Traffic

Part 9

"Kelsey, If you walk out that door, I can just drag you back in." He threatened as my feet instantly stopped where they were and turned back to him. "By the hair if I have too."

"You wouldn't."

"I can tell you where Meg is. I can keep her here. Well fed, clothed. Taken care of. No one will lay a finger on her." Thomas's hands went into his pocket as he started to creep forward once again. This time, however, I took notice. Matching his every glide with a step we continued the conversation. "The only thing I can't do, is set her free."

My back his a solid metal door behind me as I swallowed having no where to go except for right at Thomas. "Can't or won't?"

"Can't."

He stopped. Right about a foot away he stopped. Not making any moves. Not trying to scrummage his way to my lips. He just froze as if glued to the floor. I'm doing this for Meg, I kept telling myself and maybe it'll actually come true. For Meg.

"Why am I even in here?" 

Thomas didn't look the least bit flustered by the question. "I didn't mean for you to think of it in that sense where I am just like those other men. Because I'm not. I'm nothing like them, and the things I will do to get away from this place is endless."

Processing what he just said, I found myself standing up taller to listen to every word that crosses his lips. "Then why don't you just leave?"

"I can't."

"Can't or won't?"

He let out a little laugh that brightened the mood and also showed off his perfect teeth. "Can't. But if I could, I wouldn't go alone."

"W-who would you bring with you?" 

I got my answer when Thomas's lips slammed against mine. This time, I didn't try to stop him. He broke it by gently pulling his lips away and leaning his forehead so ours touched as I batted my eyes down trying not to look into his blue ones. His hand ran under my hair pulling it my back leaving my neck as he started to lightly kiss across my cheek bone making each one count when he stopped right before getting to the sweet spot. 

"You should go. Before I take this too far."

I nod my head but never really fully accepted what he said. "Why me? Your dad mentioned some other girl you were suppose to--"

"You heard that?" His eyes open wide in realization as his thoughts scrambled for an answer. "She was in the bar that night, and I panicked."

"So you took me?"

His eyes flutter to the ground as his cheeks grow red from embarrassment. But also it looks like he was glad it all happened. "I didn't for this. My dad usually lets the people go that he thinks might get the police involved, but he decided to take a wild card on you."

"He knew everything about me."

"He did't know if you didn't have any friends, and distant family. The people we take, immigrants, usually illegal, the homeless. People no one knew, and no one cared about." His blue eyes kept growing lighter and lighter as he began to realize more and more of the truth and what he could be doing to people. "He took a gander on a few prostitutes when he was positive no one cared."

"Meg has a brother."

"Her brother was killed two years ago in a car accident. She became unstable afterwards. Drank her self to sleep, shot a few, and sold herself." 

Now was a good time to leave. I reached for the handle and opened the door before filing myself out where a couple other women were escorted into the showers. With out knowing which direction to go, I knew it was only a matter of time before I attracted someones attention. Turning to Thomas's door constantly, I hoped it would open and take me back, but it never did. Somewhere, I knew it was to good to be true. Yet there was a connection there. The way I happened to let Thomas kiss me after everything he put me through. The way he said he doesn't want to keep me here, but he can't let me go. 

The solid thunk form a heavy metal door closing came from my right as my head jerked in that direction to see stairs leading up steeply. No one was around. My pounding heart beat may have been hiding a pair of footsteps but I could violently hear my own stomping in my ear. Go. Go. go. 

"We have a stray!" I didn't whip my head around to see who it was or who they were talking about because I already knew. In a second, my hand reached the handle and forced the door open in front of me as My feet began climbing the stairs before the rest of my body even had time to catch up. The door at the top was wooden but locked as I took a few steps back before busting through the door with my boot and feeling the cold air rush in to the room. Two men were skill hiking up the two or three flights of stairs when I ran out looking at the water dense pavement that is Cincinnati, Ohio. 

My head turned to both directions trying to figure out which way to turn and sprint when someone grabbed my arms and forced a gag in my mouth. I squirmed trying to break free or at least get a scream out, but they over powered me completely before pretty much taking the weight of my entire body into his arms. There was a shove. Losing his balance, the large man threw me out of his arms into a brick wall where my head collided right at the corner. The sidewalk under me was cold and wet, stained with my own red blood as the hazed vision of a man taking on the other two kept fading and coming back as if it were somehow a lost memory. 

--THOMAS'S POINT OF VIEW--

"Somebody help! Help me please!" I wailed out while running down the busy Cincinnati street with tears in my eye and Kelsey in my arms. Her blood stained my clothes and hands as i tried to control the bleeding but the gash was still throbbing and pouring out gallons. No matter what I said everyone just gashed and ran away as if her blood was toxic until I couldn't run any longer and My legs buckled forcing me on the sidewalk. One women stood before me with her phone to her ear and then hung up before looking at Kelsey barley breathing in my arms.

"She's shivering." The women said scared to come any closer.

 I could feel her trembling as i brought her closer to my chest thinking that anything at this point I'll just make the pain less. My hand cuffed Kelsey's delicate face in it as the hair fell away from the gash showing how deep it actually was which only made the tears roll stronger from my eyes. "Don't go. Don't go. Please Don't go." 

The palm of my hand smeared the blood on the side of her face while my jacket sat against the cut trying to stop the bleeding until the ambulance got here. Seconds later, sirens screamed down the street stopping right next to me as the officials pulled out the gurney and fresh bandages. I wouldn't let Kelsey out of my arms as they neared me trying to talk me into letting her go as my grip relaxed and my arms were empty moments later. 

"What's her blood type?"

"Is she going to make it?"

"What's her blood type?"

My eyes switched back and forth between the paramedic standing in front of me and the ambulance doors closing with her inside them. "I don't know." I swallowed hard as his expression hardened. "Is she going to make it?"

"I don't know."