“I know where they’re going,” I said, reaching down between my feet and pulling David’s folder out of my backpack. I flipped it open and pointed to Noah’s notes. “The abandoned mine. We’re at Black Rose.”
Adam didn’t respond, he just continued following David’s Jeep until we could go no farther. “My car can’t handle this type of road. We’re going to have to walk from here.”
“Wrong,” I said, watching the taillights disappear in the distance. “We’re going to have to run.”
Day Thirty
—Lillian
There was a collective gasp when a soft rumbling vibrated overhead. I looked up and took a deep breath. I wrapped the chain around my fist, letting the plaque swing back and forth.
“I just want you all to know that I love you. All of you.”
“Lee, please don’t do this,” Emma said, weeping. “They’ll find us. Please, I beg you. Don’t risk your life.”
I tried to control my breathing as I heard the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs. Better to die on my feet than beg on my knees.
The main door opened, and I bit down on my bottom lip to stop my teeth from chattering. To say I was anything less than petrified would be a lie. This was going to go down in one of two ways: I was going to die, or he was. It was just about who wanted it more.
I walked silently toward the door when I heard the two of them walk in. I peeked through the bottom of the door and watched their feet move around.
“You have fifteen minutes with her,” he whispered, his voice laced with venom. “Make it count.” He sounded pissed, which meant he was either going to come in my room or go after Sara.
Emma’s door opened and then closed after Thomas. I lay there against the ground, waiting on his decision. I heard him groan, and then he started to walk down the hall. Shit, he’s going after Sara.
I stood up quickly at the sound of her door being unlocked, tightening my grip around the chain when her whimper echoed through the hall.
Taking a deep breath, I started the battle. “Come on, asshole, you know you want me first.”
“Shut up,” he said.
“Come on, dick, let’s see if you can get it up this time,” I said in an almost lustful tone.
Emma’s sobs grew louder as he relocked Sara’s door and started walking toward mine. He laughed. “You ever think maybe my dick just doesn’t like being stuck inside something that feels like a piece of plywood?”
I wrapped another link of the chain around my hand and smiled. “Maybe third time’s a charm, douchebag. I’ll even fight back, just like you like it.”
I walked to the wall next to the door, and pressed my back to it. You can do this, Lee, you can do this.
“I knew I’d get you to beg for me,” he said, unlocking my door.
Chapter 14
Day Thirty
The whooshing sound the chain made as it sliced through the air let off a scream in my dark cell. The adrenaline that pumped through me was intoxicating as the plaque connected with his chest. The air escaped from his lungs in an explosive rush and he toppled over in pain. Taking a step forward, I swung the plaque again, this time hitting him across the face. His head snapped back as he flew backward into the hallway, falling against Emma’s door, causing it to burst open. I was hesitant to walk out into the hallway, feeling like I was going to be punished for leaving my room. My heart pounded and my skin prickled with fear. This fueled my anger even more. He had damaged me, and I was going to return the favor. I pushed down the rising bile in my throat as I crossed the threshold into the hallway.
I gasped when a body rushed forward and crouched over his unconscious form. He looked up at me and I froze, my breath going still in my chest as my instincts tried to decide if it wanted to fight or take flight.
Thomas looked down at my chain, then over at Emma’s cowering body in the corner, and then back at me. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a set of keys, and threw them at me.
“Here,” he said. I caught the keys in my free hand and held them tight to my chest. “Take the others and go.” I started for Emma first, but Thomas stood up and blocked me. “No, she is mine.”
I shook my head and took another step toward Emma. “I’m not leaving without her.”
Thomas scowled and placed his hands on either side of Emma’s doorframe, blocking my view of her behind him. “Then you’re not leaving,” he said in a matter-of-fact way.
I took a few steps back into the hallway as Thomas came toward me. He had the same look in his eyes that he did. The look of malice and utter hatred. I shoved the keys into my pants pocket and lifted the plaque into my hand.
“Listen to me, Thomas, you don’t need to do this,” I said, still backing away from his pursuit.
He smiled. “We love each other, Lee. You could be a part of that. You could be her maid of honor or something.”
“You’re crazy. Emma would never want any of that with you.”
His body grew still, and his eyes . . . I had never seen such blackness. Not even in him.
“Tom, please, don’t hurt her,” Emma yelled from her cell.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Emma,” he whispered, and then lunged at me.
I swung the plaque at him, hitting his arm, but it was like it didn’t even faze him. He flew on top of me, knocking me to the floor and pinning me down. I struggled against him as he wrapped his hands around my neck, squeezing hard.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he said over and over, while all my blood rushed to my face. I scratched and clawed at him, kicking my feet everywhere and trying to get loose. Small white spots glazed over my vision, and at the same time, my brother came to mind.
“Noah, I don’t need to learn this. There’s plenty of security on campus and I’m not going to sign up for night classes. Freshmen orientation isn’t for three weeks! Can we postpone this little lesson of your paranoia for another night?”
“Just give your brother some peace of mind, and follow my lead.”
