“Clearly you’re not doing enough.” I said, folding my arms in front of me.
“Rose, I have hundreds of men who work for me. I can’t just call someone out!” he said defensively.
“I can’t stay in that room. It makes me feel like it’s going to happen again!” I said with tears in my eyes.
“We don’t have any other rooms or you know I would!” he yelled back.
“She can stay in my room.” Raven entered the room from the balcony. “I have an extra cot in my room, I’d be happy to share with her.” she piped up.
“You know I can’t do that, Raven.” he said shrugging.
“Why not? You want her to be safe right?” she said convincingly.
“I don’t trust you” he said to Raven.
The room went silent as their bickering stopped and my heart began to pound.
“I’m scared.” I said as I stared down at my feet. “Isn’t everyone?” he said sarcastically.
“Davis, she is staying with me, just one night.” she begged.
“I said no!” he yelled.
Raven made her way down the balcony stairs in a hurry. She walked right up to Davis’ face, “She is staying with me.”
Davis not only laughed at her attempt to stand up to her but he hit her hard in the face with a slap to her right cheek. I gasped at the site and the loud scream that came from Raven’s pain.
“Get in my face again and then we can talk.” he said angrily.
Raven laid motionless on the ground in front of me as her hair draped over my bare feet.
“Now, what do you want, Rose.?” he asked in a snarky tone.
“Who is Winnie?” I asked.
He was quiet.
“Who is she Davis?”
“I-I don’t know who you’re talking about.” he sat back down in his chair and grabbed his pen and tapped it viciously on the table to mask his anxious mind.
“Can I help you with something else?” he asked, not making eye contact.
“I know what you did.” I said persistently.
“Take her out, now!” he yelled to his guard.
As the guard pulled my arm I yelled for Raven to wake up. Her head began to move but she was still probably in shock from the hit.
“Raven, I know where Winnie is! I know where Winnie is!” I yelled as the guard pulled me through the door as it closed hard behind me.
I was thrown into my room as I landed hard on my knees as I began to sob. I had to get out of here, I had to fight for myself for once in my life. But how.
I crawled to my mattress, pulled my knees to my chest and buried my face into my chest as I sobbed. I couldn’t imagine watching my parents die in front of me let alone being taken by the same people who stole my sister years ago. The worst part is that neither of them know that the other person is here.
I needed to bring them together, but how.
CHAPTER 22
JOYCE
I ran into the Hylander building after I heard a loud scream from outside. I hid behind the balcony stairs as I watched Raven try to confront Davis, stupid girl. I saw Rose as she stood in shock in front of Raven’s body on the floor. She was lucky that wasn’t her.
I waited until Rose left the room, “What happened?” I asked Davis as I stepped over Raven’s body.
“She needed to be put in her place.” he said through his teeth.
I bent down to rub Raven’s head as she started to wake up.
“Rose knows about her.” he said angrily. “How does she know about Winnie?” he questioned me.
“How am I supposed to know, I haven’t talked to her.” I said defensively.
“Well maybe you can start, go figure it out.” he said as he pointed to the door.
I walked to the door and continued to look back at him as I made my way. I ran to Rose’s room and had to beg the guard to let me in. After a short radio call to Davis, I was allowed to see her.
“What were you thinking?” I said as I barged in on the sleeping girl.
“What are you talking about?” she said, questioning me.
“How do you know about Winnie?” I demanded her to answer me.
“I don’t know who you’re talking about.” she said in a snobby tone.
“I don’t know who you think you are but you’re messing with the wrong people, Rose. He will kill you if you step out of line again.” I warned her.
“Good, I rather be anywhere but here.” she barked back.
“Rose, I need to tell you something.” I breathed in hard.
“Save it, I already know everything.” she replied.
“Know what?”
“You’re my mom.” she replied sadly. “Raven told me everything! How you and Davis were together in this stupid place and how you had me and you escaped to let me live a better life. But guess what, mom! I didn’t live a better life, I hated that orphanage, I hated the girls there. Nobody would adopt me, nobody cared about me. I miss my books, my paintings, my bed.” she began to sob uncontrollably. “I just want to die.”
“Rose, sweetie.” I reached for her hand.
“No, don’t sweetie me. You had your chance and you blew it.” she screamed at me back.
“I tried to tell you, I-” I tried to explain myself.
“You could have told me the first time you saw me, but you didn’t. You had every opportunity and didn’t take any of them!” she yelled back.
I was dumbfounded that she was talking to me like this. Her voice was shaky but nonetheless she wasn’t afraid of me.
“I came to tell you to drop the Winnie crap.” I started to walk towards the door.
“Congratulations, why don’t you go and tell Raven that her little sister is here. Oh wait, you already knew that, didn’t you?” she said in a sassy tone.
“Stop!” I yelled. “Just stop. You’re being such a child and I can’t take it!”
“I’m glad you gave me up.” she said under her breath.
I turned to her as she laid back down on her mattress and faced the wall. I couldn’t imagine what she had gone through but it couldn’t have been that bad, could it?
