Page 20 of Trig

My heart breaks as I spot a smaller tattoo on her neck that resembles mine. She’s shaking and crying. She tries to walk to me but he tightens his grasp, which causes her to shrivel into him.

“Mommy!” she yells, while crying. “I’m going with a man on a boat.”

“Baby, it’s okay. Don’t cry. It’s okay. Please don’t cry,” I say, as my tears continue to fall down my cheeks. I thrash my arms around in an attempt to free myself from the cuffs. Carmen watches in enjoyment. “You fucked up, Nine.”

“No! You fucked up. You fucked with the wrong family. You’re gonna die and I’m going to eat your heart, all teeth, no hands, motherfucker.”

Carmen looks down at Mya. “Your mom is a very silly girl. I think we should say goodbye to her now.”

“No!” I yell.

He roughly pushes Mya out of the room by her neck. He makes sure to slam the door behind him, and just like that, the brief connection I have with her is gone. Her screams outside the door ring throughout this entire room and my insides are breaking because I can’t help her. I’m yelling out her name and no one is listening except these four gold walls that begin to suffocate me. I yell and I yell until my anxiety kicks in and then I begin to hyperventilate at some point. The metal cuffs around my burning wrists feel tighter than ever. I feel trapped. I feel cornered. I feel a lot of things. This goes on for quite a while until at some point my adrenaline slows down and then I feel…nothing. I just succumb to the sadness. I don’t know how long Mya’s been gone now. Maybe minutes. Maybe hours. Shit, maybe it’s been days. I might have gone batshit crazy in here with nothing to do but stare at the red and black flowers on that goddamned wall.

Two men suddenly whip into the room like a tornado on cocaine. I’m too weak to speak and too weak to move. I can barely even keep my eyes open at this point. My body and my mind have both checked out. I don’t feel well at all. They’ve killed my child. They’ve stolen my daughter, and they’ve beat and drained the little bit of life I actually had left in me. These men walk over and unlock my cuffs, freeing my hands. They each grab an arm and drag me out of the bed. I attempt to resist, but I can’t. I don’t have an ounce of fight in me. There is absolutely nothing left. They drag me out the door and down a long hallway. As I’m being dragged around, pushed, and pulled, I take notice of the flowy white dress I’m wearing that has fresh bloodstains near my groin. The acid rises in my throat and I suddenly feel like vomiting.

“Something’s wrong,” I mumble.

The two men stay silent and continue to manhandle me. They tighten their grip on my arms when we abruptly stop in front of a red door. One man places his hand on the black knob and quickly opens the door as they both roughly toss me inside and leave. I land with a hard thud on the floor. I lift my head to see a small round table with Trig and Carmen sitting there. Trig is beaten up and tied to a chair with rope. His face hardens and his eyes widen as he sees me.

“What the fuck did you do to her?” Trig yells as he glares at Carmen.

Trig looks back to me. I can’t even stand up. My stomach is cramping again. I moan and drop my head, hoping to gain a little bit of strength.

“Get up,” Carmen demands. I don’t immediately move so he speaks a little louder. “Get up.”

I use everything in me to push up off the floor and stand. I look directly at Trig. His eyes water as he takes me in. I can only imagine what I look like, standing here with newly dyed red hair, Carmen’s blood on my mouth, my eye half-swollen shut, bruises everywhere, and blood on the front of my gown. We stare at each other and even though neither of us is speaking, a thousand words are exchanged. Trig turns his head and glares at Carmen again.

“Come here, sweetheart. Take a seat, Nine. We’re having a little family meeting.”

I slowly walk over, swaying a bit with each step. It feels like I may drop any second. I don’t even know where the pain is anymore. Everything hurts. Blood continues to drip down my leg. Every so often I take in Trig. His eyes target the blooddrops behind me.

“She’s fucking bleeding. You want her to bleed to death? What the fuck, Carmen?”

I drop my head as I sit down. I don’t even know what to say or do. I’m broken. Trig is tied up. Mya’s on a boat to get sold. What chance do we have now? We’re all going to die right here. Pretty sure at this rate, I’m going first.

“Nine. Look at me,” Trig whispers. “What happened when you left our house? Where were you going? What happened here?”

I keep my head down. It’s too many questions and none of the answers are relevant now. That day that I left, I was going to warn Tyler. I drove past his house, since his car wasn’t in the driveway, and straight to his office, which is next to our new rental space but he wasn’t there, so I headed back to his house in hopes he was home anyway. Maybe he was a womanizing douchebag, but once I thought about it, his character flaws didn’t warrant his death, maybe a beat-down at best. I wanted to get there before Trig did. I brought the gun to defuse the situation, if needed, because I fucked up and Trig would indeed murder him, lie or not. The worst part is that I brought Mya into this mess. I didn’t know Carmen’s men were following me. It wasn’t until one of their vehicles crashed into our car and snatched us up upon impact that I knew I completely fucked up. I let my emotions take over despite Trig’s warning about our safety, and for that, I hate myself.

“Okay. So now that the gang's all here, let’s get started,” Carmen says. “Trig, we had a few setbacks we had to take care of to get you both back on track. I think we are exactly where we need to be now. I apologize, but sometimes these dirty deeds are necessary for all of us in the end.”

Trig keeps staring at me. I can feel him soaking me in, reading me.

“Nine, let’s share with Trig what happened here and why it happened so we can all be on the same page.”

I slowly move my head and stare at Carmen. I want to murder him.

“Go on!” he pushes.

I turn my attention toward Trig. It’s the first time I’m making dead eye contact. He can’t take his eyes off me as I start to speak.

“The baby is gone,” I say, hardly able to get the words out of my mouth.

Trig’s body tenses up.

“They beat me.” I begin to choke up. “Almost raped me…and Mya…Mya is…”

Carmen slams his hand down on the table. “Enough of this drama. Just fucking say it.”

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