by Paige Dearth
One Among Us
By Paige Dearth
Copyright © 2014
All rights reserved.
ISBN 10: 1502492253
ISBN 13: 978-1502492258
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014911458
SOME DIRT ON THE AUTHOR:
Born and raised in Plymouth Meeting, a small town west of Philadelphia, Paige Dearth was a victim of child rape and spent her early years yearning desperately for a better life. Living through the fear and isolation that marked her youth, she found a way of coping with the trauma: she developed the ability to dream up stories grounded in reality that would provide her with a creative outlet when she finally embarked on a series of novels. Paige’s debut novel, Believe Like A Child, is the darkest version of the life she imagines she would have been doomed to lead had fate not intervened just in the nick of time. Her second novel, When Smiles Fade, is a tale of endurance, perseverance, and the courage of one young girl to fight back against injustice. Both novels are compelling proof of the fine balance this author is capable of achieving between what lives on in her imagination and the evil that lurks in the real world. Paige is currently working on her fourth novel.
CONNECT WITH PAIGE:
Visit her website at www.paigedearth.com and sign up for the Quarterly Paige newsletter.
Friend Paige on Facebook at www.facebook.com/paigedearth.
Follow Paige on Twitter @paigedearth.
Dedication
For my daughter, who holds in her heart all that matters most to me.
Love,
Mom
***
Written for Natalie
Table of Contents
Title Page
SOME DIRT ON THE AUTHOR:
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Hope Matters
The First Twelve Hours of Captivity
One Day Prior: The Capture
Maggie’s New Home
Who’s There?
Maggie’s First Full Day
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Chapter Fifty-Two
Chapter Fifty-Three
Chapter Fifty-Four
Chapter Fifty-Five
Chapter Fifty-Six
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Chapter Sixty
Chapter Sixty-One
Chapter Sixty-Two
Chapter Sixty-Three
Chapter Sixty-Four
Chapter Sixty-Five
Chapter Sixty-Six
Chapter Sixty-Seven
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Chapter Sixty-Nine
Chapter Seventy
Chapter Seventy-One
Chapter Seventy-Two
Chapter Seventy-Three
Chapter Seventy-Four
Chapter Seventy-Five
Chapter Seventy-Six
Chapter Seventy-Seven
Chapter Seventy-Eight
Chapter Seventy-Nine
Chapter Eighty
Chapter Eighty-One
Chapter Eighty-Two
Chapter Eighty-Three
Chapter Eighty-Four
Chapter Eighty-Five
Chapter Eighty-Six
Chapter Eighty-Seven
Chapter Eighty-Eight
Chapter Eighty-Nine
Chapter Ninety
Chapter Ninety-One
Chapter Ninety-Two
Chapter Ninety-Three
Chapter Ninety-Four
Chapter Ninety-Five
Chapter Ninety-Six
Chapter Ninety-Seven
Chapter Ninety-Eight
Chapter Ninety-Nine
Chapter One Hundred
Chapter One Hundred One
Chapter One Hundred Two
Chapter One Hundred Three
Chapter One Hundred Four
Chapter One Hundred Five
Chapter One Hundred Six
Chapter One Hundred Seven
Chapter One Hundred Eight
Chapter One Hundred Nine
Chapter One Hundred Ten
Chapter One Hundred Eleven
Chapter One Hundred Twelve
Chapter One Hundred Thirteen
Chapter One Hundred Fourteen
Chapter One Hundred Fifteen
Chapter One Hundred Sixteen
Chapter One Hundred Seventeen
Chapter One Hundred Eighteen
Chapter One Hundred Nineteen
Chapter One Hundred Twenty
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-One
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Two
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Three
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Four
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Five
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Six
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Seven
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Eight
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Nine
Chapter One Hundred Thirty
Chapter One Hundred Thirty-One
Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Two
Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Three
Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Four
Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Five
Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Six
Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Seven
Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Eight
Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Nine
Chapter One Hundred Forty
Chapter One Hundred Forty-One
Chapter One Hundred Forty-Two
Chapter One Hundred Forty-Three
Chapter One Hundred Forty-Four
Chapter One Hundred Forty-Five
Chapter One Hundred Forty-Six
Chapter One Hundred Forty-Seven
Chapter One Hundred Forty-Eight
Chapter One Hundred Forty-Nine
The Final Hours
Read About Maggie’s Friend, Emma
Acknowledgments
Love and gratitude to my husband for his tireless efforts to help me find my way.
