too. Out of all the things that had happened in the past twenty-four hours, seeing him this way was freaking me out the most. “Don’t you dare die on me. Not now. Not like this.”

  He forced his eyes to open, but I could tell it wasn’t easy for him. They constantly dipped and fluttered. “Go,” he said painfully on an exhalation that sounded more like a wheeze. “Run… Hide…”

  Run? I couldn’t run. My legs were practically Jell-O right now.

  Once I realized why he said that, my endless supply of tears kicked in, moistening my cheeks all over again. “Please don’t leave me. I can’t do this alone.”

  His eyes gave out as his chest caved in, not coming back up.

  “Zander,” I whispered, fear smothering my question. “Zander?” I asked more loudly, roughly shaking him this time. My emotions went beyond panic mode. I shook and screamed with all I had. But nothing. Every single part of me froze, my eyes stuck wide with disbelief.

  He left me.

  He left me.

  I was alone. All alone.

  “Oh, that’s unfortunate,” Friggs said monotonously, proving he couldn’t care less. Motts and the other guy stood at attention, awaiting their orders. “Guess we’ll have to find his accounts the hard way.”

  I dropped my forehead onto Zander’s shoulder and closed my eyes, trying not to lose my shit right there and then. But then I let myself go, letting the tears flow and the mucous clog. As I got louder and louder, Friggs got annoyed, finally yelling, “Oh, for fuck’s sake. Get her out of here. And bring me Donatello.”

  I didn’t fight when I was lifted up by my upper arms. My legs were still shaky, my knees felt ready to give with each step. Motts was my escort, forced to guide my bawling, bumbling ass to wherever we were going. The other left to get Zander’s old man.

  “Where’s she going?” Motts asked, holding me before Friggs.

  I refused to look at him, still angling my head at Zander’s body. I was alone in this now. And I still had to find Thea. My eyes widened when I realized she could be dead already. I hadn’t seen her. Nobody had mentioned her except when I asked, and nothing definitively proved she was actually here. Everything I’d done so far might’ve been for naught. My parents were dead. Zander was dead. If Thea was dead too…

  “Take her to a cell for now.”

  I was once again shoved into motion, and Motts continued to push me down the hall
. I didn’t know where we were or where we were going, but soon we were far enough away that Friggs wouldn’t hear. I would’ve loved something to smack Motts with – anything, really – but the halls were sparse. Call it grace, call it luck, but a set of stairs appeared before us. He wasn’t angling us to take them, but that didn’t matter.

  I stopped dead in my tracks, and before he could pull me along forcefully, I faked a look of shock and covered my mouth. “I’m going to throw up,” I moaned, already bending my head. I turned away, and behind the safety of my knotted, messy hair, I stuck my finger down my throat. I immediately gagged, my spine following up the reaction with an uncontrollable wave. I forced my finger down my throat again to repeat the process. This time my reactions were louder and rougher.

  Motts said, “Gross,” and dropped his grip. I keeled over, actually throwing up now. It had been at least a day since I last ate, so all that came up was bile that burned every membrane in my throat and mouth. It wasn’t much, but I spit it onto the floor.

  I moaned and groaned and crouched down, really feeling the aches throughout my body. Whatever wasn’t hurting before was hurting now. My stomach was so empty I swore it felt like that bile got pulled from my intestines.

  “Oh, get up already,” he spat.

  I did, just to keep him from helping me. My feet were first to rise but my back stayed bent. As I unfolded myself, I shot the heel of my right hand up as hard and fast as I could, striking the bottom of his nose, taking it for a ride as his head knocked backwards with the momentum. Warm blood shot from his nose, and before he could have that split second to react, I leaned back and gave him the hardest kick to the gut I could give. I was so weak I fell to the floor afterward.

  There was a moment where time stood still. Where fear and shock overtook his wide-eyed gaze as his body suspended awkwardly at an angle in the air. He was completely frozen, and I was beginning to panic, fearing he wouldn’t tip just enough to fall back. Without thinking, I gave him one last kick, straight to the dick – if anything, so he couldn’t use it on me anytime soon. His hands managed to react, reaching out to stop me, but all he got in was a good scratch along my skin, never able to latch on before tumbling backwards down the narrow stairs.

  He summersaulted clumsily, banging side to side as he tried to come out of it, but there was nothing to grab onto and the momentum was too strong. There were only two loud grunts before he fell partially onto his stomach, his arm awkwardly caught up underneath him, and became silent on the halfway level. I didn’t know if he was dead and I didn’t care. He wasn’t moving and that was good enough for me.

  “Get up,” Finn said in a hushed, but hurried tone. For once I shot up awake without attacking him.

  “What?” I cried out as my eyes darted around the room looking for signs of danger. I didn’t find any immediate threats.

  He moved to the window and peeked outside. “Something’s going on. There’s a lot of movement and they’re actually chatting back and forth on the radios. They’ve hardly used them since I took you.”

  “You have a radio?” I asked with surprise. I flung the covers off and joined him at the window. The sky was black as the hole I’d fallen into, and there was a new black van parked out front, but no moving bodies from what I could tell.

  “Yeah, but it’s been useless. I just don’t know if this is legitimate chatter or another game they’re playing. They keep talking about prisoners they brought in and some recon they’ve got going on.”

  “Is my sister part of that?” I faintly whispered.

  “I don’t know.”

  “How long has the chatter been going on?”

