by Riley Moreno
So why did a small part of her want to believe this man?
He seemed nice. He hadn’t raped her. Sure he’d touched her, but only to pull her out of prison and into hiding places, and he kept saying that he was going to find a way out. Julie wanted to trust him, but it was just so hard after everything that had happened.
At least… at least he could tell her about Kim.
“How…?”
He was startled by the sound of her voice, and he stopped and started to take her shoulders. Julie’s mind was too full of other hands, and she shied away from him.
“Sorry,” he said. “What is it?”
She didn’t look into his eyes. She focused on the borrowed shoes on her feet as she pressed him for details.
“How did Kim die?”
Saying it didn’t make it any realer, but Julie had to hear all of it if she there was any hope of understanding.
“I… I don’t know. Not exactly.”
Then she looked at him. So it was one more lie. Like boys that flirted in a diner and talked about fun when they had only evil on their minds. Julie wanted to blast him for jumping to a conclusion when Ethan kept talking.
“But I saw her, Julie. She wasn’t moving. And they… they were freaking out. They said… they said they had to get rid of her.”
Where was Kim now? Hacked to pieces and scattered in the forest? Dumped in a river until the current wiped away the evidence of what she they had done? Or maybe… maybe she was back in the van. Being taken to a lonely grave where no one would ever pay respects. Julie thought of Kim’s mother. As tense as things always were between them, even she deserved better than that.
“But she was dead. And that’s why we had to move now. I’m… I’m sorry about your friend.”
It didn’t matter. His sympathy didn’t erase anything. But it still felt good to be out in the night for more than the few seconds when she was tied up and treated like cargo en route to another horrible string of rapists. Julie still thought that they would be found out. Ethan would either be revealed to be the worst of the lot or he would die right in front of her. Julie would see it all, and she would be able to answer the question of his demise with painstaking specifics. And then she would be tied up again, and that would be the rest of her life until someone hit her too hard and she joined Kim. Her mother would weep and worry for the rest of her life. Greg would have his hands full. But Julie would have peace. Death seemed like the only thing that she could look forward to.
Ethan moved away from her, and his eyes searched the woods. He took a few steps forward, and then he laughed.
A chill ran up Julie’s spine.
“Julie! Look!”
She found his eyes. In the distance, there was a house, a cabin, another cabin. Julie imagined it full of other customers who just wanted to keep hurting her, and she started to back away. When Ethan grabbed her wrist, she shuddered but didn’t fight. Ethan only seemed to notice her initial reaction.
“It’s okay. Maybe there’s help inside.”
Ethan smiled at her, but Julie just slipped to his side and allowed him to march her to the cabin’s façade.
It as a small, quiet structure, and Ethan’s eyes raced around the perimeter. He raised his finger to Julie’s mouth.
“Wait here,” he whispered. “I’m going to check it out.”
He squeezed her hand and was off. Julie was suddenly alone. For a second, she thought of running away from what would undoubtedly prove to be another house of horrors. She couldn’t find freedom, but maybe she could find Kim. Maybe she could remember enough to lead her mother to the spot when she was finally home. Or maybe she could just die with her. Anything was better than waiting for the other shoe.
She was still trapped in a state of indecision when Ethan flew back to her side, his face bright and hopeful.
“It’s clear, Julie. Let’s… let’s go inside. Maybe there’s a phone or… or some food. Are you hungry?”
The summer had been a series of small plates of hard bread and water. Just enough to keep her alive. After her night with the three that seemed as if it would never stop, Julie refused to eat. So Pete shoved the food down her throat, and she choked it down. A part of her wanted to gag on the bread, but another part of her, a rapidly diminishing part, was just hungry. So she ate and drank, and Pete repeated the forced feeding every few days to keep her in the game. So yeah. Julie was starving.
“Julie?”
She walked past Ethan, fully expecting an assault. When she reached the front door, she sensed no movement from within, and she looked down at a knob that had obviously been picked in hope of entry. Her head turned to the porch, and just beyond an unmoving swing was an abandoned nail. Was it just part of the game, or had Ethan really needed to find a way to break in to get them stronger cover?
Ethan ran up the steps. His arm started to circle around her waist, but one look from her eyes sent him back a few steps.
“It’s really okay,” he said. “We won’t… we won’t stay long. Let’s just see what’s inside.”
It would be now. He thought he had eased her to a place where she believed everything he said, and once she was on a couch or a bed, once she was out of his shirt and shoes, he would make her doubt any and all goodness in the world, but Julie opened the door and entered he cabin.
It obviously hadn’t been inhabited for months. There was a layer of dust on a small table, and she saw a cobweb with a spider dangling above the cold fireplace. So much for even something as simple as food when he’d probably just brush the cobweb away by slamming her hair into the collected grime.
Ethan entered and smiled as he lit a single, dusty lamp
“Just so we can see our way around,” he said. “I’ll look for some food.”
