by S M Olivier
“Did you do this?” I asked Alex.
Alex shook his head. “No, it wasn’t me. I didn’t bring him in. Not like before. Did you bring him like you did with Jaxson?”
“I don’t think so,” I said slowly.
“Show you,” Harry said insistently.
“Yes, show me.” I grabbed Alex’s hands once more.
“It smells in here,” Lincoln commented as he took a position on the other side of me.
“They use the bathroom here,” Alex said glumly.
“Have you been here before?” I asked in shock.
“A couple of times.” Alex frowned as he squeezed my hand tighter.
We left the foul-smelling room and exited into a narrow hallway.
“This way,” Alex stated. He led us down the hall and down some steps.
As we started down the steps, I could hear loud voices yelling at one another. I stopped suddenly and tensed up.
“They can’t see us or hear us,” Alex said with a slight tremor.
“Want to stay here buddy?” Lincoln knelt next to Alex.
Alex looked like he was torn before he nodded. “Can Harry stay with me?”
Lincoln looked up at me.
I nodded. “We can try to do it without them.”
“They’re in the kitchen, the others are downstairs,” Alex said in a small voice.
I wondered why he never vocalized what he saw when he entered Harry’s head. I put Harry down next to Alex. “Stay here, Harry. Okay?”
“Okay,” Harry nodded as he climbed into his brother's lap.
“Ready?” Lincoln asked.
I nodded and was surprised when he took my hand in his. I didn’t pull away because I had a feeling I would need his support even with Jace out there trying to calm us.
We continued down the stairs. I noticed the door to the left, and I assumed it led outside. We walked through the living room; the house didn’t get any cleaner down here. Couches that looked like they belonged in the seventies dominated the space. We went down another hallway and entered a cramped kitchen. Dishes were overflowing the sink. Trash littered the floor and three men sitting, smoking, and playing cards sat at a small card table. The air was so thick with smoke I nearly choked on it.
Nothing seemed amiss with the three men sitting at the table. Other than living in filth and squalor, they looked like they were any other middle-aged men. They wore jeans and T-shirts, and nothing seemed remarkable about them.
“Where are we?” Lincoln asked as he circled the table with barely concealed revulsion.
I shuddered as a giant bug crawled over my foot. “I don’t know.”
“Why are we here again?” Lincoln enquired. “I mean, I know we want to help your…Harry. What I don’t understand is, if his father is a…reader, why can’t he figure out what his son can do?”
I tried to push away my feelings of disgust and fear. I decided to follow his lead. “Our gifts haven’t exactly been textbook. If Greg has never encountered or known someone like us, it’s hard to understand our capabilities. He thinks Harry’s like a dream walker, but it’s hard to say.”
“What time did we begin this?” Lincoln inquired after a few minutes of silence. He paused to look at a receipt attached to a large paper bag. It seemed like the bags you got for takeout.
“I would say a little before eight. Why?” I queried, moving towards him.
“This receipt was from today. The time stamp on here says six forty-four,” Lincoln explained before he put an arm around my shoulders.
Again, I didn’t push him away. “Are we in El Paso, Texas? What kind of dream is this vivid?”
Suddenly there was a massive crash, as a door reverberated from off the wall by the back door. I didn’t even know a door was there. I jumped, and Lincoln pulled me in closer.
“Remember they can’t see us or hear us,” Lincoln reminded me.
I nodded as I willed my heart to slow down.
“What time are they coming?” the man who busted through the door asked.
He was a tall, lanky man. He wore a wifebeater and jeans that hung off his thin hips. His boxers were hanging out from the top of his jeans. His ears were too big for his head, with large ear gauges making them stretch even further. Tattoos covered his neck, arms, and fingers. He looked nothing like his…friends.
I looked up at Lincoln with a raised brow. “Which one of these is not like the other one?”
He barely stifled a laugh. “Really?”
“I’ve come to realize the more I’m around Jaxson or Noah, the more I want to joke in high-stress situations.” I shrugged ruefully.
“We told you, soon,” one of the men sitting around the table said, inhaling deeply from his cigarette. “Relax man.”
“The drugs are wearing off, and we don’t have anymore,” the man yelled. “Tell them we need an early pickup.”
I heard a cry from down below. Suddenly, I was assaulted with a feeling of fear that wasn’t my own.
“We need to go downstairs,” I swallowed past the thick knot in my throat.
Lincoln nodded before he took my hand in his once more. A lead weight settled in the pit of my stomach. Something didn’t feel right. Who was drugged and who was supposed to be coming?
“Did you know that over fourteen thousand people are trafficked into the US every year?” Lincoln queried in a low voice, leading me towards the door the man had just opened.
“Do you think this is what that is?” I asked hoping he was wrong.
“It makes sense,” Lincoln responded quietly.
We passed the man, and out of curiosity, I reached out to touch him. I could feel him as if I were literally touching him, but he didn’t respond.
Lincoln raised an eyebrow before he pulled me down the steps. I hesitated once more as I looked at the stairs leading down to the basement. When I was younger, one of boys in the group home I was in had a morbid curiosity about horror movies and serial killer documentaries. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed an excellent documentary and horror flick, but he took it a step further. He would watch them repeatedly. He would study them like he was taking notes.
