by Riley Moreno
Matt’s lips left hers, and he stroked her cheek with a single finger.
“You’re friend’s sweet. Real sweet. Think you can measure up, Jules?”
From the bed, Kim was still groaning in pain. Julie didn’t need to hear her whimpers or see her ravaged body to know what lay in store. No one knew where they were, no one was coming to their rescue…
And angels had no power in the devil’s house.
5
Julie waited for the hands that would tear her clothing from her body. Matt pressed his palm down her pants and fingered her roughly.
“Careful, Dude. Cherry’s not busted yet. We need to save it for the paying customers.”
Crazy as it was, she was relieved at the suggestion of a new violation as it led Matt’s hands from her pants. Despite her bonds and Pete’s hands on her arms, Julie relaxed slightly. But just for a second. Matt was soon lifting Kim in her shredded attire from the bed, and he dropped the bruised girl at Julie’s trembling feet. She looked down at her friend, and their eyes met in a shared state of fear. Julie wanted to hold Kim. She wanted to break free of the bonds and take her friend from this horrible place, but the ropes prevented her from making the desired move. All she could do was look at Kim and try to convince her that they would get away at the first chance, whenever that might be. For now, she just gave a faint nod. It was a meager effort to show Kim that they were still okay. And it was a lie in the face of what had happened to Kim and what would soon happen to Julie. As vile as what had transpired while Julie was shackled below, she feared similar treatment, or worse, once they left this place to meet the point where men’s passions transformed into brutality. Unless she could escape, Julie knew that she was condemned to the former instead of the gentler parts of the latter.
No. They had to get away.
“Let’s clear these cunts out!”
Matt took charge. Even though Julie knew that Pete could be just as vicious if given the chance, he played at being resigned when confronted with Matt’s demands. She felt him drag her from the room, and Matt did the same except he pulled Kim by her hair as they passed through the main room with its threatening birds. Julie struggled as Pete pushed, but she stopped moving as Matt dropped Kim to the floor and unlocked the door. Julie steeled herself for the promise of flight. But it couldn’t be right away. That was too obvious. Julie had to wait for the perfect moment. As she gazed up at the stars and thought of her father again, it suddenly seemed a possibility. Distant to be sure, but Julie resolved to seize it at the first chance.
No Camry. No pickup. In their place was a gray van. Julie remembered other clichés from classes spent overlooking quiet parking lots. Whenever a van of this sort came into view, there was always the cry that it was a rape mobile, tricked out 70s style, and Julie remembered Kim and the other girls registering a small sense of disappointment when the driver was revealed to be nothing more than an old man with whiskers who had yet to update his ride as the times changed.
Would that they could think that now.
Matt slid the back door open, and he tossed Kim, limp, into the back of the vehicle as if she was sack of laundry in need of a wash. Before he made the final push, he reached into his pockets and cuffed her hands with shiny metal.
Kim had to feel dirty as she was thrown into the darkest corner against the aluminum siding. Julie gritted her teeth at the sound of the impact but had not a second to struggle further as Pete pushed her into the darkness that had consumed her friend. Despite her bound hands, Julie managed to look over her shoulder as the doors slid shut, and she heard silence as the boys made their way back to the cabin. Julie figured that they were back in clean-up mode, and she clung to the minutes that such a task would take to turn her head back to her friend.
“Kim! Kim, look at me.”
She hated that it had to come out as one more order, but time was of the essence. Kim did not comply, and Julie had no choice but to guide her friend’s face to hers with a bare foot.
“Kim!”
Kim shuddered at the press of her friend’s foot, but when she saw that it was attached to Julie, she calmed, and her bitter tears transformed into softer weeping laced with confused remorse.
“Julie?”
Not Jules. The sacrifice of the nickname simply underlined the severity of the situation. Julie could feel complete surrender nearing the place where she lay, and she knew that she needed Kim at full capacity it they were to make their way from the van and head back to the lot. The Camry was gone, but Grandma might still be present.
Kim kept crying as Julie tried to make her understand that they had to form a plan. It was a losing battle. As much as it killed her, Julie turned her back and hit Kim hard. Her best friend shrank back further and cried at the blow. Julie sought to explain herself immediately, and she folded her bound form over Kim’s body, and she was able to place a tied hand to the girl’s face.
“I’m sorry, Kim. But we have to talk.”
Through her shaking fingers, Kim nodded, and Julie sighed as she sat away from her friend. She worked at her bonds as she kept her eyes on Kim’s and kept talking while there was still time.
“What happened?” Julie asked.
She knew the bare bones of the matter, but the details could prove useful as Julie kept trying to free herself from a similar fate.
“We were just partying,” Kim sobbed.
Sure they were. It had to seem innocent enough. As innocent as degradation could be.
Keep talking, Kim.
Julie nodded her head as she continued using her fingernails in an effort to separate the rope from her wrists.
“And then what?” Julie asked.
Kim hung her head. The key to her chains was out in the night with the boys, but she had to just focus on the rope as she implored Kim to tell more of her story.
“Then what?” Julie asked.
