After

Chapter 10

Dinah had been gone for about five hours before AJ once again arrived in the apartment. Ally hears her enter the apartment and comes out to greet her. "AJ, Dinah's gone. She received some texts last night saying she had to go with the man or else Lauren dies." Ally continued to speak and update AG on the situation and finally finished talking three minutes later.

"Okay. Slow down. Show me the messages and write down anything you can remember. This could really help us find him. I'm going to try and see if I can track the phone that sent the message. We might finally get a lead." AJ responds, putting her computer and files on the table. Ally finds the text messages and shows them to AJ. She begins to right them down on a blank piece of paper and reads them over numerous times. "Wait. Did I write this down correctly?" She looks at the phone and begins to smile, "He messed up. In one of the messages, he said 'we' instead of 'I.' He has partners."

Ally looks at her and furrows her eyebrows, trying to act as if she didn't already know how many there are because she and the other girls promised not to tell anyone of their run in with one of the men after they got Camila out of the hospital, "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"Both. More people to find but more people to slip up." She looks up to tell Ally before looking back at her papers, "There's more too, that's just the main one."

"More people to hurt Lauren." Camila sighs as she exits her and Dinah's room to enter the living room. Ally's eyes widen at the thought of this and her face grows red from fear and unsettledness. Camila shows no emotion while searching the refrigerator for something to eat for breakfast. Back when she was in the group, she would sleep away all the days she had off; but now, she is so used to being sleep deprived from overworking and trying to support herself that it is unusual for her to sleep more than a few hours a night. She has changed so much from when she was close to the girls.

Lauren's beautiful green eyes radiate sadness. She is alone in her room right now, which is better than being beaten or being in that cage; but she needs to see her girls again. She's hungry and thirsty and has nothing to do except think. Think about everything she has been through and think about everything she will probably go through. She knows it is only a matter of time before one of the men cross the only line that hadn't been crossed yet.

The door opens but Lauren doesn't even sit up from her bed; there's no point. She knows she is just going to be dragged out of the room anyways, why use the energy to sit up when she doesn't have to? Her eyes close in the hopes of whoever is here thinking she's asleep and, for some reason, decide not to bother her. A swift kick to the face destroys her attempt for peace. She sits up quickly and sees something she never expected to see here.

"She's passed out right now. Probably won't wake up for another thirty minutes. Make sure to tell her you still aren't sure who is keeping you here. If you tell her one thing about us that could compromise us, she's dead." Brad says before placing his infamous black mask over his face again, revealing only his eyes and winks.

Lauren nods and tears form in her eyes at the sight of Dinah in such a horrible condition. Her arms and legs are bruised with dried blood on them too. Her face is covered in a thin layer of blood with a few tear streaks through it. Lauren decides to lift up her shirt to reveal her stomach and gasps. The majority of her flesh is covered in blood and if a part is not covered, there is only discolored flesh remaining. Lauren attempts to drag Dinah to the bathroom to clean her up before she wakes up, but Lauren is too weak to do so.

Dinah wakes up. Her vision is blurry but she knows she is resting her head on something that wasn't there before. "Dinah." Dinah hears a familiar voice with an unfamiliar undertone of fear. She tries to bring her head up to look at Lauren, but a piercing pain shoots through her forehead and she is forced to lay back down. "Hey, you don't have to sit up. You can lie down if you need." Dinah nods her head and finally catches a glimpse of Lauren's eyes. They hold so much emotion that she feels they are about to burst. There is so much anger and hatred but also pain and despair but the most dominant feature is that of love and admiration towards the one they are looking at.