One Among Us

by Paige Dearth

  Max and Cali then changed the subject and started asking Maggie about some of the books she had read. She read almost three books a week now, and the older teens found her ability to retain information amazing.

  While they were chatting excitedly, none of them knew that Shana had eavesdropped on their entire conversation.

  Chapter Nineteen

  The following week, after returning to her cell, Maggie pulled out the note that Sabrina had slipped into her panties that night. It read: Help is coming.

  Maggie didn’t throw the note down the toilet. Instead, she put the note in the toe of her worn sneaker and went with the group to breakfast. Once back in their cellblock, Maggie sought out Max and Cali. Removing her shoe, she pulled out the note and handed it to Cali.

  “Fuck me,” Cali breathed and handed the note to Max.

  Max’s adrenaline started to pump. They had both experienced empty promises, but Maggie’s optimism had rubbed off on them over the past week.

  “Christ! If this chick is for real, we’re getting the fuck out of here soon. Oh my God, I could just piss my pants right now.” Max’s smile spread over his face. Even his eyes were smiling.

  “So you believe me, right?” Maggie asked with excitement.

  “I sure want to believe it, Maggie. I mean, I ain’t gonna lie to you. I have my doubts. But I haven’t felt this good in a long time. So even if it’s all bullshit, at least I had the chance to feel this good again,” Max said, looking to Cali for encouragement.

  “You’re right, Max,” Cali announced. “Even if this turns out to be nothing, we deserve to enjoy this feeling of liberation for as long as we can.”

  Just then, they heard John William’s heavy footsteps in the hallway. He stopped at Shana’s cell. “Let’s go, girl. We have someone that wants a little afternoon delight.”

  Shana froze. She was tired from the freak who had tied her hands and feet to the bedposts the night before as he repeatedly raped her. He had seemed unable to get enough of her. She was sore and mentally exhausted from the constant torment that her sick clients put her through. She had recently taken to giving John William blow jobs in the cafeteria in exchange for drugs. It was her goal to be high all the time so she didn’t feel the pain and humiliation that accompanied her forced occupation.

  After John William had shut and locked the door to the cellblock, Shana turned to him. “How about if I blow you for some dope?”

  “Nah, that routine is getting old. What else you got?” he asked with authority.

  Shana stammered, “I don’t know, John William. I guess I could let you fuck me now, but the client might know.”

  “Hmmm, what else you got?” he asked, hoping she would offer something kinky, but knowing he could make her do whatever he wanted. He liked it when she pleaded with him for dope; it was an incredible high for him.

  Shana thought hard about what she could offer him. She’d do anything to get drugs from him. She was a hardcore addict now. It got her through the sexual torture she had to endure.

  “Well, I know a secret. Something about Maggie that I can tell you,” Shana offered.

  John William was surprisingly intrigued. “OK. First you blow me, and then you tell me the secret,” he instructed.

  When Shana was finished, she sat on the bathroom floor while John William pulled his pants up. “OK, so what’s the secret you have for me?” he asked.

  “Well, I overhead Maggie telling Cali and Max that there’s a client who is giving her notes. One note said she knew who Maggie was, and the last note said that help was coming,” Shana explained.

  John William’s posture turned rigid. He looked down at Shana with a pinched expression. “Oh really? That’s good information. Where are these notes?”

  Shana started to sweat, remembering they went down the toilet. “She put them in the toilet. But wait! Maggie was showing one to Cali and Max right before you came to get me today.”

  John William grabbed Shana under the arm and hoisted her to her feet. “Let’s go. Your client is waiting.”

  “But…but…you promised me some hillbilly heroin,” she begged.

  The big buffoon reached into his pocket and took out two pills. He shoved them into her hand. “I need a little bit of water to take them.”

  His eyes narrowed into thin slits as he glared at her. “I don’t care if you have to fucking chew them. There ain’t no time for this shit. Take ’em or I’ll take ’em back.”

