Page 88 of Bully Roommate

Before everything went dark, I noticed King’s red-rimmed eyes glaring down at me. He looked high and almost sad at the sight of me. If King had been the diversion, it told me that the person dragging me had to be Derek.

My heart shattered into a million broken pieces.

The hooded figure walked up to me, and with one solid punch, my world went black.

***

The putrid smell of urine and damp earth awakened me. My head swam in dizziness as I reached up to rub my eyes to no avail. I immediately noticed my hands chained to something. Blowing my ratted hair from my face, I blinked into the dimly lit room. I’d never been here before for sure. Several old mattresses sat on the floor, and I noticed as my eyes adjusted that other people were in the room.

“Hey,” I said my voice hoarse and dry. “Please, hey!”

“Shhh, they’ll hear you.”

I jumped, bringing my legs to my chest. The damp mattress below me felt soaked from I didn’t want to know what. The girl sitting in the corner of the room was blonde, from what I could tell, her hair was dirty and full of grime, and she also wore chains that bolted her to the wall.

“What are we doing here?” I whispered. “How long have you been here?”

“I—I don’t know. What year is it?” she whispered, looking like a feral child.

What year?I fought back the tears in my eyes. “It’s 2021, the end of August.”

She screwed her eyes shut. “Oh God. The last I remember I’d graduated, it was May 2020.”

“You’ve been here over a year. What are they doing to you? To us?” I asked but deep down I already knew.

“It’s Professor Howard. He—and students. He gets them hooked on drugs and forces them to help him kidnap us. I was so stupid. I believed everything he said. They force us to …” she stopped.

This was a human trafficking ring, from any mother’s worst nightmare. I could see by her beaten and bruised body what they made her do.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Melody Rogers.”

That name—it was the name India told me of one of the seniors who supposedly had a fling with Derek. “Did you sleep with Derek? With Professor Howard?”

She sniffled, moving her dirty legs beneath her. “Is that what people are saying about me? No. He—showed interest. Gave me an internship, kissed me, took me out to eat, and when I felt comfortable, one of his drug-addicted boys tossed me into his trunk and I woke up in one of these rooms. It’s one of many.”

“This happened after you graduated?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she whispered. “It was his way of making it look like I’d graduated and moved away, but I never did. I wonder what my parents think,” she said quietly to herself.

The other three girls in the room hadn’t moved, they slept on the mattresses, motionless.Oh my God.

“He works with someone, but I don’t know who. We’ve never seen him.”

“How often does he come in here? Does he fed y’all?”

“Yeah, leftovers from the cafeteria, but not always. He’ll leave for days, and come back with bidders. Sometimes they take the girls for good, other times they just pay for a night. It’s—,”

The rusted door in the corner opened, and the hinges squealed in protest, causing two of the three other girls to scream and back against the wall. Derek walked in, pressed slacks and a button-down shirt tucked neatly into his pants. He glanced around the room, stopping when his eyes met mine.

A small smile curled at the edge of his mouth.

“Oh, sweet, Josie, I’ve been looking for someone just like you.”

I swallowed the scream in my throat and titled my head upward in defiance.

Maverick—help me.

---