“Thanks, Mom.”
It was a little comforting to have my parents here. They loved Lee the moment they met her, so I knew they would help as best as they could. When she went missing, I called them as soon as I had gotten off the phone with Sadie. They had promised they would fly in from San Diego to help make sure everything that could be done was being done.
Emma and Adam went off to class after introductions were made and hugs were shared between Lee’s mom and my parents. I hated that it took something like this to bring us all together for the first time, but I was glad we could be together just the same. Eventually, Luke took our parents to get settled at a hotel, and Sadie went in Lee’s room to take a nap.
I walked to the back patio and pulled out my pack of smokes, lighting one and taking a hard pull. I smiled to myself, remembering a conversation with Lee about my smoking, as if it happened yesterday.
“I hope you have stock in mouthwash.”
“Come on, babe, it’s not that bad.” I put out my smoke and faced her. “I’ve already cut it back to three a day.”
“Three more than I would like.” She crossed her arms and pouted. “You know they say you give up seven minutes of your life with every pack.” She smiled and walked over to me, took the pack of cigarettes out of my pocket, and held them up. “To think what we could do with those gained seven minutes.” She smirked, wiggling her eyebrows.
“Done,” I said, taking my cigarettes out of her hand and throwing them over her patio. She giggled when I picked her up and tossed her over my shoulder.
“Richard Haines, what are you doing?” she squealed, smacking my butt.
“Making up for lost time,” I answered, rushing into her room and shutting the door.
I took one last pull from my smoke and flicked it away. That same night she told me she loved me. She had been talking in her sleep, but she still said it, and being the idiot that I was, I never said it back to her.
Please, God, I prayed. Let me be able to say it back to her.
Chapter 6
Day Ten
—Lillian
“Lee . . . Lee . . .” Anna whispered, tapping on the wall, and waking me from my sleep. “Lee, wake up.”
“I’m up,” I answered, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. “What’s—” I stopped when I heard a struggling gasp, along with a loud grunt, outside my door. Shit, it was Ruth. “Fuck!”
Not her, not anymore. She’s just a child. I said a little prayer in my head and took a deep breath, preparing myself for what I was about to do.
“Hey, you needle-dick son of a bitch. Why don’t you pick on somebody your own size?”
“Oh, there she is,” he said. “I was wondering when you’d join us.” Ruth cried out when the sound of a fist meeting flesh echoed around me. It was loud enough to even make me flinch. “Don’t worry, Lilly, I’m almost done here.”
Ruth cried out my name when another smack hit her skin.
I took another deep breath and crossed the line. “You know why you can’t get me to scream? Because you’re not a real man.”
A few seconds later I heard a door slam against a wall, and then mine swung open. I stood there with my fists clenched as he walked in, not even bothering to close the door behind him like he usually did. For the first time I saw the eyes of one of my captive sisters. Ruth was in a room across from me. She looked so small and frail; her dress tattered, stained with dirt and blood; her long red hair tangled, and her pale skin covered in bruises and welts. Her red-rimmed eyes met mine for a brief second before I met the gaze of my attacker.
“What did you say, you stupid bitch?” he yelled, punching me in the face. It wasn’t hard enough to make me fall, but it was hard enough to make me stumble back against the wall.
“Lee, stop! Please.” Ruth sobbed.
I licked the blood off my lip and laughed, knowing that it would just piss him off more. “You heard me, minute man,” I replied, spitting blood in his direction. “Only a real man can get me to scream.” He lunged at me and wrapped his hands around my neck.
“You’re dead, you stupid slut! Do you hear me? You’re dead! You’re fucking dead!”
I couldn’t hear Ruth’s screams over his yelling and my own heartbeat pounding in my ears. I clawed against his face until I felt my fingers graze his right eye. With as much force as I could muster, I plunged my thumb into it, causing him to cry out and drop me to the ground. I grasped my neck, coughing, gasping for air, while he stumbled toward the door. I watched him as he went back over to Ruth, hitting her with so much force that she fell to the floor with a loud thud and didn’t get up.
