“You’re not going anywhere,” Brian said. The rattle of keys and metal clicking shut—they’d brought a padlock. Sounds of a struggle, a muffled scream, then footsteps walking away.
I sank to my knees, staring hard at the door as if I could see through it, sobbing in big painful gasps that shook my body, my head filled with frantic thoughts. Where were my sisters? Were they going to kill them?
Finally I heard footsteps. I scrambled back to my spot on the wall, straining to hear something, anything, that would tell me if my sisters were okay.
Gavin opened the door and walked in with Courtney, his hand on her upper arm partly holding her up—her wrists were still tied behind her back. In the other he held the lantern. A trickle of blood dripped from her nose and she walked in a painful lurch. One cheek was slapped red, the outline of a handprint still visible.
He pushed her to the floor and she crumpled to one side, shivers going through her body. Her lips were bruised and swollen. I tried to meet her gaze, but her eyes filled with tears and she looked away. Gavin was sweaty, out of breath.
He knelt in front of her.
“You keep me satisfied like that and maybe I’ll stay away from little sister.” He reached out and tucked a hair behind her ear.
Brian came through the door, dragging Dani behind. She was walking stiffly, angry red marks around her neck like he’d been gripping hard.
Her face was pale, but her eyes were furious.
“Get them some more water,” Brian said.
I looked up at him. His face was cold, his body language aggressive as he towered over us, but he’d told Gavin to get water. Did he feel bad? I searched his face but I couldn’t see anything other than hatred. I glanced back at my sisters. Dani was also glaring up at him, but Courtney had her head resting against her knees, her body a tight ball.
“Why don’t you get it?” Gavin said.
Brian spun around. “I told you to fucking get them some water.”
Gavin’s face flushed. “Fuck you, Brian.” But he left, coming back with a water jug. He topped up the pail.
“Get them a bucket to shit in,” Brian said.
“Why can’t they just go on the floor?” Gavin said, angry again.
Brian grabbed the front of his shirt. “Just fucking do it!”
Gavin brushed off his hand, his face enraged, but he left and came back this time with a big white plastic pail, dropped it in the corner of the room.
“See you tomorrow, girls,” Brian said.
They gathered up our packsacks and left.
*
We sat in the dark—they’d taken the lantern.
“Dani? Courtney?” I whispered.
“I’m okay,” Dani said, but her voice sounded tight and strained.
I could only hear sobs from where Courtney was sitting. I crawled closer to the sound, blind in the dark, leaned my body against hers.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” I said, my voice cracking, tears building in the back of my throat. “We’re going to get out of here.” Courtney only cried harder.
CHAPTER NINE
We spent hours over the next couple of days trying to undo our ties. We kicked the wall and door, scrabbled at them with our fingers. We paced the room or slumped on the floor, our bodies slick with sweat, staring up at the gap trying to breathe in fresh air that the heat would just steal right back out of our lungs.
At night they’d return, force-feed us peanut butter sandwiches, and sometimes strawberries or pieces of apple. They never untied us. Gavin looked impatient, but Brian seemed to like feeding us, his expression fascinated as if we were a science project. When we were done, they’d take Courtney and Dani away. They traded girls the second night, then back again the next. They each had a lantern now but they never left one in the room, leaving me in the dark. They both also carried rifles, which they used to prod my sisters to their feet, then out of the room. Making them walk to their fate. We were starving, but we never spoke of food. We barely spoke at all. Courtney, her hair matted and tangled, one cheek mottled shades of blue and purple, was silent most of the day, then, as the night came on, she’d start crying so hard she couldn’t get her breath. I tried to sing to her once, tried to remember the words to her favorite song, but she shouted at me.
“Shut up, Jess. Just shut up.”
I cried too, but silently, my face turned away, until she crawled close to me and rested her head on my shoulder.
Dani just stared at the wall, her face a hard angry mask.
Before Brian and Gavin led them out of the room, they liked to taunt them, taunt me. “Remember, girls, you keep working hard and we’ll leave little sister alone.”
I hated what they were doing, hated that they were torturing them because of me. The third night I’d snapped.
“Just take me!”