Gabriele's Girl

Sera

I clutched the sheet to my chest as a young woman entered the room. She was dressed in a pale blue uniform of some kind, her mousy brown hair pulled away from her face. I knew as soon as I laid eyes on her that my hopes of a rescue were foolish.

She held a tray of food in one hand and a plastic bag in the other.

“Hi.” She didn’t look me in the eyes when she spoke. Instead, she kept her gaze fixed on the tray of food. “I brought you something to eat and change into.”

“I need out of here,” I said, “not food and clothes.”

A guard moved into place outside the door as she closed it behind her. My heart fell into my stomach as a crushing weight settled there. What lengths would he go to in order to make sure I didn’t set one toe out of this prison? Was he waiting for his turn with me, like Gabriele had promised him? How patient a man could he be? Would he wait? Or if he saw an opportunity… I shook my head, scattering my thoughts. I couldn’t focus on every little threat right now. There were too many stacked against me, closing in, suffocating me. I took a slow breath.

“I’ll get you some new sheets, too. And a blanket,” the woman said as she walked to the other side of the room and set my food on a wooden crate. She pointed to a showerhead sticking out of the wall that I hadn’t noticed before. “The water is always cold, but I found you some shampoo and some soap. It’s lemon scented.” She said that last part like she’d done me a favor.

I noticed her voice sounded almost slurred, like she had hard time pronouncing the words. It wasn’t until she stepped back into the light that I noticed her cracked front teeth and the healing, greenish yellow bruises on her face. Her nose was slightly off kilter from more than one break.

Oh God. I’m in Hell.

“You should try to eat,” she coaxed, giving me a sympathetic look as she started pulling things out of the plastic bag. She stepped toward me holding a worn-out, stained terry cloth robe, but I stepped back. Her eyes wandered over my neck, and she let out her breath. “I’m sorry you’re here.”

“How do I get out?”

“You can’t.” She stared at me with unblinking pity. “You really can’t. They all try, you know. There’s nothing—nothing that can be done at this point.”

“Is he going to kill me?  Please just… tell me the truth.”

“Are you sure you want to know?”

“Yes.” I took the robe from her and put it on quickly, thankful for the coverage. My skin was chilled to the touch, and it was a welcome warmth even though I was sure I wasn’t the only woman in this position to have worn this same robe.

We were just playthings to him.

“It’s going to be easier for you if you… submit to him,” she breathed, wincing. “It won’t hurt as much.”

“I-I can’t let him do that to me—”

“You don’t have much of a choice here. You weren’t his first. There have been many.”

“Where is he now?” I sensed that she was starting to pull away, that she realized she’d said too much.

She licked dry lips, then finally met my eyes. “I don’t know much. I’m just a… a maid, but—but some of the guards were talking about something that happened at one of his warehouses. A raid, maybe. I don’t know for sure. You need to eat—”

“I can’t,” I said, the tremor in my voice easing. A sudden, strange calm swept over me as I let reality rush in. “I’m going to die here, right?”

“Yeah… I don’t know when, but normally he… grows a little tired of the girls. It doesn’t matter if you fight or not. He likes it when you’re scared. When he grows tired of you, he likes to watch the guards… sharing you.”

“Oh, God.” I sank onto the mattress, no longer caring about the grime all over the sheet or the deeds that had been done here.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, choking on the words.

“Does he do that to you?”

“No.” She shook her head and looked down at her feet. “Not him.”

I rolled my lower lip between my teeth, closing my eyes. So, she was for the guards, I guessed. Was her fate any better than mine? To be trapped here, unable to leave? To have her body be used at every turn and not even have the sweet release of death to look forward to?

“He’s gone for now but you’re not safe here, alright? Trying to escape is futile. There are guards at every door in this place.”

“Will I ever leave this room?”

“No, no one does.”

I no longer felt the biting pain of the handcuffs on my wrists or the numbness in my hands and toes from the cold. The sound of my own heartbeat thudded in my ears, a constant reminder that all I had left was my life. But for how long? I would die here, at the hands of a monster, and once I was cold and gone, my friends would search for me forever. They would never have answers. Jim… Emma… my eyes burned and I bit down on the inside of my cheek, trying to keep the tears at bay as I imagined my friends hanging missing posters, harassing corrupt police departments to search for me, and pleading with news outlets to run my story after I was old news and they’d moved on to the next thing. The next tragedy.

When I finally found my voice, it didn’t sound like my own. “Thank you for being honest with me.”

“I’m sorry.” She turned for the door but then stopped before knocking to alert the guards she needed to come out. “If you don’t shower, he’ll wash you himself, just so you know. He will be… more thorough than necessary.”

I nodded. The door swung open with a groan, and I watched as she gave the guard a wide berth when she passed through. His eyes moved up and down the length of her body before flicking in my direction. His lips curled up in a sneer, but the door sealed shut, and I was spared whatever fresh hell he might have wreaked upon me. For now, at least.

I curled into the fetal position on the mattress and pressed my knees into my chest. I couldn’t eat even if I tried, even if I wanted to. My stomach twisted into a tight, painful knot. Amongst the stench of stale air, mold, and wet concrete, I caught a whiff of the lemon soap. It smelled like it didn’t belong. Neither did I.

Suddenly falling into the clutches of my brother’s killer seemed like fucking paradise compared to this hell I was living in.

But I would find a way out of this. I would. I had to believe I’d make it out. I would take the first opportunity I had to wrap my hands around his flabby neck and twist until he took his last breath, even if it killed me in the process.

I’d be the last woman he’d force himself upon here. My blood would be the last thing to seep into this filthy mattress, and I’d take him with me straight to hell.

I must have fallen asleep because, when I woke to the sound of the door opening, my body felt somewhat refreshed. Hunger blurred my senses for a moment as I blinked into the green light of the room. A man entered and shut the door behind him. I listened to the way he breathed, to the sound of his gait as his boots squished across the wet concrete. I knew it was him.

“Bella,” Gabriele said in a low, hungry growl. “Let’s finish what we started.”