One of the films he made me watch over and over and over again was People Under the Stairs. The movie creeped me out, yes. But what really scared me all these years is what that boy in the group home did to one of the other girls there, and it scarred me for life.
He used to hide under the basement stairs, waiting for one of us to come down to do our laundry. One day, he was able to grab one of the girl’s ankles, and she fell down the stairs. Luckily, she only broke her arm, but he scared her into silence. I had been leery of stairs with open or no risers ever since then. I was terrified someone would be lurking under them.
A horrid stench assaulted my senses, and I gagged bringing me out of my reverie. I held a hand to my stomach and one to my mouth.
“Put your face in your shirt,” Lincoln gently bade me. “It helps a little,” he said in a muffled voice. “What happened to you that made you fear the dark and hate stairs?”
We continued down the steps, and I cringed when the steps creaked. “Nothing,” I said too quickly.
“One day you’ll talk to me,” he said confidently, showing me the man I first met. Since we had made our connection, we both seemed to be treading carefully around each other.
“Maybe,” I said flippantly.
I had to stifle a scream when tattoo man came back down the steps and moved right through us, ending our conversation…for now.
We reached the bottom of the steps, and I cried out. Lincoln encircled me in a hug once more.
Men, women, and children were chained up on a concrete floor. There were about ten of them. They were filthy and covered in their own bodily fluids. A single light bulb with a pull-down chain attached to it illuminated the space
“This is real, isn’t this?” I whispered in horror.
“I think it is,” Lincoln replied grimly.
“What do we do?” I lean
ed my head into his shoulder. “And how did you know the stats on human trafficking?”
At that moment I didn’t care that we had just met. I didn’t care that there was an awkwardness between us that I didn’t know how to bridge.
“We need to figure out where we are precisely, then determine how we can free them.” Lincoln rubbed my back. “And one of the foundations I’m a part of help with runaway teens. A lot of them find themselves in situations like this.”
I didn’t want to admire Lincoln, but he was making it harder for me not to. Jemmy did a lot, and I mean a lot, of stalking on her celebrity crush. She never told me about this foundation, so I was under the impression that he did it out of the kindness of his heart and not for notoriety or kudos.
“How can we free them?” I asked in frustration.
“Earlier,” Lincoln said after a few moments of silence. “You talked to all of us in our heads. Can you do that right now?”
“I can try,” I said tentatively. “I mean, we’re in Harry’s head with the help of Alex, but stranger things have happened.”
I closed my eyes trying to ignore the things around me.
Remy, I called out in my head.
Nothing.
Jace
Nothing.
I opened my eyes and looked at him in frustration. Tears filled my eyes.
“Can we go back and let them know what we’re seeing?” I asked.
“We don’t have any time,” Lincoln said grimly. “We have to act fast.”
Tattoo man was plying alcohol to the people chained to the floor and walls. Their heads bobbled listlessly. Only one boy around Micah’s age seemed to be fighting the man. The man got angry and backhanded him before stomping off again.
His greasy black locks fell in his eyes. He looked like he was Hispanic and his resemblance to Kade broke my heart.
“Help me,” the boy cried in despair, his accent thick. His voice barely a croak. “Ayúdame.”
“I’m trying,” I cried as I knelt beside him.
He stopped and blinked. “Who’s there?”
I looked at him in shock. “You can hear me?”
He didn’t respond. I sighed and then I took a deep breath and compelled my thoughts to him.
He nodded once more. “Dónde estás?”
My Spanish was rudimentary at best, but I understood him. “How did you get here? Inglès, por favor.”
“They will sell us,” the boy said weakly, hopelessly.
“I’m going to help you,” I promised him before closing my eyes once more.
“Call Jaxson,” Lincoln said tentatively. “You guys were able to talk to each other long before you were able to hear or talk to the others.”
I smiled at him. “That’s brilliant. Let me try.”
Jaxson, I pushed my thoughts to him.
Blake, Jaxson said in relief. How are you? How are you doing this?
I’m okay…And I have no clue. I answered him. Listen, I need your help. Tell Pops he needs to call whoever he needs to, but I need cops sent to where we are in real time. Standby, okay?
Be careful, honey, Jaxson insisted.
They can’t hear or see me, I reassured him.
“We need to find out where we are,” I insisted.
“Let’s go,” Lincoln said with a small smile.
We ran back up the steps. Lincoln went back over to the takeout bag, and I decided to try and run outside to get a house number. I ran towards the door.
“It doesn’t open,” Alex whispered out to me.
I yelped and looked over my shoulder. I forgot they were even there.
“We tried,” Alex stated. “We need to find another way out for them, and I just heard that man answer a phone. They’re almost here.”
I nodded and ran back to the kitchen. “Anything?” I asked Lincoln. “Those people are on the way.”
Lincoln slammed his palm on the counter and bugs skittered away, and I nearly squealed in surprise.