  “I don’t know, but I think it was their talking that woke me up.” He turned and headed for the living room. “I’m gonna check it out.”

  “What?” I asked over a gasp, chasing him down. When I turned the corner he was already sitting down to put his shoes on. “You’re leaving me here?” All I could see were those three men pulling at me and my arms wrapped protectively around the front of my body. “If it’s another trick or if someone sees you–”

  “I’ll be fast, I promise. I’m gonna head to the security office and see if I can find out if this is real or not. If something’s going on they may not be watching the cameras that closely. If they’re not, we can make a break for it.” He laced his shoes quickly. “Get more clothes on. Something warmer. I’ll never find shoes for you, so just put on a bunch of my socks.”

  I nodded absentmindedly. I think my head registered what he was saying, but all I could really think about was Megan. That she could’ve been what they brought over in the creepy black van. Was she here? And if she was, how could I possibly run off knowing that? I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. Even if it meant coming across those dickbags again.

  “Hey,” he said, breaking my daze. His hand slowly reached out to cup my cheek. And for some weird reason, I let him. With one side of his smile slowly lifting upward, he said, “I think you’re finally getting out of here.”

  “Why are you helping me?” I asked softly.

  “Because that’s what my mother would have wanted me to do. And my father.”

  “But why me? There are so many girls down there.”

  “I don’t know. I guess… I overheard them before, talking about how your sister and that guy were responsible for making Friggs run. For once someone threatened his operation. I wasn’t lying when I said I didn’t have it in me to turn him in. But I’m not opposed to someone else doing it. When I heard they had you, I just felt like I should try to intervene. Get you out before you really got drowned in this mess.”

  His thumb stroked my cheek, and for some reason I couldn’t comprehend, I stepped in and wrapped my arms around his neck for a hug. I think he was as surprised as I was, because his hands were really slow to press against me to hug me back.

  “If it’s my sister…”

  “You can’t leave her, I know. But you may have to.”

  I jerked back and shoved myself off his chest, eyes like daggers.

  “Think about it. If you’re the bait, what happens to you now if he has her?” God’s honest truth? I had no fucking idea. But Finn seemed to… “You’re either sold or you’re dead. You want to be either of those things?”

  “No, and I don’t want Megan to be either.”

  He patted his hands in the air as he backed his way towards the door. “Can we please find out what the hell is going on before we take this someplace we may not even need to go?” He turned the locks, opened the door quietly, then peeked both directions into the hall. “Lock the door behind me,” he ordered before leaving. I didn’t hesitate to comply.

  For a moment I stood there staring at the door in front of me. My thoughts jumped back and forth between Megan unconscious somewhere in this house, Friggs and those fucking bastards who ganged up on me. And I didn’t know which of those pictures was worse.

  If Megan was here, I knew I’d never leave her, but I still went through Finn’s drawers for sweat pants. I had to roll over the waistband several times, but it was enough to shorten the length. The sweatshirt I just pushed up above my elbows for now. And I stopped after two thick pairs of socks because it felt too weird, but I did stuff an extra pair into my pocket in case my feet got wet.

  From that moment on all I did was pace. And worry. Occasionally I put my ear against the door or peeked outside to see if anything had changed. Nothing did. With every passing minute my anxiety grew and grew. Like a festering ball of pain deep inside my stomach, splashing acid outward that singed and seared its way throughout my body. To the point I just couldn’t stand there and wait anymore. I had to see for myself. And the thought of being trapped inside this room where Friggs and the others expected me to be freaked me out. I was completely trapped inside this room. Unless I left and found a new place to take cover. At least until Finn was finished with his search.

  The radio crackled with static before a guy’s voice came over the airwave. “All units. Girl on the
run. Priority one. Form a sweep.”

  I silently gasped, my mouth opening wide. Megan?

  No matter who they were looking for, I no longer felt safe here by myself. This would be one of the first places they checked. They might even use it as an excuse to bust their way through.

  Before flipping the lock, I placed my ear against the door and listened. Nothing…

  I closed my eyes, swallowed down as much fear as I could, then did exactly what my fast-beating heart didn’t want. I clicked the lock and stepped into the hallway, bolting down it as quickly as I could before my mind could realize how fucking stupid this was. I stopped at every open door and corner and listened before moving forward. I covered way too much space without coming across someone. I wasn’t sure how many men worked in this house at one time, but it had to be more than I thought.

  Where were they?

  Hopefully not near the security room. Was that why Finn hadn’t come back yet? Because there were too many to move? Or perhaps he was already spotted and being detained for being out, catching flack for harboring me. Either way I figured he could take care of himself. If Friggs wanted him dead, he’d be dead already. Obviously they had some weird respect thing going on for him. I just wished it extended to me and getting the fuck out already.

  Voices suddenly grew in volume. My eyes darted towards every ceiling corner I could find looking for cameras. Had they spotted me? Were they coming? Panic flooded my chest. I was fucking drowning in it, my lungs finding it difficult to breathe now. Fearing to breathe, more like it.

  I ran through the nearest open doorway and hid behind a large piece of furniture. Sheer terror fired like electricity inside me once I saw them. The closest one paused long enough to scan the room left to right. I ducked completely out of sight until I heard their footsteps continue on. It wasn’t until I could barely hear them again that I allowed my burning, starving lungs to take in a breath. It should’ve been cooling, soothing. But I inhaled so fast it scratched me like the tips of sharp ice crystals, burning my insides in a completely different way.