One #2
Nandi eyes the ajar door through all of this, glancing back to me as though weighing her options.
I shake my head in quick, tight movements.
“I ain’t got time for you to fuck around.
” Our captor hauls Mary-Beth upright, her stiff body moving like a flimsy board.
“The fuck?” The man drops her back to the floor with the kind of thud I’m not going to forget, and then swiftly rolls her left to right to check her over.
Blood comes away on his wide palm before he slowly returns to his full height and turns to face us.
We all wait in suspended states of fear and frustration for what he’ll do next.
Darla glances between Eleanor and the exit, Eleanor frowning as though she’s gone mad.
Sure. He couldn’t take on seven of us at once, but we have no idea what lies beyond that door. How many others are up there. How isolated this place is. What other possible obstacles we’d have to get past.
Knowledge is power, and these fuckers have done a bang-up job of keeping us in the dark.
“Who’s gonna tell me what happened?” His question holds the promise of slow afternoons with heavy fists. “Might be a little bonus in it for you.”
Nobody moves, save for the furtive glances darting between us all as the group evaluates who’ll be the first to break.
“Nobody?” The menace slowly closes the door and then leans his back against it, arms folded high over his barrel chest. I eye his receding hairline and graying ponytail, thin and oily where it hangs over his shoulder.
“You’re all real quiet for a bunch of bitches who just found out their friend is dead. ”
She was nobody’s friend.
“Who did it?” He sounds genuinely amused by the achievement. “Which one of you think you’re better than the rest, huh?”
My heart pounds against the restriction of my ribs, pulverizing itself with the force. Sweat beads on my nape. Who knows the truth? Who’s going to break?
Darla looks genuinely concerned; Mila is scared at her side, clutching her arm. Nandi chews her bottom lip, glancing past the guy’s legs to the now-closed door.
Eleanor stares at the ground before her, arms tightening around a wide-eyed Kid.
I take Kathy’s hand to ground her.
“Who fucking killed her!” The guy’s roar shakes the room, jolting Nandi and Mila where they sit and making Eleanor’s head snap up.
“What if nobody knows how it happened?” Eleanor asks. “What if Mary-Beth did it to herself?”
“You expect me to believe she just bashed her goddamn head against the ground until she killed herself and none of you knew about it?” He laughs, sinister and dark. “Try again, lady.”
“Maybe she did?” I protest. “You knew when you put us down here that she was having withdrawals.” I glance to the track marks on her arms as I add, “What if it made her crazy enough to do that without meaning to?” Lord knows, it made her crazy enough to think she could trade information for drugs with the monsters.
“You bitches are all full of nothin’ but bullshit stories, you know that?” He pushes off the door and stalks toward me, closing the space in two brisk steps. “You were next to her. Didn’t notice her smacking her potato against the fucking ground all night?”
I match his glare. “There are a lot of noises down here at night that I ignore.”
“Pays not to ignore them when they cost me money.”
Of course. Therein lies the truth. He’s worried about losing a sale, not about her life. “You want me to Venmo you the cash? Can I pay it off in monthly installments?”
The back of his hand cracks against my jaw, snapping my head to the left. My hand pulls from Kathy’s with the movement, and I find myself face-to-face with the side of Mary-Beth’s face, tasting blood on my tongue. She would have loved to see him do that.
“Anyone?” he asks again, growing increasingly impatient. “If none of you have any answers, then we need to give you a reason to talk.” He lunges toward Eleanor, grabbing hold of The Kid’s arm and tearing her from the woman’s clutches.
“No!” Eleanor cries, grasping for The Kid’s legs. “You leave her out of this!”
The Kid whimpers—the closest thing she’s done to talking since they shoved her in the back of the van with us.
Nandi slams her hand against the door and rises to her feet, blocking his exit. “Put The Kid down.”
“Out of the way.” He reaches for the handle.
Nandi chops her arm down over his, knocking his grasp off the round knob.
His eyes widen to match hers, equally as shocked at her audacity. His left arm bands tight around the kicking Kid’s middle. “The fuck is this? Some kind of mutiny?” He leers a chilling smile. “You showing me the same attitude that killed someone last night, darlin’?”
I jerk to my feet, but it’s too late.
Nandi balls what moisture is left in her parched mouth and spits in the older man’s face.
The asshole punches her square in the nose, Eleanor lunging for his arm to no avail.
Mila cries out as Nandi crumples to the floor, her unconscious body folding in on itself when the fucker pulls the door open against her and leaves with The Kid, Eleanor hot on his heels, begging for leniency as she chases him out of the cellar.
My stomach roils, and I drop to the ground as I fight the urge to vomit.
She’s only a child.