I laughed as I watched Noah take his jacket off and fling it on his couch. “Noah, I’m not going to pretend to fight you. I’ll sign up for a kickboxing class or something if it would make you—” My brother flew at me and pinned me against the wall, cutting me off. He wasn’t hurting me, but he was making it known that he was stronger by tightening his grip on my arms when I tried to pull away.
I had never once been afraid of my brother, but looking into his eyes at that moment and seeing the seriousness of the situation, well, I decided to stop joking and pay attention.
“He’s got you against a wall,” Noah said, his voice calm. “It’s late and you two are all alone. What do you do?”
“I . . . um . . . kick him in the nuts?”
Noah murmured something like ‘God help me’, and pushed himself flush against my body. “You can’t because he’s right on you, Lilly. What do you do?”
I tried to remember everything my brother had ever told me. Every conversation we would have after reading about a woman being attacked or mugged. What do I do? What do I do, what do I . . . slack!
I let my body go slack, which caused Noah to step back and bend his knees to keep me up. With this new space for my legs, it allowed me to kick at his right knee, and he fell onto his back.
He lay there for a second and then started laughing. “That’s my girl.”
I was shocked that I felt out of breath. I had been running track for years, but in those last few minutes with my brother, it felt like I had run ten miles. “I can’t . . . believe . . . you just . . . did that . . . to me.”
He stood up and shook his head. “You know why you’re out of breath?” he asked, and I shook my head. “Because you always stop breathing when you’re scared, Lee. You have to learn to control that. What if this happens?” he said, and before I knew it he had me on the ground with his hands around my neck.
“He has you on the ground, all his weight is in his hands, and,
Lee . . . he is going to kill you. What do you do?”
My brother’s words echoed through my mind as I looked into Thomas’ eyes. And then I remembered.
“Take away his sight first,” I heard Noah’s voice whisper to me.
Feeling the thick ring of keys digging into my side, I reached down and pulled them out of my pocket. I clutched a key between my first and second finger and jammed it as hard as I could into his right eye. He let go of me instantly, clutching his face in pain.
“Take his breath,” I heard Noah say, as if he were right there next to me.
With everything I had in me, I flung out my fist and punched his exposed throat. Thomas sank off to the side, still holding his face, his blood seeping through his fingers. Pulling myself up, I steadied myself on shaky legs and lifted the plaque in my hands over my head.
“And if you can’t get away, you make it so he can’t come after you again,” my brother’s voice said, fading away.
I looked down at Thomas and gritted my teeth. “Burn in hell, you sick fuck.”
I slammed the plaque down as hard as I could against his head. He instantly fell limp, and then everything was silent. I remained standing there, glaring at him, not quite knowing how to register what had happened. I had just taken a man’s life.
Kneeling down, I slowly picked up the keys that were now covered in blood. I closed my eyes tight and shoved them back into my pocket.
“Lee?” Emma called out.
“I’m fine, but I think I just killed Thomas.”
“Where’s the other one?” Anna asked.
“Who gives a shit?” Kandace said. “Just get us the fuck out of here.”
I went back into Emma’s cell and stopped in the doorway. He was still knocked out, or dead, I wasn’t sure. He had a massive slash across the left side of his face and chest, and I smiled down at him when I maneuvered around his body. “Loser.”
Emma stood up and opened her arms to me. I fell into them with relief, willing away my tears even though I knew they’d come. We were holding each other so tight that it was becoming hard to breathe, but I didn’t care. When I finally pulled away, I took her face in my hands.
“Did they hurt you? Tell me the truth,” I asked, not even realizing until then that I was crying. Her head shook as I continued to question her. “Did he touch you, or make you touch him?”
“No, Lee, I’m fine,” she said, pulling me back into her arms. “I’m just so happy you are alive. I thought he was going to kill you.”
I don’t know how long we stood there, just crying and holding each other, before Kandace called out again. “This is all very Lifetime-Channel worthy, but what part of ‘Get me the fuck out of here’ do you not understand?”
I pulled away from Emma and looked down at her chain. “I don’t know how to get them off,” I whispered. “There’s no lock for a key.”
“Why don’t you at least unlock their doors,” she said with a tearful smile.
I nodded and kissed her cheek. “Will you be okay alone?”
“I’ll be fine, just”—she looked at him on the floor—“could you move that?”
I turned and looked over at the still unconscious body of our abductor. “I’ll drag him into the room I was in.” I shoved the keys back into my pocket and slowly walked toward him. Closing my eyes again, I bent down and took him by the ankles before dragging him across the hall into my room.
“What are you doing?” Sara called out.
“Securing the prisoner,” I said, dropping his feet on the floor.
Anna spoke for the first time since everything had begun. “Lee, see if he has a cell phone on him.”
I laughed for not thinking of that myself, then patted down the front pockets of his jeans with shaky hands. I did feel something, but it wasn’t a phone. I reached in and pulled out another set of keys.
“No cell, just keys,” I told the girls, standing up and walking out of the room. The keys were almost identical to the ones Thomas had. The only difference between the two was that his had a set of car keys on them.
