Page 21 of Stolen

As Jared limped his sorry ass to the cages, he instructed the other guards to let out five girls. They lined them up against the wall and then took them out into the hallway in a perfect line. He was in the lead while the other two guards flanked the line of whimpering girls.

“Where are they taking them?” I asked Kayla. She shrugged.

“There’s a locker room with a bunch of showers at the end of the hallway. They give you a bar of soap and a small bottle of shampoo so you look nicer and smell better for the auction. You even get a small bottle of mouthwash.”

“How considerate of them,” I replied.

“Only the best for us.” She smiled sarcastically.

I smiled back at her. The fact that either of us were capable of finding the smallest ounce of light in this darkness was worth more than all the treasure in the world. I was glad to have someone like her next to me. The other girl on my right never said a word, too terrified to open her mouth anymore, thanks to the bruises all over her body from the last time she must have spoken up.

About fifteen minutes later, the guards came back with the girls now cleaner than before with dripping wet hair. Even their dresses looked cleaner and neater. The idea of getting to shower appealed to me, but I was sure we would be under scrutinizing eyes, and I had a feeling an absent pair would still be watching from afar.

Once the girls were back in their cages, they came down to the next five, Kayla and I included. The two girls before me were let out, but before my cage was unlocked, I watched as Jared made his way over to my cage and leaned over it, looking down at me with his stupid smug face.

“You gonna behave yourself?” he asked me gruffly.

Why, so I don’t stab you again?

I gave him a curt little smile. “Of course,” I replied sweetly. He didn’t look too convinced, which was fine by me. It gave me too much pleasure knowing the pain he was feeling in his side was all thanks to me.

Jared nodded at the guard before leaning down to unlock my cage. As I crawled out and walked to join the other girls, I couldn’t help but look down and notice how his hand blocked the wound from me, as if he needed to protect it further. I couldn’t stop the smile that crept across my face.

“Something funny, bitch!” Jared yelled, grabbing my head with his big hand and slamming it into the concrete wall. I pushed my hands up in an attempt to lessen the blow as he pressed my skull into the concrete blocks, causing the skin at my temple to split. A throbbing pain now pounded away at my head as I tried to push away from the wall. “I said…is something funny, bitch?” he snarled into my ear.

The girls around me whimpered as they tried to put as much distance between them and us as allowed, but all I could think about was throwing my elbow back into his gut and reopening the stitches I was sure were holding his wound together. But I was outnumbered, and I did actually want to take a shower.

“No, sir,” I finally winced into the wall.

“I didn’t think so,” he replied and then brought his mouth down to my ear. “I’d be extra careful if I were you. I just might be the next one to have a go at that sweet little pussy of yours.”

Good luck with that…

He then released my head, and I practically threw myself off the wall in anger. I didn’t give him the satisfaction of showing I was in pain by rubbing my temples, so I kept my arms at my sides and took deep quiet breaths to soothe my aching skull.

Kayla then joined behind me, as did the last girl, and we soon found ourselves being led out of the room and down to the end of the hallway.

“What did he mean by that, Jaden?” Kayla whispered to me, her voice slightly panicked. “What did he mean by ‘the next one’?”

“Shhh,” I quietly hushed her. “Don’t worry about it.”

I’d chosen to keep that horror to myself, not wanting to share or even give that memory a second thought. I had to compartmentalize it for now and deal with that trauma another time. Survival mode was still intact. For now.

Jared opened a door to the right, which led into a locker room. We followed him farther until we reached a room tiled from floor to ceiling, drains and all, with what seemed like ten showerheads.

Jared turned around and grabbed a box that was sitting on a wooden bench next to him. Holding the box and his hand out, he said, “Give me your clothes. You all have five minutes, so make them count.”

One by one, we all reluctantly pulled our dresses off and placed the thin material in his open hand. We took what he had to offer in the box, making our way into the shower room. I could feel Jared’s glare as I reached into the box he held, taking a little bar of soap, a bottle of shampoo, and a small container of mouthwash all tied together with a rubber band. I glared right back at him before making my way under a showerhead with Kayla close behind me.

I pulled on the lever, and cold water came shooting out, spraying down on my sore and filthy feet. I swigged back the mouthwash, swishing it in my mouth as I waited the twenty seconds it took for the water to heat before stepping under and engulfing my body in the warmth of the spray. My skin shuddered as a wave of comfort flooded my body, coating my muscles in a dense heat and releasing the tension that had built up inside.

I swished the mouthwash for as long as possible, wanting to remove as much bacteria from my mouth as I could before finally spitting it down the drain. It wasn’t the same as a toothbrush, but my mouth felt considerably cleaner than it had before. After about a minute, I realized I only had so much time and immediately began shampooing my hair. Thankfully, it was barely mid-length, so it wasn’t that difficult to manage yet.

The shampoo wasn’t anything luxurious. It smelled like motel shit, to be honest, but I didn’t care. I was cleaning my hair, and it felt fantastic to wash away all the dirt and grime built up from the past couple of days. I hadn’t even felt the sting of thetorn flesh on my temple until I saw the blood drip down onto the tile floor. The shampoo hadn’t helped calm it down much either. As I rinsed my hair, I lathered up the bar of soap and scrubbed my body as best as I could. Unfortunately, it couldn’t wash away my new collection of bruises as I watched the soap rinse away over my skin.

“Time’s up!” Jared yelled.

I slumped a little at that. Five minutes was not long enough to strip away all the bullshit that had happened in the past few days, but I couldn’t do shit about that. In a fit of slight rebellion, I gave myself five more seconds before turning the glorious hot spray off. I then wrung out my soaking wet hair and joined the rest of the girls as we made our way back into the line.

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