by David Archer
Another trick Daddy had taught me was about the pigs. If I ever found myself trapped with a pig, he said, remember that absolutely anything could be used as a weapon. If I could get my hands on a stick, poke the pig in the eye. If I had nothing but a rock, try to hit it on its nose. If I had nothing but dirt, throw it in the pig’s eyes, but use whatever I might have at hand.
Once again, this was thinking outside the box. According to Dex, that was something I was supposed to be good at, so it was time to put on my thinking cap. I checked my pockets to see what I might have with me, but all I found were the two cell phones and my wallet. Like an idiot, I hadn’t even thought to take the keys out of the Toyota, because every woman knows that keys can be used as a weapon. I had been so focused on the idea that Dex would be coming to my rescue that I never considered trying to defend myself.
Okay, Cassie, I thought, look at what you’ve got and think about how to use any of it as a weapon.
I had two cell phones and my wallet. I opened the wallet and looked inside, but all it contained were my fake driver’s license, the doctored credit card and a few odds and ends, receipts and such that naturally collect in a wallet. I took out the credit card and looked at it, thinking about whether it would be stiff enough to try to scratch someone with. I slipped it into my pocket without putting it back in the wallet, then started looking at the cell phones.
Both of them were in plastic cases, but the plastic was pretty flimsy. I opened up my own phone to see if there might be a piece of metal I could pry loose, but nothing looked even slightly feasible. The same was true of the other phone, so I put them both back in my pocket.
Okay, then, all I really had was the credit card. I took it out and felt it again, and then I sat down on the floor once more and started rubbing the edge of the card on the concrete. After several minutes, I felt the edge and was elated to find that it was getting sharper. I flipped the card over and rubbed it the other way for a few minutes, and when I checked it again I could feel a definite sharpness to the edge.
I turned it ninety degrees and started working on the end, turning the corner of the card into a point. It took several minutes to wear away enough of the plastic, but I felt genuinely empowered when I touched my finger to it. I didn’t know how long it would hold the edge if I started to use it, but this thing would almost certainly slice through flesh.
Connie called, “Emily, you there?”
“Yeah,” I yelled back. “What’s up?”
“I can smell food,” she said. “They usually take one of us out for beating right after they feed us. I hate to tell you this, but they usually start with the newest girl. I don’t know if there is any way to prepare yourself, but I thought you might want to try.”
I probably would have preferred not to know that, I told myself, and I stuck my tongue out at her in the darkness. “Thanks,” I yelled. “Do they ever let us out to use the bathroom?”
A couple of the women laughed, but it didn’t seem like there was any humor involved. “No. They bring us food in a bucket, and you’re supposed to use that after you eat. Leave it next to the door, and they’ll take out after a while. We hope they wash the buckets, but we really don’t know for sure.”
“Oh, how wonderful,” I said, sarcastically. A couple of the women laughed again, and this time it seemed genuine. “When they come to get us, is it both of them? Or just one?”
“It’ll be both of them,” Bernice answered. “Frank will be holding a gun, and Michael will put a rope around your neck and lead you like a dog on a leash. If you put up a fight, Frank says he’ll just shoot and be done with it. Nobody has tried it, yet, but I’ll admit that I’ve been thinking about it. At least it’s one way to get this over with.”
“Hey,” I said, “don’t give up hope yet.” I didn’t want to reveal that I might know anything, so I fell back on pure BS. “The police say they have some leads, so there’s still a good chance they might find us. Don’t give up yet, okay?”
Candace called out, “Let’s see how you feel about that after you’ve been through one of their sessions. Trust me, we all think about just taking a bullet and bringing this to an end.”
“You might be thinking about it,” I said, “but you haven’t done it. That means you still have hope. As long as we are alive, there is still hope. Just remember that.”
“That’s true,” Bernice said, “but I still made my peace with God. They say suicide is a mortal sin that sends you straight to hell, but I’m thinking God would understand if we pushed Frank into killing us. I’m not saying I’m ready to do it yet, but sometimes it sure does seem like the answer.”
TWENTY-THREE
There was a loud noise in the distance, and then we could hear someone coming down the stairs. After a moment, I realized that there were two pairs of feet on the steps, and then the footsteps became louder as they entered the hallway outside my door. I heard one of the doors open and close, and then another. A moment later, I heard a third, and then the fourth, and then the footsteps were right outside my own door.
It opened, and I saw both men standing there. Stan—or rather, Frank—was holding the pistol I had seen earlier, while Michael, whom I had thought of as Muscles, carried a bucket. He set it down just inside the door, and then they closed it again. I listened to the footsteps as they walked away, then went to the bucket and shined the light from my phone into it.
A couple of burgers from a fast food joint and a small packet of French fries were inside, along with a bottle of water. I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, so I picked up the food and sniffed at it. It seemed fresh and was still hot, so I ripped off the paper wrapper and ate quickly, refusing to let my mind dwell on the other purpose the buckets served. Besides, as much as I might hate to admit it, I was going to have to use it for that purpose when I finished eating. My bladder simply needed relief, and it wasn’t going to be picky about how it got it.
