Chapter 45
Chapter Forty-Five
Eva
I woke with a sharp inhale, the sound echoing in the dark room.
Water dripped somewhere, but I didn’t move to look.
I remained still in bed. The sheets under my hand felt cold.
A dull ache throbbed at the back of my neck, and I lifted a trembling hand to rub it.
I blinked around the dark room, adjusting my eyes.
A small lamp sat in the far corner, illuminating cement walls and a door that led somewhere.
Where was I? I pushed myself up to sit, feeling the aches all over my body.
Fear knotted my stomach, and my heart raced with apprehension.
Despite the anxiety, I forced myself to remain calm.
Who were those men? I should’ve been more careful, more aware of my surroundings.
It didn’t even occur to me that the old woman might be in disguise.
When I saw her, it reminded me of the thief who had taken my purse.
My grandfather could’ve been that woman.
A cough made me jump. I turned toward the sound, blinking into the darkness. The drip of water resonated louder. When my eyes adjusted, I saw two young women—probably my age—huddled in the corner. But I couldn’t see their features clearly.
Had they been kidnapped like me?
“What’s your name?” I swung my legs over the side of the bed. Pins and needles shot through them, and I massaged my thighs, hoping for the numbness to fade. “Are you okay?”
One girl reached for something, and I heard a click. Then the tall lamp by their bedside flicked on, casting more light into the room with no windows. The door I had seen was probably a bathroom or closet because the main door was closer to me.
“You’re bleeding,” said the girl with black hair tied up in a ponytail. She gestured to my right foot. “Your ankle.”
I glanced down, nudged my sock aside, and noticed a gash with dried blood on it. I faintly remembered my foot hitting something in the van.
The woman with the ponytail sat on a queen-sized bed. “I’m Avery, and this is Hailey.” She turned to the woman sitting beside her with straight blonde hair.
They smiled at me, got off the bed, and lifted the mattress, retrieving a small packet.
Avery pulled out a cotton ball, a small bottle of liquid, and a bandage. She walked over and sat down beside me on the twin bed.
“How did they kidnap you?” She squirted the liquid onto the cotton ball, and the smell of rubbing alcohol eased the nerves in my stomach.
Hailey pushed down my sock gently, exposing the gash.
“I was trying to help an old woman, but she turned out to be a man in disguise.” Embarrassment warmed my face. “They stabbed my neck with a needle and covered my mouth with a cloth.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “I should’ve been more careful.”
“It’s hard to know how to react during those scary moments.” Hailey offered a comforting smile.
“What about you?” I looked at them. “How were you kidnapped?”
“We were out celebrating my birthday,” said Avery. “Then two men approached our table and offered us free tickets to a comedy show in town. When we got to our cars, they came to say goodbye and stabbed us each with a needle too.”
I flinched when Avery dabbed the cotton ball on my wound.
“That was a year ago,” Hailey said.
“A year ago?” Terror knotted my stomach. I couldn’t be here for another day, never mind a year. My grandfather would worry himself to death. His health would decline. I wouldn’t see Kain again.
Dread clutched my heart at that thought. I wanted more time with him. Kain had to know I was missing when he didn’t see me in the drugstore. He had to be searching for me, right? But how could he know where I was?
Tears welled in my eyes as I remembered our last conversation. I was angry with him for something he didn’t know.
“Take it one day at a time.” Hailey patted my thigh. “I’m sure your family is looking for you. I know our families are still looking for us too.” She looked at Avery and then around the room with defeat in her eyes. “Escaping from here isn’t easy.”
“We have to try. I can’t be here for a year.”
Avery and Hailey exchanged glances.
“That’s what we told each other too,” Hailey said. “But days turned into weeks. And weeks turned into months.”
“We’re still hopeful,” Avery said. “Just do as they say, and you’ll be fine.”
“What are they going to make me do?” An icy chill crawled down my spine.
“I think you’re replacing Connie,” Hailey said.
“What happened to her?”
“She tried to escape . . .” A sob caught in Avery’s throat. “And they killed her.”
Nausea writhed in my stomach. Who were these people?
“You’ll be doing all kinds of things for them. Administrative things and . . . moving and packaging organs.”
“Like human organs?” I asked in a shaky voice.
The two women nodded.
“We puked every night for the first week,” Avery admitted.
Fear swept over me, and I sat, letting my body absorb this horrid reality. The adjustment would prepare me for whatever horrors were waiting around the corner. Kain’s past surfaced in my head, and anxiety stiffened my shoulders. This was what he’d experienced.
“They’re also sex trafficking,” Hailey said. “I saw men escorting some of the women into an unfamiliar room. I heard crying and screaming and pleading. And the next day, they were gone.”
“I heard a client liked Connie, so Tony agreed to sell her. She was still here with us in the complex when he told her the news. Connie begged to go home, but she didn’t make it through the maze.”
“A maze?”
“If they catch you escaping, they usually kill you. But sometimes they give you a chance to escape if you beg them enough. I think it’s their sick way of traumatizing you before they kill you. There’s no escape.” Terror filled Avery’s eyes. “The maze is in the woods. It’s filled with deadly traps.”
The more the women talked, the more helpless I felt. Kain’s horrible experience flashed into my memory. The fear that had overwhelmed him was doing the same to me. He had to escape through a maze too. How could I escape?
Despite the doubts, I had to stay positive. I held Kain’s face in my vision. Love filled my chest, followed by sadness. He needed to know how I felt about him, that I was sorry for doubting him. I should have confessed my love to him, because from the look of things, I might not get another chance.
Don’t give up just yet.
I was about to ask them who oversaw this place when noises sounded outside the door.
Avery placed a finger to her lips and rushed back to bed with Hailey. Avery grabbed a book on the nightstand while Hailey took a brush to her hair.
A man with brown hair entered, glanced at the women, and turned his attention to me.
He stood about five-eleven and wore dark pants with a T-shirt that showed off his tattoos, but they weren’t as intricate as those on Kain.
Kain also had more muscles than this man.
At first, I didn’t recognize him, but when he smiled, my heart plummeted.
He was the man who had ordered the pots of bleeding hearts.
“It’s you, William Bell,” I said, my heart racing. “The one who loves bleeding hearts.”
“Hello, Eva. You’re so perceptive. Call me Tony.” He stepped closer, staring at me with intense eyes that sent a whisper of a chill across my skin. “Nice to have you join the organization. You’re going to help us harvest these beautiful bleeding hearts.”
“Why?” I asked, referring to why he wanted me to harvest flowers.
But he wasn’t thinking that. “Because they’re my favorite flower.”
I knew I shouldn’t ask, but the question came out anyway. “Are you the man murdering women and placing bleeding heart flowers in their hands?”
“It’s not murder,” he said with a straight face. “I’m sending them off to the afterlife. They’re at peace now.”
I opened my mouth to retort but closed it when I realized something wasn’t right with him.
“Let’s go. I’ll show you the greenhouse, and then you get to help the others package some products.” He glanced at Avery and Hailey. “You’re responsible for teaching Eva and making sure she adjusts well. If she fails, you fail.” A smirk crept onto his face. “You don’t want that to happen, do you?”
“No, Tony,” Avery and Hailey said together.