He pried open the fridge and swiftly shut it at the scent of something else that she didn’t want to know. Ethan started rifling through the cabinets, and he cried out in triumph when he found a box of crackers. Removing an entire sleeve from the carton, he offered Julie the paltry meal, and she could think of nothing but her stomach as she tore into the plastic and started stuffing the salty squares into her mouth.
“Take it slow,” he said. “You’ll get sick.”
For the first time in months, Julie chewed and savored a meal. Crackers were far from her first choice, but she ate gratefully and swallowed the masticated food down. She had forgotten the need to take her time with sustenance, and when she started to cough, Ethan raced back to the cabinet. She heard a faucet click to attention, and he was before her again with a glass of water. Not wanting one more thing forced down her throat, Julie took the glass and drank of her own volition. When the glass was empty, she returned to the crackers and ate like it was her last meal. It might be. Ethan retrieved the glass that she’d nearly sent crashing into the floor, and he went back to the sink. Again he filled it to the brim. He returned to her and gave her the drink. Julie had forgotten water that wasn’t tainted by plastic and forced into her mouth. Ethan offered, and she was glad to just accept. She drained the glass, and held her hand out for more. Ethan obliged, filled the glass again, but this time he pressed his fingers to the back of her neck as she swallowed. The taste of the cool was so sweet that she didn’t shake his hand away. She just drank, and when she signaled for more crackers, he placed them against her lips. Julie took them in her hands and chewed quickly. Ethan’s hands moved down her back as the food made its way to her stomach.
When she was somewhat fortified, she swept the crumbs from her lips. Ethan seemed pleased, and he started opening drawers in search of something else.
“There has to be something else. Place like this. Probably hunters just waiting for fall. We’ll…”
As he pulled an entire drawer from its home, there was a shining crash of silverware. Ethan backed away from the spill, but Julie’s eyes caught the blade of a knife. Before she could think of anything else, she took the blade in her hand and pointed it at Ethan.
“Julie---”
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“You’re not going to hurt me! I won’t let you!”
Ethan started to move towards her, but Julie kept the knife poised. Ethan’s shoulders fell and he disappeared into the tiny depths of the cabin. She was left with the knife in her hands, but she had nowhere to drive the blade as she heard doors opening and closing. Her fingers curled around the base of the knife. When Ethan came back, she would lunge and stab him. Then she would keep running. Matt and Pete were probably just waiting around the next corner, but she’d have the knife, and she would try to put them off. Julie was beyond a point where she could feel normal, but she’d learn exactly what they had done to Kim. In the end, probably no one but her would know where her friend was and all that had happened, but Julie would pay her respects before she was shoveled into the ground with her.
Ethan reappeared with his hands raised. His eyes lingered on the knife, and he sighed.
“Keep it.”
That was unexpected. Was he that sick or was he something else? Ethan beckoned for her to follow. Julie did as she was told, but she kept the knife poised on the point of attack. They reached the end of a hallway, and Ethan stepped away from an open door.
As she peered inside the unknown room, she saw a half bath and couldn’t help but long for warm, gentle water running down her body. Pete’s idea of a shower was a cold hose that eradicated his customers’ filth and left her shivering as her body to dry in the air until the night returned. Julie ventured into the place of a proper shower and kept the knife in her hand.
“Um….”
She glared at him. Ethan shook his head nervously,
“It’s okay. I said keep it if… if you need it.”
Ethan started away from the door and looked back into the cabin.
“You get cleaned up. I’ll see what else I can find.”
And he was gone. Julie considered running, but she still didn’t fully believe that this was freedom. At least she could be clean, somewhat clean, as Matt and Pete waited in the woods.
Julie stripped off Ethan’s shirt, and she kicked off his shoes. The knife was settled on the floor of the shower, and Julie let the water beat down against her flesh. She saw a forgotten bar of soap, malformed, and she quickly grabbed it. Every scrub under the stream was an attempt to wash the many hands from her body and the memory from her mind. She scrubbed her flesh until it was raw, and she could still feel the fingers invading her skin. She cried again as she realized that even if she got home in one piece, she would never be whole again. She had been robbed of more than her virginity. These monsters had stolen any chance of her being touched without memoires of pain. Julie was a shell of everything that she had hoped, but still she scrubbed and let the water run over her body.
Then there was a knock at the door.
Julie kept the water running as she retrieved a dirty towel and wound it around her broken body. She picked up the knife and eased the door open. She saw Ethan, his eyes averted, and he was holding out a clumsy pile.
“I… I found this.”
Julie took his gift and unfolded it to find a large sweater and a larger gray skirt. She looked to Ethan. His eyes were fixed on an unseen part of the cabin, and Julie sank into despair at the thought that people he’d been in league with from the start were at the front door and just waiting to tear her apart. When Ethan was back in her gaze, he was alone, and Julie breathed a slight sigh of relief. Ethan just stood in the doorway. He eyed the clothing. He eyed the knife in her hands.
