Page 9 of Lost and Found

“You can stay. But don’t mess with anything that isn’t yours, or this place will no longer be a safe spot for you.”

Kasim nodded his understanding, but didn’t relax until the three men had moved towards their corners of the warehouse. Only then did he look around to continue assessing the place.

Someone had tried to make the place a bit more habitable. There were obvious signs of cleaning. Some of the windows of the building had been broken so there should be glass shards laying on the concrete floor. But there was none. In fact, there was very little dirt around. Someone had swept up the dust and debris of the past fifty or sixty years. Moving towards the fourth corner of the warehouse, he found the only empty corner and sank gratefully against the wall. It wasn’t comfortable, but with his back protected, Kasim was finally able to think.

Angela

“Don’t stop!” she whispered to herself, ignoring the pain in her fingertips as she clawed at the last few bits of weathered wood surrounding the lock. Over her shoulder, she addressed the girls behind her. “When this door opens, you run until you can’t run anymore! If you fall, you get up and you run again!” Another piece of the old, rotting wood fell away. Angela started clawing at another loose piece of the wood, ignoring the splinter that went into the side of her finger. “You’ll probably scrape your knees, but you keep running!”

The three women behind her might have nodded, but Angela didn’t pause to get their agreement. She focused all of her attention on the lock, picking away at additional scraps and slivers of rotting wood, which was the only thing holding the lock in place.

“I’m almost there!” she hissed. By now, she had four, maybe five splinters in her fingers. Every time she pulled another piece of the wood away, the splinters went deeper into her fingertips. The pain was almost too much, but she didn’t stop. Splinters were nothing compared to what would happen if they didn’t get out of here.

“Hurry!” Missy hissed, placing a hand on Angela’s shoulder. “Please hurry!”

There was a thunk overhead and Angela froze, as did the three girls behind her. They were extremely still, everyone waiting for the heavy footsteps on the floor above them. Angela had heard those footsteps too often over the past few days. She knew that the heavy footsteps had terrorized Missy, Laura, and Danielle far longer than she’d been locked up down here in this wretched basement.

The last chunk of rotting wood quivered, then fell to the floor, the heavy metal lock securing the door also fell away. “It’s out!” Angela whispered, tossing the still-secured lock to the floor, along with the connecting clasp. “Come on!”

She took Missy’s hand, then waved for Laura and Danielle to go ahead of her. The steps were dark and Angela didn’t want to know if there were bugs, mice rats or any other horrific vermin hidden in the garbage gathered near the chipped, slimy concrete stairwell. For a brief moment, she paused, looking around to make sure that no one was standing outside, barring their escape. When she saw that the area was clear, she turned and whispered to the others, looking at each of them intently. “When you get to the top of the stairs, run!”

The girls nodded as they began climbing the creepy stairs, their hands sliding along the edge of the walls. They didn’t care what their fingers touched either. Their fingers had been touching far worse things too often in the past. Slime and trash wouldn’t scare them now.

With all four of them out, Angela held onto Missy’s hand, her eyes wide as she took in the darkness. Good, she thought, relieved that it was dark. She hadn’t been sure of the time since all of the windows in their basement prison had been covered by thick paper glued to the window panes. Night would give them a bit of cover as they ran. Not much, but it was better than nothing.

“This way!” she whispered, gripping Missy’s hand. The woman was older than Angela, but Missy had been held by their captors and “loaned out” to far too many men. She’d been beaten earlier in her captivity when she’d refused to have sex with strangers. So now, she was the most terrified of escape. She knew better than any of them that the consequences of their flight could be severe. Not death. No, their captives wouldn’t kill any of them. But the big, burly men who came down to the cellar at different times of the day or night to retrieve one of the women for an hour or two, they’d hurt the women in ways that…well, their punishments were designed to instill terror and pain, but still allow the women to be rented out. No use harming the merchandise!

Danielle and Laura had also been abused, but only for a couple of months. Missy… Missy wasn’t sure how long she’d been held down in that miserable basement. Angela had only recently arrived and, even as the youngest, she was also the most determined to get away.

Angela hoped they were heading in the right direction. From what she could remember during her car ride here a couple of days ago, there was an old abandoned warehouse two blocks away. If she could get her new friends to that building, they’d have a bit of protection. Not much, but it was better than being out here, exposed to the freezing temperatures in these ridiculous, tiny outfits.

“You can do it, Missy!” she whispered, trying to encourage the frail woman. “We need to run now!”

All four girls started running, Angela helping Missy every time she stumbled. There was a groan or whimper every time they stepped on a hard rock. The other girls had thin slippers, but the material didn’t offer very much protection against the street and gravel in this area of the city. Angela was the only one completely without foot protection but she ignored the pain as a stone pressed into the soft tissue of her feet. She kept telling herself that the alternative, of being recaptured, was worse.

“In here!” she called out, keeping her voice low. She tugged at the steel door, glancing back to make sure that her captives weren’t chasing them. But the long, weed-ridden parking lot they’d just crossed over was dark and empty.

Unfortunately, their challenges weren’t over.

Pulling the door closed behind her, Angela turned and…gasped when Laura and Danielle almost choked her as they clung to her, wrapping their arms around Angela as they whimpered.

Angela didn’t understand, but she looked around, spotting Missy on the floor. She’d passed out!

“Missy!” she gasped, extricating herself from Laura and Danielle’s embrace as she bent down to try and roll the emaciated woman over onto her back. “Missy, wake up!” She gently slapped the woman’s cheeks, not sure why but she’d seen that done in the movies and it always seemed to work.

Missy’s eyes opened and her lips curled into a smile. The girl’s expression was sad and a bit frightening, since the red lipstick Missy had been ordered to wear for the night was now smeared all over her chin, cheeks and upper lip. Her mascara was smudged from her tears, making her blue eyes almost glow as they stared out.

“We did it!” Missy whispered, her thin cheeks covered in tears now. “We got away!”

“We did!” Angela replied, fighting back her own tears. “We got away from them!” She grabbed Missy’s hand, clenching it in her own, trying to transfer strength to the woman who had endured a nightmare beyond anything a human should have to go through.

“Not really!” Laura cried.

Angela looked around to find that Laura and Danielle were cowering behind her, sobbing and visibly trembling. “What…?”

She stopped asking the question when Laura lifted her hand and pointed at a place to their right.

Angela turned, her eyes trying to focus in the darkness. But she gasped when she found four men with pipes and wooden boards in their hands, glaring down at them.

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