Sealed and Silenced (Watty Awards 2012)

Sealed and Silenced: Chapter 15

| A/N: I've been working on this too long and then I was stuck, and well, now here it is! Thank you to Melody for helping me here :) I hope you guys like it!! |

“Adalyn....” A male voice is trying to coax me from my sleep. I won’t let him. My dreams are too good. Ever since I met Carter, my usual nightmares of more men coming after me were softened and now I dream of freedom with Carter. Not to mention, Carter and I exchanging I love you’s and many other things.

“Addie, sweetie, you have to wake up.” I groan and snuggle deeper into what I was leaning against. A firm hand touched my shoulder and shook me.

“Just poor some water on her,” a female voice giggled. “That’ll wake her up.”

“It will also get me wet!” I grumble despite a slow smile creeping onto my face.

Midst the talking of last night, we have forgotten the worries of what the day holds. Forgotten what lay above us and what our past contains. It’s a rare and phenomenal feeling. It allows us to make jokes again.

I open my sleep filled eyes and take in my surroundings. Mia sits across from me, drinking one of our last bottles of water. I lift my hand to investigate my pillow and discover Carter’s rock hard abs. My grin grows wider and I sit up, feeling the stretch of new skin under my old bandages.  

Mia offers me her hand and I take it. She pulls me all the way to my feet, something I was not expecting. I thought she was going to help me sit up in a more vertical line. My knees nearly collapse under me and I clutch Mia’s arm to hold me up.

“Stand while I change your bandages. Get your legs used to working again.” I nod and lean against the basement wall.

Mia worked wordlessly, unwrapping, checking my wounds, and rewrapping the more serious ones. As she worked, I thought about what was going to happen, when we got back upstairs. I was afraid of who may be waiting for me. If Rick’s son would be there, giving me a smile sent from hell. Whether or not I was going to be sold every night, and raped until I lay crying and bleeding on a soggy mattress.

Drifting from my dark thoughts, I felt Mia’s hands leave my arm. Her eyes burned holes into the ground. An uncomfortable silence hung heavily in the air.

“Are you ready?”

“Of course not,” I reply. “I don’t know what’s going to happen up there, Mia. I don’t know what he will want to do with me. And, I don’t know who might be waiting.” She gives me a quizzical look.

“One of the guys, you raped me, he has a son.” Fear leaks into my voice and rattled it. Mia gives me a pitiful look.

“Don’t,” I despise the look she holds, trapped in her eyes. Mia looks away.

“Are you ready?” I return her question.

“No.” She replies, now fixed on the ground. “Now that I’ve gotten a taste of what you guys go through down here, I don’t want to leave. You have formed a bond that seems impossible to break. It’s nearly pleasant down here, despite near death by starvation and dehydration.”

“Yea, I guess when there is no hope, you have to create it yourself. Bond together even in the pit of despair, really.” A smirk forms on Mia’s face.

“You sound like a philosopher.” I start to laugh, but I stop short. My ears twitch. I hear it, the turn of a door knob, the creak of an opening door. Its time, I can feel it in the pit of my stomach.

Heavy bodies descend the stairs. They thump loudly against the aging wood. The gentle candles that usually illuminates us are blown out, sending us into darkness.

I try and count how many men are coming down the stairs, but they move to rapidly. My heart seems now is the time to pick up the pace. My palms a start to sweat and without thinking, I reach for Mia’s hand. She hesitates just a second before gripping her hand around my own. She steadies me.

Before I know it, one, two, three men come into view. Each bigger and bulkier than the last. I can’t tell if I recognize any of them or not.  No one dares to breathe. We all know what they are here for, yet neither Mia nor I stand up.

“Damn it, I can’t see anything down here.” One says to the other.

“Mia?” Another calls. A moment of silence.

“I have to answer,” Mia whispers. “I know these men all too well.” She takes a deep breath. I squeeze her hand.

“O- over here!” She tries to call, but her voice shakes so bad it is barely audible.

“Mia? It’s time to go upstairs.” The last one says as if he is talking to a younger child.

“I’m, I’m over here!” She tightens her grip on my hand, both of ours sweating with nervousness.

“Where’s here, smartass? It’s bloody dark down here.” Mia stands up slowly pulling me with her.

“Stay where you are, you idiots. I’ll come to you.”

“And bring that other girl too. Billy needs her.” The man’s voice sends a shiver down my spine.

“Yea, yea.” Mia is finding her strength, where I am leaving any I had behind. I want to find Carter. I want to hug him one last time.

Mia takes a step towards them. I feel like a prisoner ready for execution. My body feels like it weighs too much to be normal. My feet drag as Mia pulls me along.

“Come on,” she whispers. “I’ll look after you.” It takes a moment before her words register, but when they do; my feet start to move on their own free will. One step after another until we reach the huge men who work for an evil man.

 “Now can we go?” Mia tries to sound impatient.

“Yea,” Says the one that is facing us. I can’t make out any of his features and he scares me all the more.

We start to move our small troop towards the stairs. My ears twitch as I pick up on the slightest of sounds. Someone coughs and wheezes. People move restlessly. The people who take drowsy naps snore gently. The eerie silence lies underneath all of these sounds. It seems to hum a sharp note that sticks in my ear canal and continually echo in my head.

It seems like ages before we reach the stairs. They loom above me, thick with black darkness, unstable with mold. I feel my stomach drop.

“Adalyn,” his voice breathes. “Be safe.”