I scarfed down the food in less than two minutes, then took a big drink out of the water bottle before emptying my bladder into the bucket. I left it sitting by the door, then took another small sip of the water before capping the bottle again and setting it in the corner. I didn’t know how long it would be before I got more water, so I wanted to conserve it while I could.
After a couple of minutes, I also put my cell phones in different corners of the room. I hoped that if they looked, they would only find one of them. That way I’d have the other one for light and as a way to keep track of the time.
That led to another thought. “Bernice?”
“Yeah? What is it?”
“When they take us out for the beatings,” I asked, “do we keep our clothes on?”
More laughter. “Sorry, honey,” Bernice said. “They strip us naked, and you don’t get your clothes back afterward.”
Damn, I thought. This is not going to be good. Frank had apparently chosen me for his harassing phone calls, so I had to assume he knew who Cassie McGraw was. If he chose me other than purely at random, then he undoubtedly had some idea about my burns. When these clothes came off, the jig was going to be up.
And then another thought occurred to me. He wanted to punish women who had been abused and gone looking for help, right? Who better than the woman who had been horribly abused, then decided to try to become a champion for other such women? I might have to talk fast to sell it, but if I could pull it off…
It was probably close to an hour before we heard the footsteps again, though it seemed like several had passed. I listened as they approached, then one door after another was opened and closed as the buckets were retrieved. Neither of the men said a word, and that sort of surprised me; I almost would’ve expected them to belittle us for using the buckets, but nothing was said.
They stopped outside my door, and I sat where I was at the back wall. The door opened and I saw Frank with the gun again as Michael reached in and picked up the bucket. I expected them to tell me to come out, but they simply closed the door again and I heard it
lock.
The footsteps left, and I started to think that perhaps I had got a reprieve. I wasn’t sure if I should be glad about that or not, because it only meant more time for me to stress over what would happen when they took my clothing.
“Get ready,” Bernice called. “They’ll be back in just a few minutes to get you, Emily. The only advice I can give you is to just not put up a fight. Believe me, he gets worse if you put up a fight.”
I didn’t answer. I was trying very hard to prepare myself mentally for the argument I was going to use to try to save my life.
Sure enough, the footsteps came again just a short time later. I listened to them as they approached my door, but that’s not where they stopped. I heard a door open, and then Bernice started laughing.
“I heard you tell the new girl that she was gonna be next,” Michael said. “Since you want to be so helpful, giving advice and all that, we decided to let you take her place for tonight. You get hers and yours, bitch.”
“No!” I shouted. “I can take it, come on and get me. You think you’re so tough? Come on, try me on for size.”
There was no answer, and I heard the footsteps receding down the hallway, along with the slapping of Bernice’s bare feet on the concrete. I yelled a couple more times, but then the door at the top of the stairs was closed and I knew they couldn’t hear me.
“Chill out, Emily,” Wanda said. “This happened before, when Candace came in. Bernice knew what was going to happen.”
“Wait, what? She knew they would take her instead of me?”
“Yep,” Candace said. “Same thing happened when I came in. She told me I’d be next, but then they took her instead. She did it on purpose, this time.”
“But—why?”
“She’s a masochist,” Wanda said. “You know, one of those people who likes to get beat up. If you can believe her, she says she actually gets off on it. I’ve heard of that stuff, but I never could understand it.”
I’d heard of it too, and I happened to know that it’s not terribly uncommon among abused women. Some of them seem to have been born that way, but others grow to like the pain over time. It’s one of the reasons that some women go back to their abusers, because even though it hurts, they feel like something is missing without it.
I checked the time on my phone and saw that it was almost six o’clock. I couldn’t believe the police would have waited this long to come after me, so the only logical assumption was that the signal failed at some point and they had no idea where we were.
And Bernice had taken my beating. I didn’t care whether she liked the pain or not, it was still a pretty big sacrifice on her part, and I decided right then that I was never going to let it go to waste. I might have gotten a reprieve, but it would be my turn the following day. I intended to make it count.
It was more than an hour later when the footsteps returned, but there was no sound of Bernice’s bare feet. Instead, it sounded like something was being dragged, and I figured I was correct when the door beside mine was opened. I heard a sound that had to be her body being dropped on the floor, and then the door closed and another one opened.
“Come on,” I heard Frank say.
“Oh, screw you, I’m coming.” It was Wanda’s voice. I listened to them walk away, and waited until the door at the top was closed before I called out to Bernice.
She didn’t answer at first, but I heard a groan. A minute or so later, I heard her drag herself over by her door. “I’m okay,” she said. “Boy, they’re in rare form up there. I think that was the best one yet. The best two, if I count the extra treatment I got.” She giggled.
“The others told me you knew that would happen,” I said. “Why would you do that?”
“Honey, I get off on this crap. I can take it better than any of you, but unfortunately, that only works once in a while. Don’t worry, they don’t do any real physical harm. It’s all about the pain, they don’t want to actually break us just yet.” She snorted. “But I figure that’s coming. If they killed Carolyn, they probably don’t plan to let any of us live through this.”
