Blaze

Suho & Namjoo's Secrets

~_____~

Little Eun Bin watched in fear when the man who'd been bringing them food and water and allowed them to go on bathroom breaks slammed the wood against the woman who'd come for them.

"Don't look," one of the women hugged her close and tried to cover her eyes.

In the moment of darkness Eun Bin could hear the man dragging the woman's body along the floor.

"Get up, all of you," his heavy voice ordered and without opposition everyone rose to their feet.

Eun Bin had no idea what was going on. All she knew was that these women were going somewhere together to do something, but she didn't know what. No one would tell her, but the men had been telling her it was good stuff.

"What's the good stuff?" She'd asked.

"You'll know when you get there." One of them had promised.

But she'd seen discontent and fear written all over the other womens' faces. When she asked them, they'd only put a hand on her head with forlorn expressions. No one told her what was going on.

"Stay with me," the woman with her protectively said and took her hand even though she was old enough to walk by herself.

Without word, though, she allowed the woman to take her hand and they walked side by side outside. The light of the sun blinded her pupils the immediate second she stepped out.

Most days were spent inside the warehouse and she'd been bored for days on end, but if she complained the men would scold her. And when she heard screaming of the woman they'd take to the far end of the warehouse, she'd feel her insides twist up. Her screams were frightening and so awful. All of them had been calls for help, but little Eun Bin couldn't understand why the men were torturing her. When she asked, the rest of the women would tremble in fear and not answer her. Even in her dreams now, she'd hear that screaming echo inside her heart.

She wanted to go home, sleep in her bed, and have her mother scold her for waking up late for school. She missed the smell of her father's beard when he hugged her and the scent of cigarettes drifting from his clothes. She missed home so much she wanted to cry.

The women loaded themselves onto the back of the large green truck solemnly. When the 20 of them squeezed themselves in Eun Bin watched the man throw the stranger woman in. Her body clunked loudly against the metal of the floor and she lay there limp. Eun Bin thought she was dead.

The weight of the man brought the truck down when he entered the driver's seat and turned the engine on. Some of the other girls were weeping, but no one said anything nor tried to run. It was disheartening and now Eun Bin would be further from home.

She felt the tires crush the dirt undnearth, but something loud cracked through the air and the truck suddenly halted forcefully. The girls' bodies swayed back and forth roughly before they started murmuring.

Another one of those quick zipping sounds hit the air and the truck shook from impact.

"What's going on!?" One of the women asked, her voice full of fear and anxiety.

Then suddenly someone ran toward them. A short haired woman appeared at the back of the truck with a rifle slung around her shoulder.

"Quick! Get down! A police team is waiting for you at the end of the road," she ordered and upon the word 'police' the women scrambled from the truck.

The woman who'd been holding her all along lugged her along and as they ran hurried down the road, Eun Bin turned around to see the woman climbing into the truck to lift up the stranger who'd come for them.