Chapter 1
I don’t know exactly when he took us. It was around early morning, right as the bus drivers leave to get their students. I remember the heavy greyness of my room, as it shifted from night to day. The sky was a sharp blue, like when you’re painting and black mixes in with all your colors, so even blue is greying in the edges.
I went through my usual routine of lazing out of bed and hibernating in the bathroom. I didn’t know he was in the house. I didn’t think it odd that my family had not risen- every creak and rustle was my mother or our old house dying.
He rummaged through the kitchen drawers. He creaked through the halls. I should’ve recognised the unfamiliarity of his footsteps. I could’ve called the police; none of this would’ve happened. Nowadays I’m very cautious about that stuff. Nowadays I am my most alert during the mornings, which is saying something because I am always alert. Instead I let him sneak up behind me. I let him poke a needle into me, one that’s contents slithered up my veins and barely left me enough time for a shiver to run down my spine, before I dropped to the floor like dead weight.
He put me in his station wagon for he journey to my nightmares. It bumped down the road and my paralyzed body was thrown from side to side. I still can’t move properly, though that may be because of my legs.
It was an odd smelling house, like he had bathed he place in many different experimental barbeque sauces. Otherwise it was just like any other average, upper middle class suburban house- except the owner wasn’t a lawyer/doctor with a wife and 2.5 kids. No, he had a group of children tucked into a bleak, dusty basement that leaked when it rained.
I wasn’t the first one there, just the first to enter alive. He tossed me in just as I could move my fingertips. I was laying next to a child, and I and to ignore the little girls pink bow and the fact that she had no face and was covered with bugs; screaming wasn’t going to solve anything.
His deep voice pulled my attention to the doorway. He sound like crackling coals on the fourth of July. “More children are coming. Cover her up.” I sat frozen. “Hurry! They will be scared and fuss. And I will hurt you if they cry!” His snapping voice made me wobble up and look around.
It was a larger room than expected. The walls were covered with a greasy substance, and the floor was a carpet that was both fluffy and dusty. Wherever I stepped my foot sank down and he dust billowed up. I covered up the bones with a large tarp from a stack in the corner.
She smelled like vomited cherries. Slimy, slug-like bugs crawled under he tarp making it ripple. I threw up on the side of the body. I moved the tarp to cover that too.
It seemed like hours before I heard the rapid creaking of floorboards descending towards me. He came in through the door, slamming it inward and sending me scampering to the back of the room.
I stopped my attempt to flee through the walls when he deposited the first one at the foot of the tarp. She was tiny and sobbing, tears and snot and spittle covered the gag tied hard on her mouth. Her face was red, but beneath the fear etched on her features were tiny brown eyes the color of chocolate fudge cake and skin the color of yellow autumn leaves.
He rushed to exit, and left me to pry the most cloth from the little girl’s mouth.
I didn’t know what to say. What do you say to a little girl who’s been held captive by a man who may or may not kill her and/or injure her? “Hey, it’ll be alright, kid.” She gazed up at me. “I’ll protect you.” I scoffed- how was I going to protect her? I could barely defend myself.
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See you in another day,
SA