A Delicate Flower

by Chelsea Girard

  “A couple changes but she will be our star.” The leader said with a smirk. I felt my body becoming warm with fever as I began to sweat. The leader smoked a brown pipe as his slaves left the room, leaving me behind.

  CHAPTER 10

  JOYCE

  As I checked my solar powered watch, it looked to be around 4 o’clock in the morning. I could hear the distant snores from above as the men tossed and turned upon the wood floor. Every movement made my heart jump and with every jump, I continued to lose my patience.

  I needed a way to escape without anyone seeing but the only way out was up. The front door was probably blocked with the men’s sleeping bodies as they knew if they let me go, they’d suffer the consequences.

  The worst part of this all, my cabin was in a secluded forest. No neighbours, no roads for miles and barely any cell service. I was alone regardless of which direction I ran. This was my sanctuary and I wasn’t going to leave it. Either way, I had to get out of this hell hole and be safe, which meant I had to undoubtedly fight off three abnormally large men with knives and the hands the size of my face. Mama would be proud, I can attract men of all ages and sizes. I mean, she would probably recommend another instance of attracting them but that doesn’t need to be told anytime soon.

  I barely got to my knees as I dragged myself along the wooden floor. Reaching for the cabinet handle, I reached out my right arm for extra length so I wouldn’t have to make any loud sudden movements that could wake up the sleeping bears above me. There had to be something in here that would help me in this situation.

  When I built this little sanctuary below where I slept, I could have sworn I would have put something down here to help if need be. Even a large stick would do at least some kind of damage but as I looked around the room, there was nothing. Only a couple loose nails upon the corner shelf, a couple empty boxes and plastic bag alongside my rations. My mind was everywhere. I couldn’t think straight as my anxiety grew with every shallow breath. I can’t put into words what I was thinking. I should have been looking for a way out but the only thing I kept thinking about with every item was how to kill myself with it.

  Loose nails would be painful to stab myself with and slowly bleeding out didn’t seem very ideal or sanitary. Empty boxes weren’t of much use as well, how does one kill themselves with an empty box? Then I looked at the plastic bag again, it seemed to be a good idea but losing breath would probably cause for a horrible death.

  Then it came to me, I don’t actually have to kill myself. But I can pretend to be dead.

  With all the strength I had left, I picked myself up from

  the ground and leaned hard against the cabinet. My legs felt as if they were filled with liquid and could barely hold up my 98 pound body. I had to think fast as sunrise would be coming within the next couple hours so I didn’t have much time to plan an overall escape plan. All I knew is that I was getting out of here. Dead or alive.

  The plan was simple, throw the empty boxes and a couple cans to make a lot of noise down here, to seem as if I was trying to escape. When I hear them coming, I would place the bag loosely around my head to look as if I killed myself. When they bring me outside, I will make my escape.

  I ate a can of peas before I attempted my escape. What could be my last meal was a slimy mess as my body was so malnourished, I devoured it within minutes of opening the can using only my teeth and my thumb nail.

  With the can thrown into the corner and my heart pounding out of my chest, I was ready to die. Theoretically, of course. I placed the bag around my head and tight a knot around the bottom to look as if I couldn’t get out. As I placed myself on the floor next to the cabinet, I decided I would make a couple claw marks upon the wall next to me in order to look like I struggled. Just to make sure I made it believable that I did indeed, kill myself.

  I threw myself to the floor with a loud crash as I landed on my arm in the fetal position. I tied the bottom of the bag to show that the struggle was necessary with pulling apart some of the bag in order to look as if I struggled. The noise above me became louder and angry. I felt as if I had awoken the beast and taken away his bear cub and he was now out for blood. As the anger became louder and enraged with chairs being thrown in every direction. I could hear my heart from inside my ears as my life was being threatened in every way. Their words became vigorous as they yelled at the top of their lungs breaking through the mental latch on the wooden door.

  The three men came running downstairs heavy-footed and huffing angrily. They stopped in front of me,

  dumbfounded as I laid before their eyes.

  “What do we do now?” said one of them. “Davis isn’t going to be happy.” said anothe r, anxiously shaking his head in his hands.

  Silence fell over the room as I could hear them picking up empty food cans and checking empty cupboards around the room.

  “Why didn’t we come down here sooner?” yelled the leader as he threw a full can of food against the floor in front of me. His voice was shallow and reminded me of my father. Always angry and a heavy drinking game always made him violent and get angry over the simplest things. A towel left on the floor, staying up late reading in bed, smiling at a boy. You name it, I was in trouble for it.