Kim was suddenly lost in a memory, and it was more than apparent that she had no desire to relive any of it. Julie understood the fear and the promise of pain, and if they were already out on the other side of this, she would allow Kim the time to simply ruminate on the horror and keep the reality close to the vest until she was really and truly ready to speak of the events in the cabin. But right now was not on their side. Soon enough, the boys would return to the van, shift the prison on wheels into drive, and there was no clue as to where they would end up when they made that move. Julie kept twisting her wrists as she nodded for Kim to provide more details.
“He… he got a little rough,” Kim started. Her eyes clouded over, and Julie felt that Matt was so like his friend that they were brothers in some sense. Matt had gone out of his way to rival Kim’s second of pleasure with his own need to control her and bring distress to the fore. She could see Kim’s bruises, the blood. Matt had gotten more than rough.
“What did he tell you?” Julie asked.
Kim twisted her head and rested it on her shoulder. She was naked from the waist down, and the vestiges of her camisole were the only thing providing some small sense of privacy. Julie watched Kim’s eyes water anew in the face of Julie’s question. Why press the matter? The horrible story relayed to Julie had to have been repeated in similar shades courtesy of Matt’s hands. But she kept pressing her friend for a confession. She wanted to learn more.
“Kim?”
Finally, their eyes met again.
“He… he said I belonged to him. He… said he has… clients… that… that they’re going to… to pay. He said… he said ‘let me give you a preview.’”
Julie choked on a whimper, and for a second, she felt her entire being conceding to the predicament. There was no silver lining in Kim’s version of events, and her recollection simply seemed to seal their doom. Julie banged her head against the walls of the van. She wanted to wake up. Or to die. Either state was preferable to what was coming.
Then she thought of her father again.
This time, he wasn’t a fantastical savior with the power to descen
d from white clouds and spirit her from the grip of the lying pair. No. The thing that hit her brain now was the way he had been taken from her. It was awful and sudden, and she always told herself that it had to be that one moment of defining misery that would shape the rest of her days. She had endured it. And survived it. So this wouldn’t be as bad. It just couldn’t be.
Julie had to hold onto that belief.
She shifted towards Kim again.
“Listen to me,” she started. “I’m going… I’m turning around. You need to untie me. Okay?”
Kim kept crying as she turned her head away from Julie’s rapid breaths.
“You need to listen to me, Kimmy!”
Julie wasn’t so far gone as to abandon another term of endearment. The sound of the nickname roused Kim from her miserable stupor, and she was able to focus on her friend.
“Jules?”
Julie sighed. The return of her own nickname was something, and she lowered her head on Kim’s shoulder. Holding her would be preferable, but at the moment it was impossible. She could still be close to her even as both pairs of arms were horribly bound.
“I’m turning, Kimmy. Okay?”
Kim nodded and Julie presented her wrists to her friend. Kim stayed in an immobile state for too many seconds, seconds that they did not have to spare, and Julie knocked the back of her head into Kim’s shoulder. She didn’t need to make another move to drive Kim, trembling, into action.
Kim started to pick at the rope. Julie relaxed against her friend’s efforts and forced her mind to the next step. Even untied, they would still be trapped in the back of the unmoving van. What to do with the chance once it came? Julie quickly decided that she would have to find a weapon. A quick scan of the darkened van initially promised little, but then she saw a lonely crowbar just a few feet away. Once untied, she knew that she had to grab it if she was ever going to get out.
“Good, Kimmy. Just untie me. I’ll do the rest.”
This wasn’t the way it had always been. Kim was usually the leader, and Julie had always followed. Momentary resentments aside, Julie had gravitated to the role of second banana. Kim always seemed better equipped to take charge, but now she was the one crying even as she tried to free her friend. Julie had to dig deep and claim control if they were going to make their way home.
“Come on, Kim.”
She continued trying to release Julie from her bonds. Julie’s heaving breaths rivaled the movement of Kim’s hands. They stayed like that, in work, in silence, until the sounds of the boys’ voices just outside the van froze them where they sat. Julie anticipated the backdoor of the van sliding open, and she could feel Kim on the verge of more tears as the moment never came. There was just their laughter, and it was soon accompanied by the sound of the front doors opening and closing as the boys climbed into their seats. Which one was at the wheel? After all that had happened, Julie knew Pete better, but it was just as easy to picture Matt in the driver’s seat. Maybe he was the one that took charge. After all, he gravitated to Kim. Then again, Pete had proved himself far more dangerous than Julie could have ever imagined. He wore the face of a kind boy to put her at ease, but Julie now knew that he was anything but. So maybe Pete was the wild card, the one that suppressed his true self in an effort to put the pair of potential captives at ease. If that’s what it was, Julie had to admit that she had been all too eager to accept the con. But maybe, on a subconscious level, she had also lied. Julie struck Pete, struck everyone, as the naïve innocent who wouldn’t have the slightest idea of what to do with a man if he presented himself. There was some truth in that, but Julie could also use the time it bought and the idea that she was a just a virgin for the taking to free herself, with Kim’s help, and bide her time until she had the chance to strike.
That thought stayed bright in her brain as the van started to move.