  Shana threw the two pills into her mouth, crushing them with her teeth. The bitter taste tempted her to spit them out. But she kept chewing and swallowed them as fast as possible. She wanted them to take effect before her “afternoon delight” client.

  Before John William sent her into one of the rooms on the main floor, he grabbed her shirt collar and put his nose to hers. “Where is Maggie keeping the note?”

  Shana, feeling the initial effects of the magical drug, blurted, “She has the last one on her.”

  Chapter Twenty

  John William stormed back to the cellblock. He strode into Max’s cell, where they were all sitting. “You!” he said, pointing to Maggie. “Get naked, now!”

  Maggie’s skin started to tingle and a sudden dread hit her core. She quickly started to undress as the others watched. She stood naked and shaking before him. He was always in charge. He grabbed her shirt and pants one at a time and turned them inside out. Then he picked up her socks and inspected them. He had almost given up, thinking the little crack head, Shana, had lied to get drugs from him. He turned to leave and kicked Maggie’s sneakers against the stone wall. He stopped suddenly and bent down to pick them up. He reached his fingers into the first sneaker, feeling around for what he was looking for. Nothing. He did the same with the other sneaker, and his large fingers skimmed over the note. He had felt the movement of the paper. Pulling the note out, his eyes bore into Maggie’s.

  “Well, what do we have here?” he asked in a demeaning tone.

  “It’s…it’s just a note,” Maggie answered. She unknowingly moved closer to Cali and Max, who were watching John William in horror.

  “Let’s see. It says, ‘Help is coming.’ Who gave this to you?” he hollered.

  “I…I don’t know,” Maggie answered impulsively.

  “Well, then I will just have to beat you until you remember,” he stated.

  He stepped forward and slapped Maggie across the face. Then he grabbed a handful of her hair and dragged her across the hall to her own cell. Still naked, she felt even more vulnerable. John William threw her on the floor and kicked her in the thigh. Maggie screamed, putting her hands over her face. “Please stop. Please, John William,” she begged.

  Cali rushed into the cell and stood before the monster. “She got the note from a woman named Sabrina. Please stop kicking her. She’s just a little girl.”

  Satisfied that he had his answer, John William clamped his hand on Maggie’s arm and pulled her up. He held on tightly as he dragged her along behind him. Max, Cali, and Seth looked on as they disappeared. The older teens were fearful they would never see Maggie again. Seth blubbered and held onto Max, who had picked him up during the beating they witnessed.

  Upstairs, Maggie was forced to tell some of the higher-ranking cartel members everything that had happened. She told them the message on each of the notes. When she finished, she slumped in her chair, her fiery blue eyes devoid of any hope.

  “Get her out of here,” the top guy told John William.

  Back in her cell, Maggie lay on her cot. Max and Cali tried to find out what happened upstairs, but she remained silent; her arms and hands were limp; her jaw hung loosely. Finally, she leaned up on one elbow. “I had to tell them everything. Our chance of getting out of here is gone, and it’s all my fault,” Maggie said bluntly.

  “That’s not true,” Cali countered. “John William was looking for something when he came down here. Shana was the only one who was with him. She must’ve overheard us talking and told him about the notes.
”

  Max nodded his head. “Look, Mags, you did what you had to do. They would’ve killed you if you didn’t tell them everything.”

  Maggie curled up on the dirty cot. She thought about what she had just done. The odds were that they would never allow Sabrina to come and see her again. She liked Sabrina. Then she wondered if that spooky Bernie would come back to see her without Sabrina. She hoped not.

  Little Maggie didn’t know what any of this meant. But she would soon find out.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  That night, Bernie was called into a private meeting with two high-ranking cartel members. They explained what had transpired. They didn’t need to explain the consequences.