My sincere thanks to all of you who read and share my stories. Through you, a way will be found.
To my b
uddy, Barb, at www.disantoart.com: the future holds great things…including picnic baskets.
Much appreciation to Alex, who spent many hours breathing life into my new website. Check her out at: www.pumpkinhour.com.
Happy 80th birthday, Aunt Barbara…your continuous support and love is priceless.
Big E: I’ll love you ’til the end!
Hope Matters
The young woman trolls streets littered with trash and seedy people, scanning for a buyer. You watch intently as she bends down to talk to a man who pulled his car up to the curb where she’s waiting. You wonder how she got there and how she can do what she does. Suddenly, she notices you watching her. All she wants is to be like you because she’s long since forgotten who she is.
She barely resembles a real person. She’s convinced that there is no way out and that she faces a bleak future. She can’t imagine anyone wanting to help her, and she’s too confused and ashamed to help herself. She is, after all, a prostitute. Just look beyond the skimpy, tattered clothes and worn-out, high-heeled shoes, and you’ll recognize a person no different than you are. She was taken from her family and forced to sell her body.
Now do you view her differently? You know you should help her because underneath all the makeup and shabby clothing, there is an unwilling participant who is just looking for someone to give her a small sign of hope.
Do something, because hope matters.
~Paige Dearth
The First Twelve Hours of Captivity
Eleven-year-old Maggie threw up when the man behind the camera demanded that she remove her jeans. “What the fuck,” Vic, the photographer, mumbled as he walked over and pushed her down on the bed in the makeshift studio. Then he ripped her jeans off with so much force that it felt as though a layer of her skin came off with the denim. Vic threw a towel at her. “Now wipe up that slop and take your fucking shirt off,” he ordered.
Maggie was sobbing; she was stricken with an overwhelming sensation she’d never felt before, a feeling that she was going to die. She had no control over her emotions as she tried not to piss off the man with the camera any more than she already had. She removed her T-shirt slowly. “Good,” Vic huffed. “Now lie down on the bed and take your underwear off.”
Maggie shook her head. “I don’t want to do that. Please don’t make me do that, mister.” Her small voice quivered.
“That’s it,” Vic screamed. “John William, get the fuck over here and handle this. I don’t have all day for one kid. We have a fuckin’ business to run, here.”
John William thudded over to the bed where Maggie sat huddled, trying to cover her body, and he backhanded her across the face. Blood dribbled down her split lip and into her mouth, its coppery taste threatening to excite her gag reflex again. Before she could regain her senses, he pulled her panties off. Maggie pulled her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms tightly around her legs as she sat naked on the bed with the two strange men watching her.
She was alone and terrified. All of her senses were heightened by the evil surrounding her. She didn’t know what they were going to do to her. Her parents had warned that no one should ever touch her private parts. But here, in this crumbling cement room, she had no choice. Maggie had an overwhelming feeling that the two men were going to do things to her that they shouldn’t, and this intensified the vulnerable feeling that gnawed at her gut, jeopardizing her ability to follow their instructions.
Vic looked at Maggie, his face devoid of any kindness. “I’m going to tell you this one time and one time only. I want you to spread your legs apart so I can take some pictures. Just drop your knees to your sides. Do you understand?”
Maggie nodded, not wanting to be hit again. Once Vic was back behind the camera, he looked over at her. “OK, spread your legs like I told you to.”
Maggie dropped her knees to the sides, and he began to snap pictures. “Now, I want you to reach down and touch yourself.”
Maggie froze, not knowing what to do. John William stepped in, grabbed her hand, and placed it roughly between her legs. “That’s it. Put your fingers inside,” Vic coaxed her.
Inside where? Maggie wondered, feeling filthy and ruined. Not knowing what she was supposed to do, she remained motionless. Vic strode over briskly, grabbed her hand, and shoved her fingers inside of her. Fear mixed with adrenaline coursed through her body—she thought they had broken her. She had no idea there was a hole between her legs before that moment. They had just started sex education at school, but nothing could have prepared her for the horrible acts she would be expected to perform to her body.
Vic turned to John William. “The next time you bring a new kid in here, make sure they’re ready for me. You understand?” he demanded.
John William nodded and glared heartlessly at Maggie. The look was so demonic that it was almost blinding. She shrank away from him, and a deeper level of fear ran uncontrollably through her body, seizing her muscles, paralyzing her.
