by Riley Moreno
Ethan picked her up off the ground. He held her. Although he didn’t speak, his hands ran down her back and tried to still her fears. But his arms were the enemy, and Julie formed fists that pummeled his body. Each blow brought him back to the ground, and once he was on his knees, he could only wrap his arms around her bare legs. Her fists were such that he knew they would leave marks, but Ethan didn’t care. She could hurt him. Make him a stand-in for the Carters and the Geoffreys. She deserved that much.
Ethan finally got back on his feet. He lifted her off the ground, and he returned his hand to her mouth as they moved among the trees. Her sobbing became too much for him to stand, and he laid her down. When his hand left her lips, she did nothing but whimper at the reality of all she had lost. Her friend was gone. The last link to normal was probably being buried on unknown, unhallowed ground. Julie would never be allowed to leave flowers on what was, in so many ways, a shared grave. Sure she was still breathing, but she’d never be whoever she was before this happened after hours that became days that became months that became an entire summer. She’d never be the same, but she could survive.
“Kim…” As she cried for her friend, Ethan was moved and longed to touch her, not in any mean-minded way but with care. He lowered his body closer to her face. His mouth was at her ear, and he felt her body tense in despair. As he met her eyes, Ethan dragged a single finger across her face and tried to whisper assurances into her quivering ear.
“I know. I’m… I’m so sorry.”
Julie started to speak, but no sounds came out. Ethan relaxed against the idea that she believed in him, but when she started to laugh, he drew away from her.
“You gonna take your turn now? Is that your thing?”
As her laughter grew, Ethan just shuddered and shook his head. She didn’t believe in him and if she kept this up, their location would be revealed and she would be as lost as her friend. He wasn’t going to let that happen, and he was up and folding her unwilling body into an unwanted embrace. Ethan heard her muffled cries and felt her small kicks against his shins. It was strange. He had never longed so much to see another person free, but he had to make her a kind of prisoner if there was any hope of getting away. He caught hold of her neck and brought her eyes back to his face.
“I will never hurt you. You need to trust me.”
He knew that she didn’t as she continued to twist and moan under his hands. Ethan couldn’t stand to see her like this, and it suddenly occurred to him that there might have been others, too many others, who also assured her of a shot at salvation before violating her with unspeakable cruelty. He wasn’t one of those men, and he didn’t want to be numbered among them. But the longer they stayed in this spot was too much of a risk for both of them.
As much as it killed him, Ethan had to show force. Julie continued to struggle and cry as he pulled her closer to him with a rough tug. She trembled, and her eyes pleaded as he dragged her behind him.
“You’re safe with me. And if you want to stay safe, you’ll follow.”
Julie’s body had been battered to the point that she fell like a ragdoll. She kept trying to turn away from him, but with each step, he felt her resistance weaken. As he kept pulling her along he wondered what would become of her once he had her out the other side. Would she try to go back to a familiar place and settle back into normal rhythms? What if that wasn’t an option? Maybe the place from where she had come held its own horrors. If she wanted to escape from them, too, he would have to find her another place where the world could start to make sense. He would carry her home and try to protect her and---
Julie’s hand formed fist, and it crashed into his side. Ethan gasped at the impact, but his arms remained on her wrists as they both fell to the ground and coughed into the dirt. Ethan got his bearings first, and he managed to grab hold of Julie again. She tried to hit him, and Ethan held her firmly against the earth. He hated himself for causing her further harm, and he knew she didn’t want his arms around her. But he could think of nothing else to do, so he just held her writhing body close to his. She struggled against him and finally, pitifully, gave in to his touch. She started to go limp again, but he needed her at attention if they were to make it back to the road.
He patted the top of her head, lightly. To Julie, the gentleness had to seem alien, and she lifted her face to his.
“What are doing?” she asked.
“Helping you. Now come on.”
They were running again, and he could feel her uncomfortable with his hand on her arm. There was another shot, and she started to scream. Ethan had to fold her mouth under his arm. Julie managed to keep pace with him until her knees buckled underneath her.
“No. Keep moving.”
He lifted her off the ground and felt something wet as her knees found his hands. A quick glance revealed blood, and he held her closer as he tried to get far away from the sound of the shot.
Then Ethan stumbled, and he lost Julie to the earth. She didn’t try to crawl away, but she also didn’t reach for him as she laid in the soil. Ethan wiped his brow and lifted her up again, but Julie pleaded for him to just leave her alone. He obliged and lowered her down. Under the tails of the shirt that be had given her, he could see the skinned knee bursting with blood. He removed the tie that still surrounded his neck and wound it around her bleeding flesh. He barely glanced at her as he tied the knot tight. The fear aside, Julie saw her knee and seemed grateful for anything that stopped the blood. Even slightly.
“We have to keep going. Can you get up?”
