Page 52 of Soros
“I don’t know why there were five of them. Don’t worry about it. Carlos sent them away. They didn’t have a warrant and the new boss said that if they come back, he’ll deal with them. He does that hypnosis trick on people.”
After another question that I couldn’t hear, the man speaking loud and clearly answered, “No, of course he wouldn’t hypnotizeus. There’s no need. We work for him. Now, help me clean up this bloody mess. I ordered a pick-up for the boss, or I should say the old boss. The Harris brothers are getting his body tonight and making it look like suicide.”
This time I could hear what the second person was saying. “Everyone knows that the boss would never kill himself.”
“Does it matter? It’s not like there’s a mourning wife or kids. Besides, making it look like an accident is way more costly, so we chose suicide. Don’t just stand there. Start scrubbing.”
“Why do we have to do it? Can’t we get the women to scrub the blood off the floors and ceiling? It’s not like they’re busy doing other things.”
Using my arms, I gestured to the two German women to help me turn the bed around again. We had only sat down when the door opened.
“You two, come here.” I recognized the man pointing at me and Veronika as the biker named Stanley. He was bald and had the words “no mercy” written up his neck.
Star gave a whimper when she saw me leave. “It’s okay, I’ll be right back for you,” I whispered to her, but it was a promise I couldn’t give because in that moment I didn’t hold any power.
Stanley and the other man, who I remembered was named Carlos, gave us cleaning supplies and two buckets of water. “Get the place to sparkle,” Stanley said before taking a seat on the couch and pulling out his phone.
“You stay here and watch them, okay?” Carlos ordered Stanley before he trotted upstairs.
Veronika and I didn’t speak as we washed the walls and floor. My eyes kept going to the door where I had seen the woman on the cross. I worried about her and felt sure she had to be the third German, Malene.
Stanley put his feet on the couch while watching videos on his phone with the volume blasting. It surprised me how many of them were pet related. From the audio playing, I could tell he watched short videos about people who had rescued dogs and cats and seen a wonderful transformation in the animals. It seemed bizarre that he would care about mistreated pets while at the same time torturing women.
Scrubbing the floor, I kept an eye on him and took in the surroundings. The room was about twenty feet long and ten feet wide. Two old leather couches were pushed against opposite walls. The dead man with the snake tattoo whom they had called boss had been moved to the side. They hadn’t covered him, and it freaked me out that his eyes were open and looking in my direction.
Trying to ignore his creepy dead stare, I focused on possible escape routes. There were four doors. One would take us back into the night club. Then there was the door to the room where Malene was. The third door was a mystery, but the fourth was open and showed the hallway where we had just come from. There were two doors on each side. I knew one of them was the door to the room where the German girls and Star were waiting. My hope was that one of the others was a back entrance that would lead us out of this basement.
Standing up from the couch, Stanley walked a few steps and stopped in front of me. My body was on alert as I knelt scrubbing the floor. Any second now, I expected him to hurt me.
Kicking at the bucket, he knocked it over, and the mixture of water and blood soaked my pants and the tiled floor. Growling low, he mocked me. “You clumsy ho.”
I kept my head down, silently planning my escape.
“Keep scrubbing,” he ordered and stepped over the bucket on his way into the small hallway. When he opened the first door to the left, it quickly became apparent that it was a tiny, stinky bathroom. The toilet was placed right inside the room and looked filthy. I prayed that he wouldn’t ask us to clean that as well. Still watching videos on his phone, Stanley pulled his pants down and took a seat. Sitting on the toilet with the door open, he could keep an eye on us, but his angle was limited.
Veronika and I exchanged a glance as we used the sponges to soak up all the blood and water. Moving a little, I checked if he would comment on me moving slightly out of his sight.
All I heard were grunts and moaning from him pushing, and then a chuckle that was probably related to the content on his phone.
“I’ll keep cleaning and then you get Malene down from that cross,” I whispered to Veronika and nodded to the door where I had last seen her.
Veronika turned her head and looked at the door for a moment. I could tell that she wanted to help her friend, but her hands were shaking, and she was unable to get up. Her head fell forward, tears ran down her cheeks, and she shook her head silently telling me that she was too afraid.
Gesturing for her to keep cleaning the floor, I backed on my knees. My heart rate accelerated when I turned and slowly opened the door to look inside. Malene was still there and from the paleness of her skin, and the stillness of her body, I wondered if she was alive. With her head hanging down, and her long blonde hair covering her face, it was impossible to say.
I crawled inside the dimly lit room and closed the door a little. When the hinges squeaked, I scrunched my face and stiffened. Veronika was quick to make some more noise. Seeing her through the slim opening, I gave her a tiny nod as a thank you. Turning to the woman on the cross, I got up and tiptoed to her. The rope around her wrists were biting into her skin and she had lost blood from the many whip marks. Moving close to her, I whispered into her ear, “Malene.” I called her name four times, before there was a small movement.
“I’m going to untie you and get you down from that cross.” My words were whispered directly into her ear. “Don’t make a sound.”
The moment I untied her, she collapsed into my arms. I had to hold her, but my touching of the parts of her body where she had been whipped made her whimper. I was grateful for the loud music from the videos on Stanley’s phone but still shushed her.
“Shhh…” My glance went to the door, feeling terrified that any moment now it was going to open.
I wished that I could free Malene and get her medical attention. Letting her down on the floor with open wounds wasn’t ideal, but there was no way I could carry her past Stanley, up the stairs and out of the night club. For now, getting her down on the floor was the best I could do for her.
Looking around, I saw a package of twelve bottles of water in the corner. Getting one of them, I held her head up and let her sip. Her lips were dry and chapped and she drank the water with difficulty.
Hearing the toilet flush, I put her head down softly, and whispered, “I have to go.” Quickly, I ran out and just managed to close the door before Stanley appeared. Standing frozen just outside the door with my hand on the handle, I didn’t breathe. I prayed that he wouldn’t look up from his phone to see me as he walked back to the couch. Veronika was gesturing for me to get down and slowly, I pulled my hand back and sank to my knees. It was in that moment that Stanley looked over.