  The next morning, while walking her dog in Penn Treaty Park in Fishtown, a woman in her late thirties saw Sabrina’s bare foot sticking out from under a large bush. She moved closer to get a better look, thinking her eyes had deceived her. That’s when she saw Sabrina. She was naked and lying on her back. Her eyes were open; her pupils flat. Her throat had been cut so deeply that the woman could see her neck bone. Sabrina’s head remained attached to her body only by the skin on the back of her neck. The woman started to scream and wave her hands wildly. Her dog was barking, unable to handle the sudden burst of emotion from his owner. Others flocked to the spot where the woman was screaming. Hands flew to mouths and throats as they took in the death that lay before them.

  The forensic team studied Sabrina where she lay lifeless in the park. Sabrina’s furrowed brows created long lines on her forehead. Her eyes bulged slightly, and her lips were locked in a tense pucker. Cuts and bruises on her inner thighs made the detectives certain that she’d been sexually assaulted even before the coroner had a chance to examine the body. Sabrina’s grotesquely contorted facial features showed a combination of terror and pain. Based on all of the evidence they found on the body, the forensics team determined that she had been tortured for many hours before being killed.

  Back at the prison, the cartel moved quickly. The five children were blindfolded, shackled, and loaded into a van. The van was driven at a high rate of speed for thirty minutes, and then parked. The back doors were opened, and several men roughly pulled the children out and escorted them into a farmhouse owned by the cartel in Skippack, Pennsylvania. There was a dilapidated barn several hundred yards from the equally broken-down house. There were no neighbors or other buildings for at least five miles.

  The children were taken inside and led down to a basement twice the size of the house above it. The children looked around at the cinderblock walls and dirt floor. Soot from the old coal-burning furnace covered every surface like a thick layer of tar. In place of cells, each child was put into a large dog kennel. The kennels, constructed of chain link fencing with a door and a key lock, had been used for other children three years ago. Each contained a crib-size mattress. The only improvement to the children’s living conditions was they could now see and speak to each other freely without the stone walls separating them. The downside was that they would share one open toilet in the corner of the basement.

  When the children were left alone in the basement, Cali spoke first. “Shana! What did you do? What did you tell John William?”

  Shana was feeling sick; she wanted more hillbilly heroin. “What does it matter? At least we got out of that nasty fucking place we’ve been living in. I don’t know why the fuck you care where we are. It’s all the same shit.”

  “What did you tell him, Shana? How the fuck could you do this to us?” Max asked.

  “I told him about the notes that woman gave to Maggie. So what? It doesn’t mean anything. Nothing happened to little Miss Wonderful over there,” Shana stated, pointing to Maggie.

  “We don’t know what’s going to happen to any of us now. That’s the point, Shana. You put us all at risk. Why would you do something so stupid?” Max pressed.

  “Because I wanted to get fuckin’ high, OK? I need to get high so that I don’t chew my own fuckin’ arm off. You don’t know what these pricks are doing to me. They hurt me, really, really bad! I just want this to end! I can’t live like this anymore,” Shana yelled.

  Cali raised her voice. “We know it’s hard, Shana. We all know you’re going through really bad shit. But telling John William things that are none of his business won’t help any of us. They could have killed Maggie for keeping secrets. You know that!”

  “I wish they would kill her!” Shana responded. “Then maybe things would go back to normal.”

  “There is no normal for us,” Max stated.

  The three of them went silent, and the air grew thick with tension. “Shana, I know you hate me, and you think I did something to you on purpose. I really didn’t do anything, I swear. And I don’t blame you for telling John William what you heard. I know you’re in a lot of pain, and the medicine helps you feel better. I just wish you didn’t want me to die. All I want is to go back to my family. I’m not mad at you for what you did,” Maggie said.

  Shana stood and paced the kennel. She rubbed the back of her neck, trying to loosen her muscles to relieve the headache she’d had for hours. Now, in a sober moment, she regretted telling John William about the notes. She thought about the implications; maybe that woman was for real, and they would have been rescued. Did she just blow it for all of them? What would John William and Myles do to that woman? What’ll they do to Maggie? Shana collapsed on the mattress and covered her face with her hands. She rubbed her temples but wouldn’t make eye contact with anyone. She was too embarrassed to face the other kids. She may have blown their only ticket out of this nasty game.