The next morning I found fatigue and dizziness as I couldn’t catch a wink of sleep. Rose’s words tortured my mind and my heart was too broken to be whole again.
I made my way over to the Hylander to see if Davis had found who raped Rose, from what I could tell from Rose knowing about Winnie, it was the least of his worries.
With no Davis in sight, I made my way up the balcony stairs to Raven’s room where she laid fast asleep in at cot covered in blankets and a bottle of water spilt on the floor.
“Raven?” I shook her to wake up.
She open her eyes and gave me one look before turning back over to face the opposite way.
“What do you want?” she asked, still tired.
“We need to talk” I touched her shoulder.
“There is nothing I would ever want to talk to you about, again” she said as she moved her shoulder, signaling me to remove my hand.
“It’s about Winnie.” I whispered.
She looked at me confused as if I had just spoke a different language.
“My sister, Winnie?” she asked.
“Shh, yes.” I placed my index finger over my lips. “I know where she is. She is, actually here.” I said sadly.
“Wha-What did you say?” she asked, questioning my integrity.
“You know what I said.” I said shyly. “She’s fine, I promise.”
“I had thought-”
“Me too, honestly.” I spoke over her concerning words.
“Well, where is she?” she perked up.
“She’s in a room. I’m not sure where but I’m working on it. Hopefully by tonight you can see her.” I said. Raven’s face brightened and she smiled for the first time I arrived.
“Thank you, Joy. Thank you.” she grabbed my hands.
“Don’t thank me yet, I still have to find her.” I acknowledged.
“I didn�
��t think you cared about me anymore.” she said as her words drifted.
“I care more than you think.” I said with a kiss to her forehead. I left the room and stood on the balcony, overseeing the room belong. Davis was staring up at me from his chair as he chugged on a beer.
“I’d like to talk with you for a minute.” he said angrily.
I slowly walked down the stairs, taking the time to figure out what I would say if he asked why I was inRaven’s room so early in the morning.
“So, do tell me. What did you find out from Rose?” He said as he took another sip of his beer.
“That she’s a brat.” I said as I looked at his bloody knuckles.“What is that from?”
“None of your business.” he said as he trailed off my attempt to change the subject.
“What does she know about Winnie?” he asked.
“She kept denying that she even said the name. She didn’t know who I was talking about apparently.” I said as I took a seat across from him. “She is literally the most useless”
“Hey, don’t talk about her like that.” he interrupted me. “After all, she has a lot of your features.” he said with a smirk.
“Like what?” I asked sarcastically.
“She’s stubborn, high maintenance, you know, womanly things.” he said with a laugh.
“Yeah and she’s an asshole like her father” I said, joining his laughter.
We sat across from each other for minutes in silence.
“Raven can’t know that she’s here.” he said with an uneasy look.
“Then what do we do because she is.” I said frantically.
“I have an idea but I’m not sure how it will work out.” he said uneasy.
“What is it?” I asked confused.
“We have new girls come in everyday, what if we grab them and tell Raven that this is Winnie, when she realizes it’s not she will forget about it.” he said proudly.
“You can’t be serious. She will obviously know it’s not her sister.” I said obnoxiously.
“She hasn’t seen her in years, she will never know!” he said excitedly.
“How do we find someone named Winnie?” I asked.
“Are you brain dead? We can just grab a random girl, tell her that her new name is Winnie and if she doesn’t comply”
“Okay, okay, I get it. There is no need to get violent.” I said, interrupting him.
“But first, we need to get Raven out of the building so we can do a search for a replacement Winnie. Today is the day you two head to the city.” he said with power. “I will send some of my guards with a truck to follow you two so when we do find some girls and lead them away, they can get them easier for you.” he said thinking.
“I’m so scared.” I said anxiously.
“You can do this, we need this.” he nodded at me reassuringly. “Go get Raven, we need to get out there before sunrise.”
An hour later of fighting with Raven over what the plan was and how two girls were going to try and steal at least 12 before sunset. The worst part was convincing Raven that we were going to be safe, she had every intention of staying in the building until Davis threatened to hit her again if she didn’t go. After preparation of what to say if we got caught, what to do ifa girl wouldn’t come with us and a small panic attack from Davis, Raven and I were thrown into the back of a truck and we headed to the city.
The long drive left us for a silent trip as neither of us knew how this was going to play out. Abducted as children and now were the ones who are doing what ruined our lives in the first place, ironic.
We traveled for what seemed to be hours along a gravel road that made the back doors of the trailer swing back and forth attached to the padlock held from the outside.
“Are you ready to do this?” I asked Raven.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.” she responded.
“We need a plan.” I said as I looked to her for an answer.
“I already have one.” she finished.
“Would you care to share this plan with me?” I asked in a snarky tone. She turned to me in a dramatic way to face me.
“We find a girl, signal the guys and then move on to the next one.”
