My Personal Hell - D. Richardson (read with me .txt) 📗

I was just sitting there zoning out when she finally emerged. She was pale, and had to use the wall for support, but other than that she seemed whole. She didn’t say anything as she went to the sink and downed two glasses of water. After that I left to go get her car.

Horror filled me as I took a look inside. There was blood all over the right side of the drivers seat. A blood soaked towel was thrown onto the floor board. As if it had soaked up so much that it was no longer of any use. I took the car to the car wash and cleaned as much as of it as I could. By the time I was done, it was as clean as I could get it and the smell was gone.

She left almost as soon as I got back. Neither one of us really knowing what to say.

Ailith

It took a week and a half for that damn bullet hole to heal. By the time it was done I had one more scar to add to the rest. But this one was different. This was earned not forced on me.

I got it while I was tiptoeing around the crudelus mansion. They were never very good at filing or staying organized, so it was only a matter of finding the paperwork. It took me longer than anticipated because I stumbled across our old sale agreements. My father was dumb enough to sign a damn contract, proof that he was selling me into slavery. The other parents weren’t too bright either, having done the same thing.

But right next to it were three brand new contracts, for three brand new girls. These were younger, the oldest being twelve and the youngest was five. According to the date of sale, they had gotten them just a month or so after we left. The paperwork for the school wasn’t far from them along with all of the identification required to prove Van’s identity. Like I said, they weren’t very bright. In their eagerness to make sure everything was legally binding they completely disregarded that what they were doing was illegal.

I grabbed all of it, stuffing it into my bag before moving from the office back to the hallway, where I had gotten in. But I couldn’t leave. I couldn’t leave the girls down there. So I went straight instead of turning left. I made it down to the basement without any complications.

There was padlock on the door. It looked like they had gotten smarter after all. It was time that I got to use one of my birthday presents. I took a slender knife from one of the sheaths I had brought with me. After sticking the tip in I pulled back and jammed the blade in as far as I could. The lock snapped and I opened the door.

The beds were in the same spots. Three girls looked up from fear, the youngest jumped up on her knees, while the other two curled in on themselves. The middle child couldn’t have been more than nine. I looked at the oldest, seeing the same fear and resolution I had held not too long ago. I moved forward, part of me wondered why they didn’t go to each other. It wasn’t long before I figured it out. They were cuffed to the beds.

They weren’t risking their escape this time. It was easy enough to break the slim metal around their wrists. They didn’t make a sound I started with the youngest. She stared up with me with big blue scared eyes. Unfortunately, breaking metal makes a lot of sound. I could hear the Others stomp around on the floor above.

I picked the youngest up, putting her on my hip with the bag. The other two stood next to me, holding hands. I told them to keep up and stay quiet, they merely nodded. And then we were out, running when we heard the men yell. We got outside without injury, the younger two running ahead of me into the woods. My car was parked just on the other side of the trees. As I was running I felt a sharp pain in my side, just above my hip, but I didn’t slow. I just kept going, the little girl hiding her face in my shoulder, her whimpers reaching me.

We barely reached my car before they caught up. I had covered my plates, just in case they followed me to it. I couldn’t let them track me down, otherwise all of it was for not. I shoved the youngest in the back with the second oldest, while the oldest hopped into the passenger seat. I drove away, the adrenaline was pumping and I didn’t feel the pain anymore.

“You, you’re bleeding,” the oldest said, panting.

I looked down, sure enough the right side of my body was soaked in blood. I swore softly and told the girl to open the glove box. She handed me the towel I kept in there and I told her to press it to my wound. I was shaking too badly to hold it still and drive. We drove for an hour before any of us said anything.

“Why did you save us?” the oldest asked, folding the towel to get a clean spot, her hands were sure and her voice was even.

“I used to be you.” She didn’t say anything else after that.

I waited until I was sure we were off their territory before I pulled over at a police station. I dug the girls’ sale agreements out of the bag, along with all of their information. And handed it all to the oldest.

