Make it Through

Ready or Not

It was hard to sleep. My back and neck hurt from the way that I was positioned in the box. I feel really hot and feel as if the walls are closing in on me. Once again I lost my breath and I couldn’t breathe. I’m trying like crazy not to go insane. Trying to not scream or hit the walls to make them stop from closing in on me anymore. I didn’t want them to know that I was losing and they were winning the first round.  I started to grind my teeth in order to not scream. The feeling of claustrophobia became too much and I kicked at the wall. I hated myself for giving in and letting them win this one, but it wouldn’t happen again.

The door opened to the room and I froze. “How’s our little angel doing today?” A guy said, as he took the lid off and I sat up. I looked down at a corner in the box. I didn’t want them to see my eyes, it would give me away. The chubby guy took me out of the box and had me stand. My legs were asleep and it was hard to stand, I almost fell but the guy caught me. “So, how was your stay in the box?” I waited until I composed my face to speak.

“It was fun. You should have been there. I had a party in there and everything.” The guy looked at my poker face and said,

“Fine then, another day couldn’t hurt, put her back in.” The chubby guy picked me up again and I couldn’t do it anymore.

“No, please. Don’t. I promise I’ll listen, I’ll be good!” The man stopped.

“Well, I see your starting to understand your place. Smart mouths only get in trouble. It’s good you’re learning you’re place in this world. Let her be, she’ll be good now.” He set me down on the ground and walked out of the room leaving the door open. That’s when I knew the only way to get out of here fast was to obey. Even though it didn’t sound so great, it was my only option.

I wasn’t sure if it was okay for me to wander around because they left the door open. I stayed on my bed unless I needed to go to the bathroom. My stomach began to become anxious and grumbled loudly. There was a sound in the other room and the smell of eggs overwhelmed my better judgment. I walked out into the room and noticed I wasn’t in a cabin far in the woods. I was in an actual home that rich families lived in. The first room I stepped in was a living room or it looked like one, maybe even a show room. There were many portraits of a family hanging on the wall. A beautiful woman in a silk blouse with earrings that were almost bigger than her ears sat in the middle. She was holding a little baby girl who was wrapped in a pink blanket and she had black curly hair. She looked like me when I was a baby. As I kept looking I saw three teenage boys who looked like the three young men who have me.

“So, you finally decided to show your face.” I turned around and Fran was sitting on the couch beside the fireplace. I didn’t know what to do but freeze, like I always do as a natural habit. “Are you hungry?” I slowly turned to face him.

“Starving.” I said as my stomach grumbled loudly. He gave me a stern look and I didn’t know what I did.

“You’ll learn how to speak like a young lady, no more smart mouth or hillbilly talk.” What did this man expect from someone who’s being forced to be here against her own will?  I said nothing.

As Fran got up off the couch he grabbed my shoulder and walked over to a table and had me sit in a spot at a huge table. The other men were there already, I was very uncomfortable. Fran set the food in front of me and I glanced at it. “It’s your favorite Cristal.” They waited for my response.

“It’s not my favorite, but I like them.” All three of the men looked at me strange.

“Sorry Cristal, you look so much like our little sister. Her name was Crystal too, just spelled with an “Y.” I knew it was none of my business but I wanted to know what happened. They saw my confused look and explained.

“You see, we lied. We didn’t take you to train you the way you think. We took you to be trained to be our little sister Crystal.”

“But, I have my own family and brother.”

“No.” said the smaller man. “He wouldn’t fit in the family. Mother wouldn’t like that. She just wanted you once we showed her your pictures.”

“Well what happened to your sister?” It didn’t take very long to get an answer. All three faces filled with painful look.

“She was so sick, and we couldn’t do anything. She passed away in her sleep a few months ago. It was horrible, and that’s when we started looking for you. You look just like her and there’s a reason for that. She’s your twin.” I sat there frozen to my seat. “When your mother died your father sold her to our mother, and she was so happy. Mother now feels she was given the weakest of the twins and wanted you, the whole package. If you think about it, you’ll never have to worry about anybody touching you ever again. Let us introduce ourselves” I sat and thought for a while. I couldn’t say goodbye to Cody or Jaime. They were my family not these people.

“Well you know me as Fran so we’ll keep it at that. This is Jacob. We all call him Jack he’s the middle eldest.” The average size boy nodded his head and began eating again.

The smallest of the boys got up and said “Hey I’m Miles, the youngest of the males.”

I didn’t know what to say. “Hi. I don’t know if I could just forget about my life and my family.” I looked down at my food not really hungry anymore, it was almost gone anyways.

“It’s okay, it’s understandable. But you’ll have the best therapist money could buy and eventually you’ll forget everything.

“But, I don’t want to forget!”

“Once you behave like a young lady, you won’t have any problems living here and it won’t be hard to forget.” I just looked down in defeat, feeling hopeless.

“Don’t be sad, mother will be here soon.” He made a weird face. “If she saw you in those clothes she would be mad. You have a new room. Go up the stair and it’s the first door to the left. There’s a walking closet next to the bathroom. Go in there and choose anything you would like to wear, they should all fit.” I slowly got up and walked up the steps. There was nothing wrong with my clothes at home so why would it matter? I turned to the left like they said and entered the room.

The room was white with pink and purple flowers all around. In the middle was a huge canopy bed with pink silky fabric hanging from the top of the frame to the floor. There were many sized pillows on the bed and the some were very fluffy. The room was filled with pictures of a woman and what looked to be me, but I had to remind myself it wasn’t me it was my twin. This stuff would confuse me for quite some time. As long as I have to be here before I’m rescued. I jumped out of my thoughts and entered a huge closet. There were so many dresses and riding clothes. I couldn’t find any jeans and I really didn’t want to look so I grabbed the first bag that I saw. There was an outfit already put together.

When I unzipped the bag I saw that I had picked a skirt set that had leggings. You could tell they were rich because it was by a certain designer. There were gems in the front and the leggings had three at the very bottom of both sides. I put it on and walked downstairs, they all looked at me.

“You look nice in that, but when you sit cross your legs. It’s very lady like.” This was Jack.

“I’m not lady like, can’t I just be me?” He looked at me and I knew I couldn’t.

“How about we watch some TV.” Miles plopped down on the couch and turned it on. If I were to like someone it would be Miles. He seemed to be the nicest one of the brothers. I sat down on the whole other side of the couch staying as far away from them as I could. We watched a movie. Jack came and sat down next to me and the couch became too crowded. Half way through the movie Jack slowly put his arm around my shoulders and I froze. I slid over to the edge and shrugged him off. He frowned and I could tell I hurt his feelings. He probably thought I was his real sister, maybe I was being mean. I felt bad; I mean they did just lose their sister. I scooched back over slowly and they all laughed as the movie continued. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

When the movie was over the doorbell rang and I froze again. Jack felt me tense and pat my head like how Cody used to. “It’s okay its only mother. No need to become afraid or on guard.” I wasn’t sure how to react. The only mother figure I have ever had was Tina and she wasn’t much. She was a girl who obviously needed help and never talked to me, only Earl and she was addicted to drugs. So yeah I was afraid.