After Vic took several more pictures, he told her to put on her clothes and leave. As Maggie quickly dressed, she wondered if they had gotten what they wanted and would take her back to the mall now. She was certain that her mother was still at the mall, searching for her. Maggie decided that when the two men let her go home, she would never tell anyone about the pictures they’d taken. Maggie feared that she would be in trouble if her parents found out what she had done.
However, ten minutes later, John William pulled Maggie into her cell and pushed her toward a cot. When he reached the doorway, he turned. “You have a lot to learn. I suggest you pay attention and do what we tell you to do. I’m going to cut you a break since it’s your first night, but if you ever embarrass me like that again, I’ll bash your brains in.”
Maggie’s hope of going home quickly vanished as his words bounced inside her head. Since it’s your first night. She instantly understood that they weren’t finished with her yet. Her heart beat faster as she tried desperately to hang on to the hope that they would let her go.
He raised his voice. “You are to obey everything that you are told to do! If you weren’t worth so much money, I’d fuck the shit out of you right now.”
Maggie was shaking. She didn’t know exactly what he was talking about, but she knew enough to understand that John William wanted to do bad things to her, dirty things. She clung to the cold block wall of the cell, unable to wrap her mind around what was happening to her.
“Take off all of your clothes,” John William instructed.
Maggie did as she was told quickly this time.
He looked at her with lust. “Now bring me your clothes.”
She quickly scooped them up and carried them to him. John William grabbed them from her arms.
“For causing such a scene tonight, you can sleep naked. So you can get used to it, you little whore,” John William taunted.
After John William left her and locked the heavy door behind him, Maggie sat on the dirty cot. She wept from the very depth of her soul. The unrelenting fear was suffocating and inescapable. This had been the hardest day of her young life. She had only been missing for twelve hours, but it felt like a year to eleven-year-old Maggie.
She cried herself to sleep that night, thinking of her family, and when she woke the next day, her nightmare continued.
One Day Prior: The Capture
Maggie was only thirty feet from the line of people at the pizza counter in the food court inside the Plymouth Meeting Mall. As she walked by the large glass doors that opened to the parking lot, she saw two teenage girls standing just outside the entrance. They were talking to a man with a puppy. She watched as the girls took turns holding the dog. Then, as they passed Maggie on their way into the mall, she heard them talking about how adorable the puppy was. “Wasn’t that man nice?” one of the girls said. “I wish my dad felt that way about dogs and would let me get a puppy.”
Maggie looked out the glass doors at the man holding the puppy; he turned the dog in her direction and lifted a paw, as
if to wave at Maggie. She stood glued to the glass door, smiling at the tiny pile of fur in the man’s arms. She opened the glass door just a couple of inches. “He’s so cute. What’s his name?” Maggie asked.
“I just got him today, and I haven’t named him yet. I’m taking ideas, though. What do you think I should call him?” John William asked sweetly.
“I don’t know,” Maggie said shyly, not able to take her eyes off the fluffy mound of fur.
“Would you like to hold him?” John William offered.
“I would, but I really shouldn’t. I can’t leave the mall,” she explained.
“You’re not leaving the mall. I’m standing five feet away from the door. What’s the difference whether you’re standing five feet inside or outside of the door? Besides, I’m not allowed to bring him inside,” John William said.
Just then, the puppy gave a small bark at Maggie.
“See, he likes you. I think he wants you to hold him,” John William told her.
Maggie looked around and then over her shoulder across the food court at McDonald’s. She saw her mother and brother in a long line waiting to place their order. Deciding they’d be quite a while, she agreed.
“OK, but just for a minute. If my mom finds out I went outside, she’ll ground me for sure,” Maggie explained.
She stood next to John William, and he handed her the puppy. It immediately started to lick her face.
“See, he loves you already. What’s your name?” he asked.
“Maggie. He’s the cutest puppy ever.” She kissed the top of the dog’s head and handed him back to John William. “I have to go back in. Thanks for letting me hold him,” she said.
John William took the puppy from her and set him on the ground. To his delight, the dog did exactly what he’d hoped. It ran off toward the parking lot.
“Oh my God,” John William exclaimed, pretending to be worried. “He’s gonna get killed by a car. Please help me catch him!” he yelled to Maggie as he ran in the direction of the dog.
Without thinking it through, Maggie darted off to help rescue the puppy. She was running behind John William when he turned. “You run down that lane, and I’ll meet you at the far end. That way, he can’t get away,” he rasped.