Saving Hope

I. The Others

"Three women who have been held captive inside a household in a Hispanic neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio have finally managed to escape. One of the women finally got her chance to run out of the house and call 911 yesterday with the help of her captor's neighbor. Since then, the story of these three women who have been missing for eleven years has shaken the world. Family, friends, neighbors--and even the police--cannot imagine the physical, psychological and sexual torture these women went through all these years. Their story is coming up next."

She watched the news without feeling anything. Three women down, she thought. Three women safe.

As the television flashed a popcorn commercial, it went black.

She didn't move an inch, a great achievement for her over the past ten years. She simply stayed motionless and unblinking in her old, tattered winged chair. But despite her great control over her movement, her mind was in the same state of intense awareness since that first day as she felt him move about behind her. She heard the remote touch the wooden table. She felt the side of his body brush against the top of her head as he walked to the window to close the blinds.

Three women escaped, she chanted in her head, fully aware of his presence.

Three women finally safe. He walked to the door and flicked the switch before he walked out without a word.

She was suddenly surrounded by the familiar darkness.

"Three women safe," she whispered under her breath, finding it hard to recognize her own voice.

She blinked her eyes and blindly walked to her bed. Lying down, she closed her eyes and saw the same darkness.

Slowly, her mind slowed down and was gently lulled to sleep.

That night, she dreamed for the first time in months. She dreamed she was walking out the door, blinded by sunlight. She dreamed of a man who helped her run next door. She dreamed she was calling 911.

Those three women were not the only ones out there.

There were others.

Hope was one of them.