Page 58 of Stolen

Glancing around, I was grateful to see that Kayla was gone and hopefully still in one piece, though I doubted it. The door opened, and a guard stood there, obviously waiting to take me back to my cage.

Before I could take another step, the owner turned me toward him and stared down at me as if I were the only person standing in the room.

“Until next time,” he drawled, running a finger from the center of my forehead to the tip of mynose. He then tossed me at the guard, but just before he slammed the doors behind him, he asked me the one question that would always remind me of everything I wanted to forget. “What are you, Jaden?” he asked me as he leaned against the door. The sound of my name spiked in my stomach as the cruel joke dawned on me. I would acknowledge what I was, all the while remembering what I used to be—a human being.

“A slave,” I whispered, my voice barely able to go a single decibel higher.

“Good girl,” he praised and disappeared behind the heavy oak.

Turning away, I had to rely on the guard to get me back to my cage successfully without falling. When I finally collapsed onto the barely-there padding, I had some form of relief knowing Kayla was beside me, breathing normally as she slept off the horrors of the day. I didn’t wait another second to join her.

17

Reminder

Ifelt the tension leave my body as the water from the showerhead washed over my skin, taking with it all the dirt, pain, grime, and anguish down the drain. A singular moment of clarity was a gift when you were stuck in a place like this, and when the water ran, your mind learned to slow. Slow was a nice pace to appreciate when your heart was constantly working overtime.

Five of us had enjoyed a full ten minutes under the therapeutic spray while two armed guards stood by the door, watching far more intently than they should be. With too many altercations to count, I paid them no attention. I didn’t need to encourage any more trouble by making myself any more visible than the others around me. They needed to be my camouflage for once.

The last three days had taught me the value of invisibility and the silence that accompanies it. Since that day, Kayla and I had barely said a word, too distraught to speak or even move. The guilt I felt for what she had endured weighed me down to the point where I could barely sit up without fighting the ache in my heart. But even in her silence, she wouldn’t blame me, her feelings evident as she reached for my hand through the bars of our cage. Our fingers interlocked as she quietly cried into her cot. Not a single soul paid one minute of attention to us, and that bliss was the only encouragement I needed to continue keeping my head down and my mouth shut.

But even as I simmered under the spray, content with my conditional solitude, my rage for this place and its creators remained alive as ever. Buried deep in my bones where it could still feed on my unending agony, it flourished like the roots of a tree. Slowly growing to cling around my entire skeleton until very soon, every move I eventually made would be for the sake of revenge. Because when I finally left this place, whether that be in a body bag or the trunk of a car, I swore to myself that I would not rest until I burned every single motherfucker who played even the most minuscule role in this fucked-up operation. And then, whenhewas the last one left alive, then, and only then, would I take my time making him regret the day he ever laid eyes on me.

“Time’s up!” one of the guards suddenly yelled, turning off the switch to the water and ending my sweet, sweet daydreams. Carefully stepping away from the showers, I wrung my wet hair out as best I could and made my way to the benches to accept my new clean dress. But as I moved, the girl ahead of me slipped on the wet tile and fell right onto her back, smacking her head against the tile flooring.

“Oh shit!” I yelled and instinctively moved to help her, kneeling to check the spot her hand was now trying to cover as she winced in pain. “Are you okay?” I asked, looking her over. “Let me see.”

I could see a small amount of blood seeping between her fingers, making my concern for her grow even more. She would need medical attention, and I doubted these fuckers would provide any semblance of adequate care for her.

“What are you doing?” shouted one of the guards. “Get up, both of you!”

“She’s injured,” I replied as respectfully as I could. Prying her hand from her head, I could see she had an open wound that was slowly bleeding into her wet hair. “See? She’s bleeding. She needs to see a doctor.”

“I…I feel kinda dizzy,” she murmured, her speech slightly slurred.

“Cara! Are you okay?” one of the girls shouted as they gathered by the benches, their faces lit with concern. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

The guard remained unfazed as Cara groaned on the floor, wincing in pain. “I don’t give a shit! Get the fuck up before I beat the both of you,” he growled as he removed his baton from his belt and pointed it at us. “Now!”

As aggravated as I was, I decided not to argue with him and turned my attention to helping Cara get to her feet. “Okay, come on, Cara. Let’s get you up,” I said to her as I tried to pull her up by her shoulders. But as I lifted, her legs suddenly gave out, causing her to fall into my arms, her blood-drenched scalp pressing into my shoulder.

“I c-can’t,” she barely mumbled. ”D-dizzy.”

“Shit,” I muttered under my breath as I attempted to rearrange her limp body. Only then did I realize she was starting to lose consciousness. “Cara, wake up. You gotta stay awake.”

“What the fuck did I just say?” yelled the guard. “Get up!” He then took a swing at Cara with his baton, landing a harsh blow against her hip. “Move, bitch!”

“She can’t!” I yelled back, panic for her well-being getting to my voice. “She’s barely conscious. Please, she needs a doctor!”

“Yeah, right. That bitch is probably faking it,” said the other guard as he herded the rest of the panicking girls against the wall.

“Does this look fake to you!” I shouted, exposing my bloody palm to him.

Kayla’s expression from across the room was one of caution as she slowly shook her head at me, warning me to calm down. She was right. If I lost my shit now, I’d end up in the company of the last person I wanted to ever be near again.

“Enough,” said the guard closest to us. “Up! I won’t say it again.”

With my heart in shambles, I tried lifting Cara once again, hoping by some miracle she might be able to stand, but I knew that hope was false. Because as soon as I got her vertical again, she just collapsed right back into my arms.

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