The Thorned Rose

25

BACK TO SAVANNAH'S POV

"Who do you think she is?"

"Do you think she is okay?"

"When will she wake up?"

"She's been out of it for ages."

"She's pretty."

I tried to open my eyes and sit up, but I felt hands push me back down onto a hard, cold surface. I took my left hand up to my face, and wiped my eyes, slowly opening them, getting used to the harsh light. It took me a while to fully open my eyes and adjust them in order to take in my surroundings. I looked around the room. It was a large room, and looked like we were in a huge warehouse, but someone had put up dividing walls, not bothering to put a roof over each of the rooms so that the whole ceiling was exposed, and very high. The make-shift walls were made of badly put together brick and mortar, like it was a rush job, and at the top of the walls had an overhang of spikes and barbed wire, I guess so no one could climb up them. I looked at the faces of the people around me; they were all women. They were all different shapes and sizes, and ages, the youngest being about fifteen or so. Many of them looked skinny, with bony cheeks, although some looked fuller, but they all had the same sadness in their eyes. The clothes they wore were different, but many of their outfits were ripped, and some had blood or dirt on, or both, and their hair was ragged and untamed. I noticed many of the woman had bruises, or cuts, but not the type of bruises you get from falling over, intentional ones, put there by someone.

"Where am I?" I asked, feeling the dryness in my throat.

"I don't know exactly where... but, you are in a warehouse of, um, women who... have been taken," answered a woman with long strawberry blonde hair and a black eye, who was sat closest to my side.

"A trafficking warehouse?" I asked, my voice slightly raised, and my eyes open wide. They all hushed me.

"We aren't supposed to talk," she whispered, "but yeah, I guess."

"Who runs this place?" I whispered back to her.

"Not a clue, but they'll come for you soon, you're fresh meat... and you're pretty," said a curvier woman, with a few bruises on her arms, what looked like defence wounds.

"Where did they take you from?" asked a girl who looked like the youngest in the room. She had jet black, long hair, and was basically just skin and bones.

"I was in Rome... how old are you?" I asked.

"I'm sixteen," she replied, causing me to take in a sharp breath.

"We think we must still be somewhere in Italy, as none of us felt like we were on a plane when we were transported here, and most of us was taken either in Rome or the surrounding areas around Rome," explained the strawberry blonde.

We whisper-talked for a bit, I asked more questions and they answered them the best they could. I found out the strawberry-blonde was called Meridith, and she was visiting Rome on holiday from her home country, Scotland, when she was taken. She had been here for two weeks, but she looked like she was there for much longer. The sixteen-year-old said that she was taken a few days ago, she thinks, but she was blacked out when she arrived, like I was. Her name was Jasmine. The curvier girl was called Gina, and she told me she had been here for just under a week.

"We think this is the holding place for the newbies before... they do whatever they do with us. Just, stay quiet, don't make a fuss or a noise, and you won't end up like this," said Meridith, pointing at her black eye. "And definitely don't try and escape, someone tried to about a week ago, and we heard her cries for five days after." Gina nodded in agreement, looking at the floor sorrowfully.

"I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to get out of here. They don't realise who they have locked up in here... do any of you have a knife, a shiv, any kind of weapon?" I asked around, "I promise, when I'm out I will come back for you all." All of the women looked around at eachother with blank faces.

"I do," a voice said from the corner of the room. It belonged to a lady with grey hair, who lifted her head up from resting against her knees, and looked at me with forlorn, grey-blue eyes. She reached into her waistband and handed something over to me with her slightly withered hands, dropping a toothbrush that had the end of it scraped into a point. I tested its sharpness by trying to poke it into my skin, but it was just too soft, but better than nothing, so I stuffed it into my waistband.

"Thank you," I gave her a warm smile, and she lifted the corners of her lips up slightly, but I don't think she had the energy to smile anymore. I turned to the other women, "wish me luck."

"DOMENICO YOU ASSHOLE!" I yelled. I assumed, as we were still in Italy and Domenico was the one who was doing the human trafficking in Italy, this must be one of his warehouses, and someone around here must know his name. I heard a lot of guards shuffling around, shouting to find who that came from.

"I'm in here," I said clearly, and I heard the lock in the door click and it creaked open. A guard came in absolutely outraged, looked around the room, then his eyes fell on me, I waved, and he stormed in and grabbed me by the wrist. As soon as he grabbed me I knew exactly what to do, I twisted his arm so he yelped in pain and I used my free hand to uppercut him in the nose, causing him to grab his nose in pain, dropping his gun on the floor. I did a 360 spin hook kick, straight into his face, and he let out a cry of pain. I kneed him in the balls, he cried out again, and then I jumped up, kicking him in the chest, making him fall to the ground. I grabbed the gun from the floor and I shot him in the head. I turned around at the women around me, chucked them the set of keys he had attached to his belt and said, "stay here." Gina caught them, and stood up, kicking the dead body of the guard. I went outside the room and saw guards running towards me from the left and the right. I ducked back into the room, then, using the door frame as my cover, proceeded to shoot down the guards on either side, until a pile of men lay on each side, about ten metres from the door.

I could hear more shouting and arguing, and I followed the voices, hoping to find Domenico so I could put a bullet straight between his eyes. I slowly went up a set of stairs which led into a corridor, and I burst into the first room I saw, shooting a man who was raping a woman in there. I told her to stay there until the coast was clear, and I moved to the next rooms, killing every man I saw.

"YOU!" roared a voice from behind me. I span around, and there he was, Domenico, in all his glory. I lifted my gun, got his head perfectly in shot, and just as I put my hand on the trigger, I was knocked out by a huge bang on the head by someone behind me.