There was another shot. Ethan imagined Carter and Geoffrey scurrying back to the town car after disposing of the mess that used to be Kim. They would keep going as the hunters moved through the trees. He could almost hear the older man berating Carter not only for making the mess but for suggesting that Ethan was game in the first place. Not that Ethan hadn’t unknowingly dropped the clues, but that was hardly enough to jump to the conclusion that this was Ethan’s scene. But Geoffrey was also far from blameless when it came to the invite. Why? Possibly because in his twisted mind, this was every man’s idea of a fantasy. Victoria Troxel would be horrified when she learned what kind of man her husband truly was.
“Where the hell are you, slut?”
Julie trembled, and her shaking hands went for the collar of his coat.
“It’s Pete,” she whispered. “They’re coming.”
Her eyes were full of fear as he picked her up again. This time she didn’t object, and he started running. She was light and sweating in her arms, and as Matt’s voice mingled with Pete’s, as the sound of both boys grew nearer, Julie started shaking her head and tried to disentangle herself from Ethan’s hold.
“Stop,” she said.
“What? No. We have to keep---”
“No.”
“Julie, we can’t.”
“Put me down.”
He let her slip to his side and tried to keep running. Julie held her ground.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“Please. I broke the rules. Maybe if I just go back---”
Another shot.
“You better run!”
“You’re gonna be sorry, Jules.”
Ethan knew what would happen to her. Him? They would probably just shoot him between the eyes and bury him in a shallow grave. But Julie? She would be made to suffer even greater indignities and not just tonight. No. They had to keep moving.
He clutched her hand tighter.
“No, no, no,” she said.
“You’re not going back.”
“I don’t want to die out here.”
“You want to die back there?”
Her moist eyes moved down to her bare feet, and she shivered.
“You have to trust me, Julie.”
Her eyes flashed before his face.
“I don’t trust anyone anymore.”
“I know. I get it. I---”
The gun fired again. How he wanted to prove that she was wrong about h
im, and in another place, in another time, he would try. But not here and not now.
“Shit! We’re going!”
He grabbed her arm and started to pull her behind him. Julie kept pace, but he could feel that she was only going through the motions. When there was the chance of finding Kim among the trees, Julie was ready to take the chance and run for it. But now, even as Ethan increased his speed, he knew that she was already picturing herself falling back into their hands, tortured in the woods, brought back to the cabin only to be driven away to some other dungeon for the next night’s customers. He had to stop that from happening, but the gun went off again, closer than ever. What was he thinking? An insomniac almost past his prime and a shattered girl? They’d never outrun the younger men and their guns.
Ethan stopped, and Julie stumbled against him. He searched wildly for some sort of cover to keep them safe until the danger passed them by or at least moved in another direction.
His eyes spied a hollowed out tree trunk. The opening was small, small enough for Julie to pass through with no effort. For Ethan, it would be a tighter squeeze, but he would hold his breath to the point of losing consciousness to fit.
“Here. Come on.”
He led Julie towards the tree. She stared at him in confusion, and as he eased her to her knees , he ordered to crawl forward.
“What are you---?”
“Just do it. Please.”
Julie did as she was told. He vowed to get her to a place where she never had to take orders again. As he looked about he saw some stray brush and branches. He gathered all that he could hold to his chest and deposited the pile before the tree. Then, with a deep breath, he stretched his body through the hole. His elbows were skinned as his the arms of his jacket tore against jagged edges, but he made his way inside. Julie huddled against the bark, and Ethan tried to reassure her with a smile. She remained without expression, and Ethan reached into the night again to pull the pile before the hole. He had no way of knowing if it would look staged, but it was all they had to take a chance on. He could hear footsteps cracking against fallen twigs, and left it alone. As he moved closer to Julie, he pressed his finger to his lips.
“Jules! We’re coming for you!”
Ethan saw Julie blink, and he couldn’t help himself. He inched closer and placed an awkward arm around her shoulders. It had to be the fear and the closeness of her captors, but Julie didn’t push him away.
He leaned towards her ear, his voice barely a whisper.
“Hang on. They’ll pass us by.”
“Jules!”
Even hidden, there was no mistaking that they were right on top of them. Through a small crack in the shield that Ethan had formed in haste, he could see a jeaned leg stopped right in front of the tree. If he wanted to, Ethan could reach his arm out and grab the kid’s ankle. If he wasn’t one of a pair, that might be a wise course of action. Catch the bastard by surprise, break, bite, scratch. Disarm him and then force his way back into the night to beat him to a pulp, get his gun, and keep running. But with two of them to deal with, Ethan would be shot and Julie reclaimed before any real damage was done.
There was nothing for them to do but wait.
“Anything?”
Matt spoke, and Ethan could see that the partners in crime were toe to toe just inches from their intended prey.
“No. But they can’t have gotten far.”
“If we don’t find them---”
“Shut up.”
“But if we don’t---”
Ethan felt Julie tremble at the sound of a fist crashing into a face. One of them fell to the ground, as the other kept yelling.
“Failure ain’t an option. Especially not with this one. She gets out… shit!”
He turned his eyes to Julie. What were they talking about? She could identify them, sure, but these guys had to have the mode and the money to go underground if the dirty secret got out.