  With the children in their new location, only their long-term clientele, those who could be trusted, were told about the farmhouse. That night, the reconstruction of their business began. All of the children, including Seth, were taken upstairs. They were all to participate in a new feature film.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Detective Harker rang the Clarkes’ doorbell. It was early in the morning, and Lorraine answered it with her hair and nightclothes in disarray.

  “Harker. What are you doing here? Did you find Maggie?” Lorraine barked.

  “No. But we think something significant happened. Can I come in?” Harker asked.

  “Sure.” Lorraine led him into the kitchen. She started a pot of coffee and then sat at the table across from Harker. “What happened?” she asked.

  “The FBI contacted us. Early this morning, an agent was found dead at Penn Treaty Park. Apparently, the agent has been undercover for several years. Her mission was to find a way into the sex-trafficking ring,” Harker explained.

  “Wait, wait.” Lorraine stood quickly, knocking over her chair. Her skin felt like it was burning. “Sex trafficking? You think my daughter is being sold for sex?”

  Harker stood up next to Lorraine. He put his hand on her shoulder and looked directly into her eyes. “We don’t know, Lorraine. But if she is, this agent infiltrated further than anyone in the bureau has before. The thing is, she was so deep undercover that she didn’t talk to anyone at the FBI about what was going on. She sent very cryptic notes to her commander—almost a hundred notes over the last three years with only a few words on them. Her commander said they’ve pieced together most of the story. They knew she was living in Pennsylvania, and her last note, which he received after she died, vaguely mentioned a prison.”

  Lorraine felt her insides come to life. Her heart was pumping, and she was filled with an energy she hadn’t had in a long time. She fidgeted as she considered the possibility that Maggie was forced into sex trafficking, a thought that made her knees weak. “So, what you’re telling me is that you think Maggie could still be alive?”

  “What I’m telling you is we still have nothing to indicate that Maggie is alive. However, we are waiting on further instructions from the FBI. Hopefully, they will provide us with useful leads. We may be able to find out where they are holding children. There’s a chance that Maggie is being trafficked. I don’t want t
o give you false hope about her being alive. I just want you to know there’s a possibility,” he stated.

  My Maggie is still alive, she thought. My baby is still alive!

  Lorraine sat at the kitchen table and put her hands around her mug. She took a long sip of the rich coffee. It had been a while since she’d actually tasted anything. That morning, the sugar and cream she mixed in her coffee filled her mouth. The flavors played over her taste buds, creating a sensation she hadn’t felt in a long time…being alive. Her faith ignited and began a slow burn that warmed her heart.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  All of the children were taken upstairs that night. The stairway from the basement was narrow and creaky. When they reached the main floor, the house was dark, and it was hard to take in their surroundings. They were led into a large living room. A bed had been set up in the middle with black lights overhead. Seth clung to Maggie’s leg, his fingers burrowing into her thigh.

  “It’ll be OK, Seth,” she whispered to him.

  It wasn’t long before the music started, and the children were told what to do as a group. Maggie held tightly to Seth’s hand, and as Max pulled her onto the bed, she took Seth with her. The child was lying on his belly, and Maggie straddled him to keep his upper body out of view of the camera. She subtly reached her fingers into Seth’s mouth and quickly shoved them as far down his throat as possible. Seth vomited all over the other children. John William came storming in on them. “Little fucking jerk off! What the hell is wrong with you?”

  Seth looked uneasily at Maggie. She responded for him. “He’s too young, John William. He’s nervous and doesn’t know what’s going on or what’s happening to him.”

  Seth sat on the bed holding Maggie around the waist as soaking tears fell from his eyes. To Maggie’s relief, John William snatched Seth away from her and half carried, half dragged the small boy back down to the basement. She had spared Seth this time.