He made his way back over to my room, and I could already see that his right eye was starting to swell.
“Well, don’t you look pretty,” I wheezed as I sat up against the wall, and laughed. “How does it feel to get your ass kicked by a girl, you piece of shit?”
“Kick this, bitch.”
Before I could dodge, his foot swung out, kicking me in the head. Everything went black.
I rubbed at my head, feeling like there was a sledgehammer pounding against it. I was nauseous and could feel dried blood sticking to my face. I tried to sit up but was so dizzy that all I could do was lift my head. “My kingdom for an Advil.”
“Lee!” the girls all yelled, causing me to wince.
“Not so loud, please.”
“Lee, Ruth’s not answering,” Anna cried. “She hasn’t made a noise since he left.”
“Shit.” I sat up and gasped when I saw that my door was still open, but more than that, so was Ruth’s. The light from the hallway was on, allowing me to see Ruth lying on the floor in the same position she was in when she fell. “I can see her!” I coughed, still feeling the effects from that asshole choking me.
“What do you mean you can see her?” Linda asked.
“I mean I can fucking see her! The dumb ass left our doors open.” I crawled toward the door until my chain pulled at my ankle. I cleared my throat, struggling to get the words out. “Ruth? Ruth, honey, wake up!”
“Come on, Ruth,” Linda shouted, banging on their adjacent wall. “Wake up, baby girl.”
“Ruth! Wake up!” I said, calling out as loud as I could while clutching my dry throat. I couldn’t tell if she was breathing, and the fact that she was still in the same position as before caused my tears to come to the surface. After a few more yells, I breathed a sigh of relief when she started to move. “Oh, thank God.”
I sighed, standing up and swaying.
“Is she moving?” Kandace asked.
“Yes.” I couldn’t help the laugh of excitement that came out when she sat up. “Ruth, are you okay?”
“Yeah, I think so. I just feel—” She stopped in shock and looked at me. I knew it wasn’t because she realized that her door was still open and that she could see me, but it was because her chain fell loose from around her ankle. “Holy shit.”
“Holy shit,” I agreed, nodding to myself.
“What?” Sara asked. “What is it? Are you two okay?”
“I’m not chained!” Ruth said as she stood up. Before I could stop her, she started walking toward me. From the darkness of the hallway, our abductor lunged out and grabbed her around her neck.
“No!” My voice cracked as I screamed when I saw the disgusting grin across his face.
“Nighty night, Ruth,” he said, his voice a sneer.
For a second my eyes met Ruth’s, and then I fell to my knees screaming when he snapped her neck. Her body fell to the ground halfway to my room, her right arm stretched out as if she was trying to reach me. I stayed sitting on the floor for I don’t know how long, just looking at her lifeless body. Her eyes looked black and fogged over as they stared off into nothing. I hadn’t even noticed him until he walked over to me and kneeled down so his eyes were level with mine.
“That one’s on you, little girl.” He smirked, tilting his head. “Remember that next time you go running your mouth off.”
He st
ood up and laughed, grabbing Ruth’s body by the hair, and dragging her away from my doorway. Looking at me one last time, he slammed my door shut, encasing me in my darkness. I sat there, stunned, as I listened to him drag Ruth’s body up the stairs. I didn’t let the tears fall until I heard him turn the music back on.
Ten Days Missing
—Richard
Noah called around nine in the morning, asking me to drive down to his house so he could go over a few things with me. It was a twenty minute drive away, but the way I drove I got there in less than fifteen. His two-story town home was small but comfortable. Memories of sitting in his living room, watching sports and eating dinner with him and Lee, filtered into my mind as I sat in his driveway. I couldn’t help but wonder if any of us would be what we used to be once we found Lee. When I walked through his front door and into the kitchen, I stood in shock as I saw the kitchen table and counters covered with files and newspaper clippings.
“Hey, bro,” Noah said, walking down the stairs with a beer in his hand.