“Sorry,” he said as he ran his hand over his shorn head. “Nothing. I don’t think they even live here. No bills, nothing to indicate where we are. Just this receipt for this restaurant. It looks like they ordered delivery. If you look out the window, it looks like we’re near train tracks and there’s a billboard sign over there advertising for a strip club called Divas and Diamonds.”
“It’s not much, but if they enlist Darren’s help I’m sure our people might get pretty close, right?” I asked hopefully. “Most delivery places have a certain distance they can deliver to.”
“I’m sure they can figure it out,” Lincoln stated reassuringly. “You’re lucky Darren is one of the good guys because he’s brilliant. Scary genius, even, and if I were Jaxson, I would definitely be watching my back.”
Chapter 23
The front door opened, and three men came strolling into the room. “Are they ready?”
“When you are,” one of the men playing at the table said, standing up. “Did you bring the stuff? It may be necessary.”
“We got it. Where’s Cheddar? Tell him to give it to them. The buyers are expecting them soon, ” the man responded.
Jaxson I called out in my head.
Blake, he responded in relief.
Remember when we were looking for Miranda? I asked him. We might need Darren to figure out where we are. I don’t have an address, but there’s a human trafficking ring here. They plan to move them soon.
Give me the details, Jaxson said immediately.
I peered out of the window Lincoln was looking out of. We’re in a run-down neighborhood, I explained. In the backyard, approximately fifty feet from the property line are train tracks. There’s a billboard sign advertising a strip club called Diva’s and Diamonds nearby, and they got food delivery from No. 1 Chinese, and their address is…I rattled off the address on the receipt.
Okay, Jaxson said. I’ll get this information to Darren, and I’ll let you know what's going on. And Blake?
Yes, I inquired.
I love you, he said. Be safe.
Love you, too, I responded. I am.
“Let’s get the kids,” I insisted to Lincoln before I took off running towards the stairs, swerving around the men.
“What’s your plan?” Lincoln asked as he followed me.
“More like a prayer,” I told him. “I think we need to be by the victims, and I don’t want to be that far from the children. I want to be able to see if they give us any indications where we are.”
I spotted the kids then. “Okay… Harry and Alex, let’s go,” I scooped Harry up. “Put your head on my shoulder. No peeking. Okay?”
He nodded, and I took off in the direction we had just come from. “If my gifts work here, maybe I can compel them,” I stated.
“It won’t work,” Alex stated glumly from Lincoln’s arms. “I can’t even look in their heads.”
“It’s worth a try,” I insisted. “I was able to talk to Jaxson.”
I stopped short when I got back to the kitchen. “Where are we?” I asked the man closest to me.
He started and looked around but then went back to grabbing chains from a duffel bag off the floor.
“Where are we!” I insisted.
He frowned looking around once more.
Great, just great! He could hear me, but I couldn’t compel him to talk to me.
“What’s wrong, man?” one of the other men asked.
“Nothing. I just need some sleep,” the first man stated with a shake of his head. “I thought I heard−” he shook his head once more. “Never mind.”
“What are we going to do?” I asked in desolation.
“What about your other gifts?” Lincoln inquired.
“One way to find out,” I told him as an idea popped in my head. “Let’s go!” I took off running down the steps.
Two men were busy placing rags on the victim's faces. I assumed it was chloroform. I looked around desperately. There were only two exits. There were the stairs, and then there was a
storm door leading outside, but it seemed like it had a padlock on it.
“Can you hold him?” I asked Lincoln, holding out Harry to him.
“Close your eyes buddy,” Lincoln stated before reaching for him.
I know it was silly for us to tell them to close their eyes. Afterall, they had already seen them, but they didn’t need to be scarred further.
I closed my eyes reaching deep within. I drew from the anger boiling away in my gut. I held my hand up in a split decision and hoped it worked. I threw a fireball at the old wooden stairs. I watched in satisfaction as the flames hungrily licked at the old wood.
The men cried out in horror, yelling curses. I saw them wavering between the hostages and watching the stairs.
“We need to bring them,” tattoo guy insisted.
“We can’t!” the other man stated before he tried to navigate the stairs going up. “We don’t have time.”
Tattoo man cursed out in frustration. “We need to make the delivery. We need the money!”
“What the hell is going on down there?” one of the men from upstairs called down. “Hey, we need water!” he then called behind him.
The smoke from the stairs assaulted my lungs. I coughed. “Not good,” I muttered.
The kids started to cough, and I felt panic rise within. Protect them, I thought as I heard the hostages begin to hack, too. The wood was producing a lot of smoke, and it only got worse when the men from above tried to douse it out.
I held my hands up and imagined encompassing all of us in a protective shield. Within seconds the shield was erected.
“Now what?” Lincoln asked.
“Now we wait,” I stated as I took a seat next to the boy who I had spoken with earlier.
Jaxson, I called out. I set the house on fire.
I watched in worry as the flames continued to spread.
What, Blake?! What do you mean you set the house on fire? Get out of there! Jaxson called back in worry.
It’s a long story and I can’t, I replied grimly. But don’t worry, I put a shield up.
Why can’t you just leave? Jaxson asked in frustration.
Well…I said ruefully. All the people are drugged, and we can’t leave this house. It’s kind of freaky, I admitted.