“Well,” I said, not really knowing what to add, “thank you. Was he serious about not doing it to me until tomorrow?”
“Oh, yeah,” Bernice replied. “It’ll be your turn tomorrow, no way out of it. I’d take it for you again if I could, but like I said, it only works once in a while.”
“Don’t worry about me,” I said. “I think I can handle whatever I have to. And I’ll tell you right now, I am not about to give up hope. Like I said, the police had leads. I think they’ll be here to get us before it gets to be too late.”
“Well, you go on and hope all you want, and I’ll hope you’re right. We all will, right, girls?”
Connie and Candace agreed, but there wasn’t a lot of enthusiasm in any of them.
Wanda came back after about half an hour, Candace went next. Wanda said she was okay, but her voice was faint. My heart was breaking for all of them, and I wanted so badly to tell them who I really was, but I bit my tongue. If Frank and Michael found out the wrong way, it could make them decide to get rid of all of us immediately.
I kept telling Dex I was a survivor, but looking down the barrel of that gun made me think long and hard about what might be waiting on the other side of this life. I had given my soul to Jesus years ago, when I was a kid; at that point, I was just hoping He remembered.
No, screw that, I thought. I’m not ready to die, especially not now!
Attagirl, Abby’s voice said. The idea is to make those bastards pay! You’ve got a weapon, and you’ve got a determination to survive and be with Dex again. Those ought to improve your odds considerably.
You are such an optimist, I shot back. Still, it was a good point. They weren’t going to be prepared for the hellcat they were about to run into when they took me up those stairs. My little plastic blade was pretty sharp, I just needed to think about how best to use it.
I had learned enough about anatomy in high school to know that it wasn’t all that easy to cut someone’s throat unless you had a really sharp implement. I didn’t think my credit card was going to be that sharp, so I began thinking about how to do the maximum damage I possibly could with it. I figured I was going to have maybe one or two seconds to act in, because it was going to take that long for them to realize I wasn’t just trying to scratch their eyes out with my fingernails.
That was it! I couldn’t scratch their eyes out, but if I could drag the point of my blade across Frank’s eyes, it might give me a chance to grab that gun, and I can assure you I know what to do with a gun. I got out my little weapon and started practicing with it, swinging it at about the height I estimated his eyes to be. I tried it several different ways, and finally came up with an idea on how to improve even these slightly-better-than-nothing odds.
I squatted down on the concrete and carefully bent the card diagonally, folding it over into a triangle, then bending it back the other way. Like most things, if you bend it back and forth enough times, a credit card will break. Now I had two weapons. I sat down on the concrete again and began working on the pointed ends, making them as sharp as I possibly could both on the points and on the edges.
I had to dull part of the edge I had put on one side before, so that I would be able to grip the wider part of the triangular little shiv. I spent a moment wishing I had tape to wrap around it, then remembered the bandage around my left hand. When I went to make my move, it wasn’t going to matter a whole lot whether they could see my burned hand, and even with the fused fingers it was still strong enough to grip one of these things. I peeled off the bandage and wrapped part of it around the wide part of each little weapon, tying it so that it wouldn’t come off.
Connie came back, and they took Candace. I could hear Connie crying, but there was nothing I could do to comfort her. After a few minutes of listening, Bernice began to sing again, and that’s when Connie seemed to get herself under control.
I wished there was some way I coul
d reach the other women. I still had my clothes, including the nice warm coat that I had already been forced to take off. This was a dilapidated old building, but apparently the heat still worked in it. It wasn’t exactly hot in my cell, but it certainly wasn’t cold. I wished there was a way I could give each of them some of my clothes, but it just wasn’t possible.
And then I chastised myself. If I was the only hope we had, then I needed to keep myself in the best condition I possibly could. That meant I needed to get as much rest at night as possible, so that I’d be ready to fight when the chance came. I figured they would order me to take my clothes off when we got upstairs, and I would pretend to start by unbuttoning my blouse, and that’s when I would attack. I would have the blades tucked into my bra, and I practiced snatching them out quickly. I could do it, but I did manage to scratch myself up a little bit while I was rehearsing.
Oh, well. I needed to do whatever it took to prepare myself, and if I got a few scratches, then so be it.
I waited until Candace came back, just to be sure they hadn’t changed their minds and decided to take me up after all. Just like the others, they dropped her in the cell and shut the door, then they went back upstairs. This time when they closed the top door, I heard some extra clanking that sounded like chains. I guess they were making sure we couldn’t get out, even if we managed to escape our cells.
Candace announced that she was okay, and that we all needed to get some sleep. We all said good night to each other, and then I rolled up my coat to use as a pillow and curled up on the cold concrete. It took me a little while to get to sleep, and then I was dreaming that I was safe in my own bed, with Dex and Critter beside me.
TWENTY-FOUR
I didn’t know what awakened me, but there was something going on. I could hear the voices of the two men as they hurried down the stairs, and I quickly checked the time on my phone. It was almost 11 o’clock at night, and I had the feeling that it wasn’t normal for them to be there at that time.