“Go inside, find an officer, ask to speak with the captain. Don’t talk to anyone else until he gets here.” She nodded, taking in my every word. “Give him these, tell him everything.” Again she nodded and they climbed out. The littlest hung onto the eldest’s leg as I watched them walk hand in hand into the building.

I waited for five minutes, to make sure that they did just kick them out. If they did I would just take them to another station. But when I saw an older balding man speed onto the parking lot and rush inside I knew they would be taken care of, and I left.

About halfway home my adrenaline faded, and the pain set in. By the time I made it to the theatre I could barely breath. But this pain I relished, this pain I got fighting back. When Sadler made me promise not to make him do that again, I felt sadness well up. Not because he didn’t want to help me, but because I wasn’t sure it was a promise I could keep.

Once the wound was healed, and I had my brand new scar I made a decision, and disappeared on everyone for a while. Just a few hours, before I was back with a whole new bandage over where the other one had been. No one knew about it, my clothes covered it well. And no one asked where I had been.

It was nice to be able to do something for myself, and not have to worry about what others would do in retaliation. But then it was back to work. We had six weeks before the sale was final, and everything had to be perfect if it was going to work the way I needed it too.

Practice was brutal. All of the stunts mixed in the dance routines, and then the music itself. All of us had a job and all of us did our very best. Pushing ourselves until we were ready to drop.

The school officials amped up the pressure, calling in groups of students every hour. But oddly enough all of us who were involved, weren’t worried. Just annoyed because they were taking us from our studies.

They finally decided to call me in. Several of my friends had fear written all over their faces. It was only safe to assume that they had figured us out. But in reality, I was just the last student that they had talked too.

“Young lady, what is going on with the students?” the principal asked for the fifth time.

“I have no idea,” I answered, pulling out all the stops for my acting ability. In a weird way, it was kind of fun.

“Come on, no matter what is going on you will not be implicated. You’re not in any trouble. You keep to yourself, your GPA is rivaling that of the current valedictorian. You don’t cause trouble. We just want to save the trouble makers from making a big mistake,” his voice was soft as though he were talking to a…well a child.

“I wish I could help you, Sir. But I don’t know anything.” He tried for another hour, thinking that I was the only one who they hadn’t talked to yet, I had to know something. But he finally gave up, right about lunch time.

A few weeks before the performance I finally found a little down time. Everything was prepared, and we were just doing the final rehearsals. So I sat on the couch, not far from Becca who was channel surfing. Then a picture of three girls flashed across the screen.

“Wait! Go back,” I said as I sat forward. Sure enough it was the same three girls that I got shot helping. Drake and Sadler had just been walking by to the door when I spoke and they popped their heads in to find out what I was so interested in. It was a major news station. The story headlined as slave trading in the US.

The three girls were said to have escaped their captors’ home roughly six months after their parents sold them. The parents were currently under investigation, as are the men that bought them. The prosecutors were optimistic as they had undeniable evidence. I couldn’t help the small smile that played over my face as I leaned back.

“You didn’t have anything to do with this did you?” Drake asked. I looked over at him. He looked worried, where as Sadler looked at me with understanding.

“I wish I had,” I answered, Sadler made his goodbyes as I went up to my room.

Drake

“I’m sorry, Sir. But we haven’t found any clues as to who is behind the benefit,” Alex muttered. I swore quietly.

Whoever was behind this rebelliousness had to answer for their disobedience. It was made clear over the past months that a human wasn’t responsible for the mayhem this so called performance was creating in city hall. It had to be a wolf, that’s the only explanation for them having escaped notice so far. I was pretty sure we were looking at an adult. It wasn’t likely that a bunch of teenagers could pull all of this off. At least not and keep their mouths shut about it.

We had the best interest of the town in mind, we weren’t just trying to pad our pockets. But most of the people wouldn’t understand that. All they would see was that we were damaging their children’s education. It really only left me with one solution.

The benefit was said to be planned for a week from today.