The first door I unlocked was Anna’s. I opened the door slowly and gasped at the tiny little woman sitting cross-legged on the mattress. She had short dark hair, wide dark eyes, and bruises all over her body. In the faint light from the hallway, I could just make out some burn marks. They slashed across her skin like zebra stripes. But what stood out more than anything was the round belly that protruded from her slim form.
She stood up and started walking toward me, smiling. “Lee,” she said with a slight sob.
I flung open the door and walked toward her, crying. “Anna,” I whispered, trying and failing at keeping the tears at bay.
We stood there crying for a short time before I pulled away, wiping my nose with my sleeve. “I’m so happy to see you.”
“Ditto,” she said with a smile. “And you look like hell, Lee.” She lifted her hand and caressed my face. I looked down at her round belly and laid a hesitant hand on top of it.
“Anna, I’m—”
“Shh,” she whispered, shaking her head with tears trickling from her eyes. “Go help the others. Make sure they’re okay, too.”
I smiled and nodded. I took her hand in mine and gave it a soft squeeze before running to the next door.
I found Sara balled up in the corner, rocking herself, when I opened the door. Her long blond hair covered her face, but it couldn’t hide the black and blue welts on her skin. I walked to her and sat down, engulfing her in my arms. She didn’t even look at me, just wrapped her arms around my neck and started to cry. She felt so small and fragile against me, and yet so heavy with her pain. I wished I could have held her all night, if only to ease some of her pain, but I also had to see to Kandace. When I pulled away, Sara held me even tighter.
“I’ll be back,” I promised, smoothing my hand over her hair. “I’m going to check on Kandace, okay?” She nodded and released me with effort.
I stood up and crossed the hall to Kandace’s room. I unlocked the door and smiled at the sight before me. She stood there, arms crossed, tapping her foot on the floor.
She smiled back at me. “Saved the best for last?”
“You know it, babe.” We collided into each other’s arms, laughing and crying at the same time.
“Sorry for being a bitch,” she whispered.
“Sorry for taking so long to get to you.”
Kandace chuckled against my shoulder and took a shaky breath. “Look at us, two tough bitches crying like a couple of babies.”
“Your secret’s safe with me.”
Kandace pulled away, dried her eyes, and looked down at the chain still connected to my ankle. “Plan on taking a souvenir?”
I sighed and shook my head. “I don’t know how to get it off.”
“Bolt cutters?” Kandace shrugged.
“Yeah, let me run over to the store and get some,” I said.
“Yeah, fuck you, too,” she said. “Well, you’re just going to have to go find some help. It’s not like we’re going anywhere.”
I pulled her into my arms and squeezed her tight. “I’ll be right back, I promise.”
“I know,” Kandace whispered.
I moved out into the hallway and walked past Thomas’ body, making sure he was still dead. Then I went over to where he still lay, also to make sure he hadn’t moved. I wanted to lock him in the room, but the doorknob must have broken sometime during my attack. I didn’t want to leave the girls, but I knew I had to go get help.
“I’m going up to find some help,” I said so they could all hear me. “I promise I won’t be gone long.”
I poked my head into Emma’s room and met her eyes. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” she said.
I went to the heavy metal door blocking the stairwell and fumbled with each key until I found the one that unlocked it. It took all my weight to pull the door open and, when I did, a gust of wind flew in. I could smell the forest and took a deep breath. Look
ing at the many metal stairs that rose in front of me, I didn’t know what I’d find at the top of them, but I said a silent prayer and made my first step toward freedom.
Thirty Days Missing
—Richard
It took us almost an hour to hike the rough terrain heading toward Black Rose mine, with only the flashlight of our cell phones for light. I could feel it in my bones that we were where we needed to be. I wanted to just run up, find this asshole, and kill him with my own bare hands, but Adam was holding me back.
He sighed, shaking his head. “Look, Richard, I want nothing more than to go up there and beat the living shit out of them, too, but we’ve got to be smart. We don’t know what we’re walking into.”
I looked at him and gritted my teeth. “Do you think I don’t know that?” I quickened my pace and kept moving forward. “He has them, Adam. He has them up here, hungry, abused, and broken. I’m tired of waiting and I’m tired of being tired.”
Adam sped up to catch me and grabbed my shoulder. “I understand you’re scared and angry, and there is nothing wrong with that. I am, too, but we just have to be smart and careful. That’s all I’m saying.”
I knew Adam was right. We had to wait and see what happened, but it was killing me to know that these two assholes could have my sister and Lee stashed away somewhere in some abandoned mine. It was becoming almost unbearable.
We finally made it to David’s Jeep and moved around the rocky area trying to find them, but they were nowhere to be seen. We even found the entrance to the mine, but it was caved in. I looked around and saw nothing but dark trees, rocks, and old wooden buildings that looked like if you sneezed on them they’d fall over. But there was nothing. We couldn’t hear any voices, footsteps, or echoes. It was as if they got out of their car and disappeared.
“Do you see anything?” Adam whispered.
“No, it’s too dark. All I can see is . . .” I stopped when I saw some movement near the entrance of one of the old worn-down buildings. The figure was small, a lot smaller than the two assholes we had seen earlier. No, that can’t be, I thought to myself.
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