Page 23 of Zero

The door locked on its own and I was the only one who had a key.

“Here take this, I gotta find the rest,” I said, pushing batteries to one of the other elves who worked the picture station.

“He’s getting irritated,” she said.

“Thanks,” I said, closing the door.

“I expect answers, Doll,” King snarled at me.

“If they find you here, they will kill you,” I said, getting the other batteries. “Look, I’ll try and get away.”

“Like last time? You promised you would come back.” Boogie walked up to me, and I realized he wasn’t wearing a full mask, just a medical mask.

The room was dark, but I could see his eyes were light. Maybe blue? He was blond, a rogue strand peeked out of the hoodie. I don’t know what I expected, but blond hair and light eyes was not it.

“I sought you out because you made me feel something that I hadn’t felt in a long time,” I said, grimacing at the words. “I was stupid enough to come back, but… God I wanted to feel something because I’m slowly dying here.”

They didn’t say anything, and I knew they probably wouldn’t believe me.

“I wouldn’t betray you because I despise Kris, he’s the reason I’m here along with the women I try to protect,” I said. “I’ll try to find you later, but if not, I’ll find a way to leave and see you in town.”

“If you hate this place, why the hell did you come back?” He stepped forward.

“If I didn’t return, he would have killed the girls, and I can’t have that on my conscience,” I said, opening the door.

Boogie grabbed my arm before I could leave, staying on the side, so no one would see him. We stared at each other, I expected for him to say something, but he nodded and let me go.

I quickly walked back to the photo area, putting away batteries and getting back to my job. One of the men came and checked on me, wondering what had taken so long. Perry questioned me, his hand tightened around my upper arm,making me wince at the pain. For a moment I feared they knew that Boogie and King were here. Why would they risk coming here and how the hell did they know I was here?

It was the slowest day of my life. Anytime I saw black, my heart raced thinking it was one of them. I stopped looking when the late afternoon hit, and Santa photos stopped. We closed the area but the Town would stay open for a few more hours. I was more than ready to head back to my room and rest, but I still had other duties to attend to.

Christmas town was the front part of the compound, and the back had a huge building that housed some of the employees, me, the girls and Kris with beds for his crew to stay at. It used to be a decent building, but Kris had neglected it and it was starting to look like shit.

I showered and dressed in leggings and a sweatshirt. Before dinner I needed to check on the girls, check on packaging and make sure we were going to have a shipment coming in.

Christmas town was a front for the drug lord, Kris. He was one of the six who worked under the Mayor. Each town had their own person who ran it. King was the one who ran Halloween town, and I had heard of Madame Red, who ran Valentine Town.

Kris loathed her, but he was also a sexist egotistical pig that didn’t think a woman was fit to run a town. He was also a fucking douchebag and I hated him with every fiber of my being, but he owned me and he liked to remind me of it every chance he got.

I walked through the rooms that our packaging crew occupied, which was a bunch of half-naked women, cutting drugs and bagging them up, putting a Santa label on the bag. Most of the drugs stayed here, but the Mayor had a connection where he was able to ship it overseas and we were only getting busier.

Once I took inventory to make sure we were running on schedule, I let the girls go and paid them in cash. There was nodelivery today and I headed to the four girls who I would have given everything up for.

Kris had gotten greedy and in the last ten years he’d been taking girls and selling them on the black market. My girls were next to be sold, and I had done everything I could to keep them out of harm's way, including fucking up the last buys.

I would do everything I could to keep these girls safe because I had failed the last two sets of girls and the previous ones, I had almost gotten them out. Guilt weighed heavily every day, but as long as I managed to keep these girls alive and safe, that's all I could ask for.

When everything was done it was almost ten o’clock. I was dead on my feet, but I was starving. I passed the kitchen on the way to my bedroom. A few men were there, and I did not want to be there since they had been drinking. I guess I would try and eat tomorrow.

I walked into my bedroom, closed the door and flipped the lock. The last thing I needed was one of the guys from the kitchen to come into my room and have his way with me.

The sound of the floor creaking made me turn around. A bag was quickly thrown over my head. I struggled against them, pushing away from them, when I lost my footing and hit my head against something. They lifted me up, tied my hands behind my back as my brain tried to make sense of the situation.

“No, please, not tonight,” I slurred, as someone threw me over their shoulder. “I was good today.”

My mind was confused as I was thrown. I wanted to scream, my brain knew I was on the second floor, but my body wasn’t reacting. The fall seemed to last forever until I landed in someone's arms.

They grunted when they caught me, running with me in their arms. Was someone kidnapping me or was this a sick game Kris was playing. Was this it? The day he finally killed me?

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