Julie was tossed from Kim’s side, and she braced her body for the next blow. She crashed into the opposing the wall of the van, and as she shook her head, determined to move past it, she realized that the crowbar was but inches from her hand. With a supreme effort, Julie stretched her fingers forward. It was so close, but catching hold of it remained impossible. Still, Julie kept reaching, and she felt that she was at the point where she nearly had it in her grip when the van made a sharp turn. Julie spun from where she sat, and once again her body was pressed to Kim’s. Julie coughed as Kim, out of instinct if nothing else, pressed her head to Julie’s shoulder and wept. Kim was terrified, but Julie could also sense her relief at the return of her friend, and she had to use that if they were going to get out.
“Kimmy? Here.”
Julie turned, and once again, Kim started to work at her bonds.
“Did they tell you where they were taking us?”
Probably not. They wouldn’t be that clumsy when they had come so far in so short a time. But Julie needed to keep Kim talking, keep her focused. When the moment of escape ultimately presented itself, Julie would need her friend.
They had to go together.
“Kimmy?”
She kept tugging at Julie’s rope.
“No. He just said that… that…”
Kim’s voice trailed off, but Julie could taste the anguish in her silence. She needed Kim to be straight with her. Kim could no longer claim that she comprehended the entire score on the basis of her experience. She had done many things with many boys. At this moment, she probably wished that she had just stayed with Brian. Ordinary must now seem infinitely preferable to the promised mystery of two strangers encountered by chance in a diner. For a second, Julie had to wonder if the meeting could simply be attributed to the hand of chance. Was it possible that this was somehow fated by hands she wanted to know less than Pete’s? Julie drove the idea from her mind. It was too crazy.
“Kimmy?”
Their eyes met over Julie’s shoulders. She could see that Kim was in a place where she was questioning more than the trip and the stop at Eatonsburg’s Eats. Kim was working through every second of her life to this moment, and Julie could see the doubt in the red that colored her cheeks. Kim always wanted to be the center of attention, and more often than not, her wish was granted. Even on this day, Kim had attracted the special treatment of the leader of the small pack. Of course, Pete’s intentions, which had seemed weak and unsteady, were now also called into question, but Julie still clung to the self-deprecating notion that something else had been revealed to her friend. Something that she could use when the time was right.
“Kimmy?”
Kim left her friend’s skin, and she buried her face in a piece of burlap that had been discarded and forgotten. Was there something there that could save them? Julie didn’t spy another weapon, and her eyes drifted back to the crowbar. It was still their best shot to get away. If they were going to get away. Julie hated the sound of the word in her mind. If suggested that it might not happen. No. No they had to escape.
“Kimmy?”
As their eyes met, Julie saw her friend offering apologies with her eyes. She had assured Kim that nothing but fun would rear its head as they embarked upon their trip. And petty jealousies aside, Julie always trusted Kim. She seemed to know how to play everything and everyone. But this was something that Kim hadn’t counted on. Despite Julie’s somewhat successful attempt to take charge, Kim, even chained, obviously still doubted the chances of her friend having any kind of control when it came to their current situation. Julie observed all of this and more, but she resolved to be all that Kim didn’t entirely believe and just get them out.
The van hit a bump in the road. Julie felt her body leaving Kim’s side, but her hands were closer to the crowbar than ever. More than that, the rope had loosened on account of Kim’s hard work. Julie twisted the bindings form her wrists, and she clutched the would-be weapon. She had no way of knowing when the first chance would present itself, bit at least she had found a form of defense. Julie pressed it behind her back and returned to Kim’s side. She forced her eyes to conv
ey the salvation that would present itself when Julie seized the right moment.
“What are you going to do, Julie,” Kim asked.
“I’m getting us out.”
Kim let out a small gasp. Even in the dark of the van, Julie saw her blue eyes glistening with fear.
“Oh, Julie. Julie, you can’t.”
It wasn’t like Kim to give up without a fight. But then again, this was a state of affairs unlike any either girl had ever faced.
“Kimmy---”
“Julie. Don’t you get it? They’re… they’re going to… they’re going to make us… oh, God! They’ll lock us up. They’ll hurt us. Everyone they… they offer us to is going to… oh, God, Julie. I don’t want to be here! I want… I want to go home! I want---”
Julie sat of on the crowbar and grabbed Kim by her neck.
“Enough, Kim!”
“Julie---”
“Just stop talking!”
She remembered Pete’s order for her to stay silent unless addressed, and Matt had to have issued Kim a similar command. At that second, Julie hated herself for aping the boys driving them into the depths of hell, but running through the horror over and over again and simply becoming more terrified would be of no help. No. One of them had to fight through the fear and maintain something resembling a cool head. In every other moment of their friendship, that tactic would have come to Kim as naturally as breathing. But now the roles were reversed.
Julie took a deep breath.
“Kimmy---”
Julie was about to offer an apology as the van ground to a halt. Reaching back, Julie grabbed the crowbar. She lifted it from the floor of the van and held it horizontal to her spine. Kim whimpered as they heard the sounds of doors opening and closing followed by the wicked laughter of their captors.