“We never should have agreed to it.”
Ethan kept looking at Julie for some kind of an answer, but she simply stared at him and mirrored his confusion.
“We’ll find her. We’ll find both of them.”
It was Pete’s voice, and even with Ethan’s limited point of view, he saw him help Matt to his feet. He lowered his voice, but his plans were not to be ignored.
“Look, we split up. You see the asshole trying to play hero, you shoot to wound.”
To wound? Why?
“I’ll blow his brains out,” Matt said.
“No. No that comes later. We get them both back to base. I’m gonna fuck that little cock tease so hard she’ll wish she’d never been born. He wants a show, we’ll give him one.”
Ethan gagged at the idea. To have to watch these animals hurt her and to be powerless was a fate worse than a bullet to his brain, and he pressed his hand against Julie’s arm. She didn’t make a sound, but tears started filling her eyes.
“Then we kill him,” Pete said,
“And the bitch?”
“Her road days are over. I don’t care what the boss says. We’ll… we’ll give her to Markham or Jessup or someone.”
Julie’s eyes went wide at the mention of the names, and Ethan realized that these were other men that had forced themselves on her. Without question, they scared her more than Carter.
“Yeah. She needs to be locked up for good and all.”
“Right. Let’s move.”
Ethan heard them take off in separate directions. When the sounds of their footsteps were gone, he finally sighed and fell away from Julie. The dirt was cool against his cheek. Should they just stay here? Matt and Pete couldn’t search forever. They had customers to tend to. But what if they called for reinforcements before taking off to their next stop? Ethan imagined more than two. He pictured an entire army of lowlifes combing every inch of their surroundings and dragging Julie back to hell. It was better to make their move now while the boys were unpaired and try to get back to something resembling civilization.
He sat up. Julie’s arms were folded around her legs, and she quietly wept into her knees.
“Hey? Don’t cry. They won’t get you again. I promise you that.”
She kept her head down as she spoke.
“You can’t promise that. You can’t promise anything.”
As carefully as he could, Ethan eased her head out of her hands and wiped a tear from her cheek.
“Maybe… maybe not. But I’m not giving up without a fight.”
Julie closed her eyes with a disbelieving sigh. He stroked her hair than sat way with his back to the bark. When he made no other move, Julie’s eyes appeared again.
“So… so are we just staying here?” she asked.
“Give it a few minutes. Then we’ll take off. Are… are you okay to keep going?”
She looked down at her feet and nodded.
“Good.”
They sat in silence for several seconds, and then Julie finally spoke.
“Why?”
Ethan looked at her with cold eyes.
“Because no one deserves this.”
12
When Ethan was fairly certain that the boys were out of earshot, he leaned forward and slowly pushed the brush aside. He was able to see through the opening and peeked out. The forest was still save for a doe grazing a few feet away. He pulled his body out of the trunk then reached back for Julie.
“It’s clear. Come on.”
She barely took his hand as he helped her out. He brushed the dirt and the stray bits of bark from her arm, and he suddenly understood why her gaze had shifted to her feet when he asked if she could continue. All of the running upon the soil and the stones had left her feet bruised and bloody. Without thinking, he removed his shoes, then his socks. His feet were at least three sizes larger than hers, so he stuffed the socks into the toes of his shoes.
“Here,” he said.
It was like some warped version of Cinderella as he placed the shoes on her feet and made the laces tight so that they’d stay
in place. He stood again when he was finished and offered her his hand.
“What about you?” she asked.
“I’ll be fine. Don’t worry. Let’s move.”
Julie didn’t take his hand, but she walked without protest at his side.
He looked up at the sky and wished that he knew more about the stars. It was a celestial compass used by sailors and soldiers for centuries, but Ethan had absolutely no idea how to work it. A quick glance back at the tree followed by look to his left gave him some idea of where they had come from in relation to where they were now. But where to go and how to get back was far less clear than it had been at the cabin.
Julie noticed his head spinning around.
“Do you know what you’re doing?” she asked.
What he was doing? Sure. He was trying to rescue her from a nightmare. But how to get home?
“Yes. Just keep moving.”
She obeyed but kept pressing him.
“So you know where we are?”
“More or less,” he muttered.
Then she stopped.
“More or less?”
He heard her breath shudder through her lips. As his hand brushed against her shoulder, she took a step to the side but kept walking with him. Ethan’s eyes stayed on her as an owl called for his own answers in the distance. The air was still rife with the tension left in their pursuers wake, but it was the closest they’d been to freedom and solitude since he first saw her chained in that awful room, and his mind filled with questions. He knew the length of her captivity, and based on what the others had done to Kim and what he was expected to do to her, he knew how she had suffered. Yet, he couldn’t help but be curious for the specifics. It wasn’t on account of any vicarious desire to experience the violations via her memories. Ethan wanted to know how many deserved death for what she had undergone. He doubted that he’d ever have the chance to make them pay. He knew that justice was slow if it ever came at all. Still, he wished for Julie to be exception to the rule.