“It’s not going to be that easy, Raven.” I snapped at her. “We can’t just walk up to random girls, we need to make sure they are alone or nobody's watching and then we have to get them away from the public and then call the guys.” I explained.
“Do I get to see Winnie after this?” she asked, cutting me off.
“I’m working on it, yes.” I responded.
The car came to a stop and we heard the doors of the front seat driver and the passenger get out and unlock the padlock that held the doors closed.
“We have four hours.” said one of the guards. “We will be following you, make sure to get the girls into alleys or somewhere we can easily drive the car up.” he pointed to a side street.
“Don’t mess this up.” said the other guard.
As we both jumped out of the truck, the guards pulled away down the street and parked next to a giant compactor to look as if they were just workers.
Raven and I stood for a couple seconds in shock, I could tell by her face that she hasn’t seen the outside of the Hylander building in what seemed to be years. I pulled her arm to wake her up out of her daze and bring her back.
“Let’s go, we don’t have all day!” I loudly whispered to her.
We linked arms and walked down a street where there was a market. This market was filled with people selling produce foods and trading fish for large sticks and cloth. We came across a group of young woman, probably around 15-years-old who were giggling about while near one of the stands.
“I’ve got this one.” Raven said as she headed towards the girls signaling me to stay back.
She walked up to the group of girls as if she knew them for years.
“Hey ladies, I can’t seem to find a street name, could you help me?” she asked them.
“Oh yeah, of course!” one piped up.
“What are you looking for?” said another.
“Talbot Road, it can’t be far from here right? She asked.
“Oh no, not at all! We can show you!” said one of the other girls.
What I didn’t realize that Raven was leading not one but all four girls to wear our truck was. Talbot Road.
The young girl conversed with Raven the entire 15 minute walk as I followed closely behind. They were beautiful girls named Jamie, Krista and Bailey who all went to the same high school and loved bright colours. You learn a lot of things you don’t want to know when you walk down a street for 15 minutes with a bunch of teenagers
As we came closer to Talbot Road, the group of girls hardly noticed that they were in the middle of nowhere and there was only one street to exist from. After having Rose, that was the first things I noticed, ways to get out in case of an emergency.
“Here it is!” Jamie announced excitedly. “What are you doing all the way out here? There is nothing out here!” she laughed at Raven.
“I should be asking you the same question.” she said as she smiled jokingly at the girls giggling.
“Come on, there’s something cool I want to show you!” Raven said as she ran ahead. The girls instantly followed excitedly as they ran after her with me following close behind. Raven continued to look behind her as it was a game of cat and mouse. She ran past the van and stopped at a tree ahead.
The two guards jumped out of the van as soon as the girls came to the back of the truck and they grabbed Jamie and Bailey. As soon as Krista realized what was going on she tried to run in the other direct but she didn't realize I was hot on her trail.
After the two guards threw the unconscious girls into the back of the truck with the help of Raven, I chased after Krista that ran behind a large garbage can. I was panicking as she was slightly out of my sight but still in a spot where I could get to her.
“Come with me.” I said to her from in front of the garbage can.
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She was sobbing and her words were just mumbled cries mixed in with a few anxious breaths.
“If you don’t come with me now, I will kill your family.” I said angrily.
She stood up slowly and walked towards me. I couldn’t believe the words that came out of my mouth. I threatened a 15-year-old girl.
I placed a white bag over her head and tied her wrists together with tape and walked her over to the truck.
“Thank god, we were worried about you.” Raven said to me as I handed Krista off to the guards who put her into the back of the van. The three girls laid in the back of the van, traumatized.
Raven and I jumped into the back with the girls and told them to be quiet. The entire ride back to the buildings were filled with silent cries and “I want to go home” mixed with “Please, let us go.” It was going to be a long night.
CHAPTER 23
ROSE
I woke up to loud screams from the room next door. You could hear Winnie’s screams from down the hall as my food hatch opened. Her tiny voice sounded as if she was in pain and was being beaten until her cries were no more.
I sat silently, pressing my ear against the area where the hole in the wall was as I heard nothing coming from her room. The guards must have found the hole and patched it up because no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t poke through the wall as easily as I could times before.
Waiting for any noise, I sat silently eating my toast, one hardboiled egg and a single slice of cheese. Waiting for what felt like hours, I fell asleep on the cold, hard floor. I had nightmares of the drive here from the orphanage. Being thrown into the back of a truck filled with girls that I never saw again.
I woke up to a tug on my nightgown, it was Winnie. “Wake up, we have to go now!” she said, pulling me to stand up.
“What-what’s going on?” I said confusingly.
“I got out, I really got out!” she said excitedly as she kept turning to face the door.
“Got out? What are you talking about?” I asked as I held my head in my right hand, trying to force myself to wake up.
“Just follow me, we don’t have much time.” She signaled me to follow her. As I stood up, I felt dizzy and nauseous as if the whole world was spinning. As I attempted to follow Winnie closely behind, I stopped in the middle of my doorway and stared down at the guard who was laying on the floor.
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