If she could move fast, she could push forward and cut him and---
“We might need it. This, too.”
Her eyes were damp as she looked up at him. He reached under his shirt and pulled out a gun.
“No! No please!”
Ethan set the gun down just outside the door and entered the bathroom.
“Julie. It’s okay. It’s not for you. It’s… it’s for them.”
She saw his face shift for a fleeting second. Maybe he did want Matt and Pete blown away if push came to shove. It didn’t solve the mystery of Ethan, but it was enough for her to believe his intentions in this moment. Julie imagined him laying waste to her familiar captors before taking her into a new hell. All Julie needed was to stay alert for the right moment until she could run.
So she played along.
“Right. Okay.”
Julie dressed in the clothes he had offered. She re-tied his shoes to her feet and stood at attention. When she was fully clothed, Ethan’s gaze went back to the knife, and Julie was quick to stuff it under her waistline. She kept staring at him as he summoned her from the bathroom.
They were back in the main room. Ethan was dumping another box of crackers into a trash bag, and he started back into the night. Julie followed and felt the knife at her thigh.
“What else do you know about him?”
Ethan stopped running and turned to her with a look of confusion.
“Who?”
“Carter.”
She’d heard Pete speak his name, and Carter had returned. Sometimes he was alone, and he ignored her tears as her bound body wriggled under his hands. One night, maybe not so long ago, he had invited an older version of himself to the table, and Julie didn’t even plead as he undid his belt and plowed her hard. At his age, he could be nothing but quick, and he hurt her fast. Julie was grateful for his exit, but the younger one assumed his place and raped her for what seemed like hours. Julie wanted to know more of who they were and how they could do this.
“He’s just a client of mine. Well was. Something tells me the deal is dead.”
“Poor you,” she said through a smirk.
He laughed pathetically.
“Pretty sure they won’t be having me over for dinner again.”
He had broken bread with these bastards. What was that like?
“Who’d they hurt then?”
“No one. I mean, I guess so. Pretty sure this isn’t Melissa’s scene.”
“Who?’
“Geoffrey’s daughter. She’s… she’s engaged to Carter.”
Julie’s stomach turned at the thought of any girl actually wanting to be with Carter. Maybe he was a different man in her bed. He had to be. Did he bed his fiancée with care and laugh to himself when she judged him a gentle lover? Or did she know where he went and what he was really like because she’d been brought up my a man who indulged in the same wicked games?
It was all too horrible to keep contemplating, and she didn’t ask any other questions as she walked away from Ethan. He was quick to catch up, and they didn’t speak as the forest began to thin and a patch of dirt road came into view.
“Yes!” Ethan cried out.
Julie was startled by his explosion of excitement, and her hand went for the knife as he wheeled around and smiled at her brightly.
“This was how we got here,” he said. “He took this road. Now… now listen to me. We just keep going, and then we’ll be back on the main strip. We’ll… flag someone down or at least my cell will work.”
He dropped the bag of stolen food, and happily grabbed her arms.
“We’re almost---”
She jumped when he touched her, and Ethan quickly released her and pressed his hands to his side.
“Sorry. We’re almost out, Julie. Just… just stay close to me.”
Should she make a run for it now that he had laid out the route? No. Better to wait until someone who hadn’t come to party, whether by choice or by accident, appeared. Then and only then, she might be able to imagine this over.
Ethan was a few feet ahead of her when another pair of arms surrounded her body. Julie let out the beginning of a scream as a clammy hand covered her mouth. Ethan turned back, the gun draw. Struggling, Julie’s eyes drifted over her shoulder. She saw Matt smiling, and she felt the barrel of another gun against her temple.
14
“Drop it, asshole, or she’s dead.”
Ethan’s hands trembled, but he kept the gun aimed at Matt. Julie’s frantic kicks met the
air as Matt lifted her off the ground, and she was desperate to pry his hand from her face. Every sound she tried to make came out muffled, but Julie kept screaming into his palm. He said they were almost there, and she prayed that someone would hear.
“I said drop it!” Matt ordered.
Ethan shook his head.
“No. You’re not taking her back there. Let her go.”
Matt’s grip tightened, and his tobacco tinged laugh filled her eyes.
“She’s my property.”
He licked Julie’s ear. She cringed as his slime streaked down her face.
“You got a lot of cock ahead of you until we get you a new sidekick.”
Julie thrashed wildly. How much lower could she fall? Would she be raped round the clock and not even be granted the hollow mercy of sleep? She imagined the assaults continuing on the road, in the van, in between each dark stop. Without even one second to focus on anything but rough hands all over her and men filling her constantly, she would lose what little sanity she could still cling to.