ROMEO (book 1)

55. DELILAH

I'm exhausted.

I'm next in line.

I don't know what for. One of the men here has to hold me up because I'm too weak to walk. I'm exhausted.

The doors open and he pushes me in, the guy pushes me on the chair and my heart starts to race.

He's holding buzzers.

He starts at my forehead and shaves down the middle of my hair.

I start to cry.

Not my hair. I love my hair. I love how long it is, how easy it is to braid and how pretty it looks when it's curled. Why are they shaving it?

He shaves all my hair off, then sweeps away the pieces of hair.

I'm left with just a short buzz cut all around. It's patchy.

The guy pushes me through the other door and someone strips me naked and pushes me under the running water. He scrubs my body roughly, then pushes me into the next guy who fixes my wounds, putting band aids over me and cleaning my cuts. Then he changes me into an white dress.

He pushes me onto another guy and my face drops. "Jakub?"

He frowns, and then his eyes widen. "Delilah?" He shuts the door. "What... what?" He holds his face in my hands. "Oh my God."

"Jakub help me get out of here please." I sob. "Please."

"I can't do anything until night time." He strokes my cheek. "Please don't believe this is what I do all the time, Delilah. I'm just trying to find my sister." He whispers.

Three bangs on the door cause me to jump.

"Jakub. Find Romeo Reign. He's my boyfriend." I grip his bicep. "Please. He'll find your sister."

"You were dating Romeo!"

"Hurry it up, Jake." The guy knocks heavily.

"Get me a phone." I look at what he's doing. He hands me a pair of socks and then gently passes me to the next person.

This guy gives me a white cardigan and then pushes me to someone else who restrains me again.

He walks me to a nicer cage. I can't believe I think a cage is nice. It's still dehumanising and degrading.

I sit on the bed and they bring in porridge.

I do eat it. I drink the water they got on the side. I climb into bed and sleep for a while, missing my hair. I always had my hair long. It was the one thing I genuinely loved about myself.

My body is aching.

"Lilah." I hear Jakub.

I look up and he pushes something through the cage before walking on again.

I get off the bed and pick it up quickly.

A phone.

I type in Romeo's number as quick as possible and press call.

It rings a couple of times before he answers.

"Romeo?" I whisper.

"Delilah? Delilah, where are you?"

"I don't know. Can't you track this?"

"No, baby. Are you hurt?"

"Yeah. Romeo come quickly."

"Are you in a warehouse?"

"Yeah. There's lots of girls here and Polish... Polish men. My friend, Jakub... he's trying to find his sister. Find him and he'll tell you where we are." I see the shadow of someone walking up. "Don't talk, Ro." I get in the bed and shove the phone under the mattress. I pretend to sleep.

The guy does checks with a flashlight and then leaves again. I pick the phone up. "Please hurry."

"I'm trying baby. I'm trying. Do you know anything that can help me, baby?"

"No." I whisper. "I miss you. I... I love you."

"I love you too, precious. You tell me that when I find you."

"Romeo if you don't come soon they're going to take us somewhere else. They've already killed half of us."

"Can you keep me on the phone? The FBI are here tracking it."

FBI.

Help.

Maybe I have a little bit of hope left.

"I might not be able to talk."

"That's okay, my love. Just keep the phone on."

"Can you talk?"

"Of course I can. I... I uh, I haven't stopped looking for you. The FBI are seeing this as an open case. We had some leads but they all came up empty. This phone call is going to save so many women."

"Girls. There's chidlren here too." I close my eyes.

"So many lives. I'm so proud of you."

"Are you close?"

"Fifteen. Shut up."

I jump. "I can't talk, Ro."

"I know baby. Be quiet. It's okay. We tracking you."

He talks pure nonsense, rambles about the nerdy stuff he's into for almost twenty minutes straight before finally, "We got you baby. I'm coming."

I let out a breath of relief. "Hurry."

"I will, precious. Hide the phone. I'll be with you in thirty minutes."

I hang up, dropping the phone under the bed.

I keep my hand over my mouth as I cry.

The cage opens and a man stands there, "Get up."

I get up, he drags me out of this room and into another room, a camera set up pointing straight at us. He starts undoing his pants and I wished, I prayed that Romeo was right outside even though I know he wasn't.

I kick as much as I could, but they keep us weak for a reason. "Stop it." He pulls my legs.

Unexpectedly, something hits over the the side of his head and Jakub pulls me up quickly. "He didn't hurt you?"

"I'm hurt everywhere, Jakub." I grip onto him. "Romeo's coming."

"That's good." He helps me walk back to the cage. "That's good. I need to find my sister."

"They have more girls in the other building."

"Other building?"

"I was there first." I sit on the bed, my hips were killing me. "Jakub there's something wrong with my legs."

"I can't do anything Delilah, I'm so sorry." He kisses the top of my head. "Tell Romeo to find my sister too."

"Where are you going?"

"I need to get rid of the guy i just knocked out." He smiles softly. "I'll be back. I promise. He walks away.

I couldn't lie down. My entire body was aching.

I'm in so much pain.

So much pain that I just pass out.

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i <3 jakub

word count: 1041