“Hi.” I was unable to take my eyes away from the sight before me. “What’s all this?”
“Answers.” He reached in the fridge and pulled out a beer for me. “Come sit. I have some things to show you.” He handed me the beer and I sat in the other kitchen chair that wasn’t piled with paperwork. He pulled out a picture of every girl who had been kidnapped from campus, and lined them up in front of me. “The agent on this case lied to me, saying that none of the girls have anything in common, that this guy must be choosing the girls at random.”
“How do you know he’s lying?” I asked, taking a drink of my beer.
Noah pointed at the photos and moved each of them a little closer to me. “Look at the pictures and tell me what you see.”
I looked down at the pictures and saw . . . nothing. One girl was black, one was Asian, another could be Hispanic, and the others were all white. Blondes, brunettes, and a redhead. All beautiful young girls.
“I’m sorry, Noah, I don’t see it,” I said, sitting back in my chair.
He picked up the picture of Lee and shoved it in my face. “Look harder!”
I took the picture and gazed at it. I remembered when it was taken. It was last year on the track field. We had all come out and rooted for her, even my parents who were in town, and she won second place in the one-hundred-meter race. And then it hit me. I looked at all the pictures again, and each one of them had a girl in a uniform. A soccer player, cheerleader, lacrosse, track, softball.
“They’re all athletes,” I whispered to myself.
“And not just any athletes, but athletes that played on the field,” he said, taking a drink of his beer.
“So you think it’s an athlete?”
Noah shook his head. “No, but I think it’s someone in the athletic department.”
“And what makes you so sure?”
“Because that’s where they’ve been looking since the fourth girl was taken.” Noah stood up and walked over to the far counter, picking up a file. “Your brother played football, right?” he asked, handing me the folder.
“Just his freshman and sophomore year,” I said, taking the folder from him and opening it. “He blew out his knee and couldn’t play anymore.”
It was why Luke was still in college. He had been in physical therapy for almost a year and ended up having to take some extended leave from school so he wouldn’t fail out. He still had problems with his knee once in a while, but he found his calling at wanting to work in sports medicine.
“In that folder is a list of people who work in the athletic department. I need you and your brother to check out anyone who’s new to the program.”
“Why the new ones?” I asked, looking over the list that consisted of maybe twenty names. “And why us? Why can’t you do it?”
“If this guy was someone who had been around for a while, there would have been more girls missing over a longer period of time. This guy has to be new, working there for maybe a little over a year.” Noah took a long pull of his beer. “And if I go in there, I’m going to come off as a cop. This person, if there, will see me a mile away and be spooked. I can’t risk them running off and killing Lee because I was being a cop. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. You and Luke know the department a lot better than any of us, and you’ll know who to ask. Not to mention, you two are not cops. This asshole might be aware when the cops are around, but won’t think twice with students. Do you think the two of you can do this?”
I didn’t know the department that well. I knew a few head coaches, due to Lee and Luke, but that was it. I wasn’t going to tell Noah that—seeing how excited he was with this new revelation—but I’d try any leads at this point.
I looked at him and nodded. “I’ll do whatever it takes, Noah. You know that.”
He patted my back and smiled. “Thank you.”
Chapter 7
Day Thirteen
—Lillian
After Ruth was murdered in front of me, I couldn’t find it in myself to do anything but cry. Anna begged me to move my mattress closer to the wall where our hole was, so she could hold my hand, but I couldn’t. All the girls tried to get me to talk, even Kandace, but I just didn’t have the energy to care. He even seemed to notice that I wasn’t talking anymore, and it pissed him off.
He tormented me with a description of everything he’d done to Ruth’s body before he dumped it, but even then I just lay there. My fault. My fucking fault, I thought, as he knelt over me and reached for my body with dirty, calloused hands.
Part of me thought I deserved it. Whatever he was going to do to me, there was a large part of my brain that told me it was nothing in comparison to what he’d done to Ruth. I let him wrap one hand around my neck and did nothing when he reached for his belt.
