Disappearance: A broken Wing

Punishment

As Leo was about to take me to the barn, Lucas busted into the house with Sally and threw her on the hard ground. Her face was busted up, and her clothes were filthy. "What is this nonsense?" Hito questioned. "This pig managed to pick up a pair of scissors and stab Micka." Lucas stated. "Did she? I want her to be beaten to a pulp." "Yes sir. Lucas grabbed a whip, and before he could strike her, I shoved him out of the way and stood in front of Sally to protect her. "Who do you think you are?" "Whatever punishment you want to give her, give it to me. Let me be fully responsible for her actions." "Kara don't." Sally whispered. "Fine, but your punishment will be twice as hard. Take her down to the stables. Keep the kid here as leverage."

Lucas and Leo dragged me out of the house and took me down the road to where I saw a run-down stable in view. The closer we got, the more bodies I saw. Some were hanging on for dear life, while others were tied up, bleeding to death. Lucas forcefully tied my hands up on a hook on the celling and removed my robe, leaving me exposed in front of everyone. Leo took a cow whip and struck me eighteen times. "You are to hang here for twenty-four hours until someone unties you." "Leo, you know what you should do?" "What?" "Make a deep hole and die in it." "Twenty-five hours. Let's go, Lucas."

. . . .

Eventually night came, and I was still tied down. Bugs started to smell the fresh blood and started to bite me in all sorts of places. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a shadow walking towards me. I couldn't take any more beatings at the moment. The closer the shadow got, the more I realized it was Baxton with a bucket and a rag.

"How are you feeling?" Baxton asked. "Sally, the little girl I took a beating for, is she okay?" "She's fine. She's sleeping peacefully in the barn. How are you?" "I'm okay." I lied. Baxton sat the bucket down, pulled out a rag, and dipped it in the water. After the rag got nice and wet, it went towards me and cleaned up my wounds. "Baxton, stop; I don't want you to get in trouble." "Don't worry. This is my job. I clean up the wounded. So is Sally your sister?" "No, she's just a kid. Part of me feels like I need to protect her from any harm, and the other half of me wants her to hurt." "Why?" "I would have never been in this situation if I hadn't decided to save her in my neighborhood." "You can't blame her for this." "I know, it's just funny how I got into human trafficking because I decided to save a kid." For the first time in a long time, I actually shed a tear. I dropped my head and actually allowed myself to cry in front of someone who works for Hito.

Baxton dropped the rag in the bucket and lifted my chin. Kara, you are anamazing person for trying to protect Sally. It stinks that you are in thisposition, but you will escape." "You can't promise that.""Yeah, I can. I can promise that because I will help you and Sally escape.You just have to give it time." "Why is it so easy to trustyou?" "Because I refuse to hurt you." I looked at Baxton andgave him a weak smile. "You're too good for this work." "You aretoo precious for any pain given to you." "Thank you." "Noproblem. I have to go, but tomorrow, when you get down, I'll be there foryou." "I appreciate that." "Before I go, I've got toapologize. I never meant to slap your butt, but I had to make it seem like Iused you." "Baxton, I forgave you." "Alright. See youtomorrow."