A Debt To Pay

44

Days passed and I didn't leave the bed. Despite how uncomfortable it was, it was easier to hide beneath the covers and imagine being anywhere else than to face reality. There was nothing to do all day except lie around and think and my mind constantly wondered. 

I thought of my family. It had been so long since I'd last seen them. I missed my sister so much it hurt. As twins, we'd spent most of our lives joined at the hip. We were rarely apart and, now, it had been months since I'd seen her face. At night, dreams of her being in this position haunted me. I couldn't imagine how scared she would be if she knew people like this actually existed. I also thought of my father, a mafia man himself. Did he know men like this? Did he do business with them? Act friendly with them?

The rest of my time was spent thinking about Logan. I wanted more than anything to understand him. I wanted him to come and save me. I wanted him to tell me nobody would ever hurt me again. I wanted him to be losing his mind wondering if I was okay.

But after our last interaction, I doubted he even cared I was gone.

"Are you okay?" A small, soft voice asked and I recognised it as Josie. 

I swiped a stray tear from my cheek and cleared my throat. "I'm fine," I answered her, keeping my back to her and pulling the blanket higher over me.

"It's okay if you aren't," she said gently. "We all understand, we've been through it."

I swallowed harshly and sighed. "How do you live like this?" I finally asked her.

I heard her shuffle around behind me and sigh softly before answering. "I don't have any other choice," she responded, "there isn't anything I can do."

"Don't you just want to go home?"

"Of course I do," she said, her voice full of emotion. "All I want is to leave this life and go back to my old life. But its not possible. Once you're in, you can't leave."

A tear slid down my cheek at her words. I wanted to leave so badly. I needed to leave. "Tell me about your old life," I begged, desperate for any kind of distraction from my own tormenting thoughts.

Again she sighed and I heard more movement before she began. "Okay," she said, "I lived with my mom and dad and my brothers. Our house was beautiful, set back off a small country road leading out of town and overlooking a small valley. I loved growing up there and I was so happy," she said, emotions raw in her tone.

"What's it like to have brothers? I only have a sister," I told her.

She smiled over at me, tears brimming her eyes. "I loved my brother's; they were a little protective but I always felt safe with them."

"Then why haven't they saved you?" I asked her.

Instantly her smile was replaced with a frown. "I was taken when I was fifteen," she told me. "The auction happened the next day and the man that purchased me had come from across the country. I was already far away by the time they would have started to look." Tears filled her eyes as she spoke and my chest ached.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, incapable of imaging being taken from my family at only fifteen and placed into an auction to become someone's sex toy.

"Its been four years," she whispered, "I've stopped waiting for them to save me."

"Maybe they still will," I whispered with a small smile.

"Maybe... what about your life? You have a sister?" She asked, looking to me with hopeful desperation. She had taken my mind away from my pain but now she was begging for me to do the same.

"Yeah," I said, thinking of my beautiful sister. "She's my twin," I told her, causing her to smile.

"What's she like?"

"Perfect," I said, "annoyingly perfect."

"Did you live with your parents?"

"My dad," I answered with a nod. "It was just us three." I decided to leave out the details on Stacey and how she came to be my wicked step mother, pretending that she didn't exist.

"What about your mother?" She asked, a frown on her face.

"She died," I said softly, feeling an ache in my heart as I thought back to the day of her death like it was yesterday. Tears filled my eyes but I shook my head, not having the energy to cry.

"My mother died too," I heard Tasha say from her own bed where she had been lay, listening. "Car accident," she muttered.

I turned to see her meet my gaze with her own pained one and I smiled softly. "I'm sorry," I said.

"Me too."

"Did you live with your dad?" Josie asked her, moving to face her instead of me.

Tasha nodded. "Yeah, it was just me and him for the longest time," she said, a fond smile on her face. "But a few months before I was taken, he got sick and not long after, he died."

My eyes widened at her tragic story. "I couldn't afford the house anymore and ended up on the streets... thats how they found me," she continued, "thats why nobody ever came to save me."

"They took you from the streets?" Josie gasped and Tasha nodded.

"Homeless girls are easy prey," she said with a shrug.

"I wonder if they thought I was homeless," I mumbled. "I was on the streets when they took me," I explained upon their confused glances. "I had been in an argument with someone and stormed off..."

"I was on the streets too," the final girl - Millie - hiccuped, her voice so quiet and shaky, she was difficult to understand. "My dad kicked me out when I was twelve."

"Why?" I asked.

She shrugged and rolled off the bed, stepping across the room and slipping beneath Tasha's blanket. I watched in fascination as the two curled up together, clearly appreciating the company the other provided.

I looked to Josie who was staring right back at me. "The auction is only two days away now," she whispered, fear clear in her voice.

I nodded, curling up a little tighter. "Night," I whispered, watching the light flicker off to signify the end of the day.

"Night" she whispered back.

"Night," I heard Tasha say in the darkness.

"Night," Millie called out before we all sank into our beds and closed our eyes, allowing dreams of a better life to seep into our minds.