After a while he kicked me hard, screaming at me to say something, to fight him. But I couldn’t. I just rolled over, curled into a ball, and waited for him to finish. He spat on me, called me worthless, and told me I’d better wise up or I would be the next to go. I would have told him to eat shit a few days ago, but now I didn’t care. Ruth’s blood was on my hands. He may have killed her, but I was the reason. She didn’t deserve that. She didn’t deserve to receive my punishment, and that’s what it was. It should have been my neck he snapped; it should have been my body that was dragged away.
It was my fault.
“Lee, please come over here,” Anna whispered sometime later.
I was losing my days. When I closed my eyes to sleep I didn’t know if I was sleeping for minutes, hours, or a whole day.
“Look, I can fit my whole hand through now.”
I looked up and saw her hand waving at the base of the wall. And despite what had happened earlier, despite my guilt over Ruth’s murder, I let myself smile. I crawled over and lay down on the floor, taking her pale hand in mine. I couldn’t control the tears that started to fall when Anna’s thumb stroked my fingers.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, weeping. “God, I’m so, so sorry. It’s all my fault.”
“No,” all the girls yelled.
Anna gripped my hand tight. “No, Lee, never think that. It’s him, and the sick and twisted game he’s playing.”
“If I would have just—”
“Lee,” Linda said, cutting me off. “I swear to God, if you blame yourself again I will kick your ass.” There was a small pause before they all started laughing. “Well, whenever we get out of here, it will be the first thing on my to-do list,” she said in a very matter-of-fact way.
“Oh, I doubt that,” Sara said.
“I’m serious!” Linda replied.
“Really, Linda? The first thing?” Sara asked.
“Well, I’ll kick her ass after I take a shower. Or maybe just smelling me will knock her out.”
Even I had to laugh at that. We were some smelly girls.
“I don’t know why you said shower, Linda. I plan on taking a nice warm bath,” Kandace said.
Anna tugged on my hand. “What about you, Lee? What’s the first thing you’re gonna do when you get out of here?”
Still holding Anna’s hand, I sat up and wiped the tears from my eyes. “I’m going to burn this fucking place down.” I sniffed. “I just haven’t decided if I want him in here or not when I do it.”
“Why burn it?” Kandace asked.
“To get rid of the smell,” I said, laughing. It felt good to joke around again. All the girls laughed with me, all except Anna. I felt her pull at my hand, and I knelt down so I could hear her better.
“Promise me, Lee, that we’ll get out of here,” she whispered. “Promise me you’ll let me be here when you burn it down.”
I put both my hands over hers and gripped them with determination. “I promise, Anna. I swear it. Or I’ll die trying.”
I kissed her hand and let go, needing to stand up and stretch. I rubbed at my sore muscles as the aches and pains radiated throughout my body. I looked down at my arms and could make out the dark bruises in the shape of handprints against my pale skin. It was a sickening reminder of him, ensuring that even when he was physically not here, we knew what we were to him. I wished that I could just rub dirt on them, masking them from my sight, but what was the point? No matter what I did they’d still be there. And even when they finally faded away, they’d still be there in my mind.
I walked around, dragging my chain and wondering how I was going to live up to my promise. It was getting colder, which meant snow was starting to fall. You would think being underground we would be well insulated, but every day I found myself pulling my arms through the sleeves of my thin sweater just so I could warm them up.
I dug my hands into my pockets to warm them when I came across the bobby pins Anna had given me. I twirled them between my fingers, allowing myself to get lost in my thoughts. I found myself singing along with the fucking annoying song that kept repeating upstairs while letting my mind wander as I stared at the metal plaque bolted to the wall. The end of my chain led right up to the center of it, where a link was sawn in half and welded to it. The plaque was at knee level and held up by four bolts, one on each corner that could have been unscrewed if I had a flat-head screwdriver. I sat down cross-legged, running my fingers over the plaque.
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