  With a sharp pain to my leg, one of the men kicked at me with a steel toed boot. He dropped down to one knee and felt the upper part of my thigh just above my knee cap, as if he was being sympathetic.

  “What do we do now?” said another.

  “We can’t possibly bring her to Davis like this.”

  I could hear the anger in the footsteps of the leader as he paced around the room anxiously. His footsteps were heavy and uneven, as if he had an idea but didn’t know how to act with this situation.

  “We bring her with us, no matter what. Davis wanted her and we got her, dead or alive.” the leader boasted.

  “Mitch, we can’t go back with her like-”

  “Enough!” Yelled the leader, Mitch was his name. With my eyes closed tight and my breaths becoming smaller, I couldn’t spend much longer within the plastic bag. My lungs were becoming emptier with each second that they argued over my dead body.

  “Carry her, we will take her back to the truck and figure out what the plan is. I have to make a call.” said Mitch.

  As the sound of his footsteps disappeared, the two left behind stood still.

  “We can’t do this Pablo, I mean it’s not right. Nothing we do is and the fact that we found her dead just isn’t right man.”

  “Get a grip man, we get paid whether she’s dead or not so don’t worry about it.”

  “What if Davis has us killed?”

  “Brandon, shut up man. I will get you a great girl when we get back.” said Pablo emotionless as he flung me over his shoulder harshly. I tried to act as if I was a rag doll, leaving my dead weight to hang loosely against his back. The two men climbed to the main cabin floor as they pushed aside every piece of furniture in their path to the front door. Moving faster with every step, the blood rushed to my head as every breath became harder as the plastic bag pressed heavily against my face.

  As they walked one behind the other, I felt the bag slowly becoming tighter around my neck as I swung back and forth. With every step the bag tie lunged into my neck, cutting off more and more circulation. I had to act fast and soon or else I would lose my chance to get away. As Pablo carried me further into the forest, my head became full of memories. Running from Davis has been a lifestyle for me. I’ve run away three times now but the times before were when I was younger and had no idea what my next move was. Now, I have my whole life planned out.

  CHAPTER 11

  ROSE

  I woke up to the smell of old cigarettes and alcohol. My eyes were blurry as I faced the concrete wall with my hands tied in front of me along with my feet. My mind wanted to turn my body around to see what was behind me but I had no strength. I hadn’t eaten in what felt days and I was completely dizzy from exhaustion.

  I wiped my eyes with
my clenched fi st and that’s when I realized I wasn’t alone.

  “Someone was tired.” said a voice familiar voice behind me. As I turned myself slightly to see who the voice belonged to, the leader sat in a chair in the farthest corner. His feet crossed behind the chairs leg with his buttoneddown shirt wide-open. His arms were crossed over his chest with a smirk showing only the right side of his teeth. It looked as if he kept himself well-groomed except for the fact that he smelt like old cheeseburgers mixed with the strong scent of vodka.

  “Are you ready for your first day?” he asked patronizingly. I remained silent as he judged my existence.

  “Why me?” I managed to mumble out under my breath. I could feel my eyes starting to fill with tears as I became more awake. My stomach growled at the thought of food as my tiny figure didn’t eat a lot in the first place but I never went days without eating.

  The leader threw a heaping load of big men shirts on me as I was clenched into a ball in the corner.

  “Put one on, someone will be here to bring you food within the hour.” he said as he left the room, locking the door behind him.

  I laid on the cold floor for a minute, gaining the strength to get back my mobility. My head felt as if it had been beaten with a bat numerous times as the throbbing pain got worse with every sudden movement. I reached to my feet to grab a shirt and realized they were all extra large men shirts. I picked the one with some old music artist and some catchy lyrics on the front, it didn’t much matter to me what I wore. Finally being able to put something on was what excited me. Sitting in my underwear and bra were not ideal for any girl I would think, especially when you’re constantly stared at by men.

  A small hatch opened from the bottom of the door and slid through a plate. I inched closer to grab the plate that had a spoonful of mashed potatoes, two large carrots and weird looking piece of bread. I didn’t much care about what kind it was because I was starving. After devouring both the piece of bread and the two carrots, I realized I didn’t know when I would be getting another meal. I then ate my mashed potatoes slowly, enjoying every bite and pushing it around the plate with my plastic fork as if it was my last meal.

  I heard a knock on the door, the hatch opened abruptly with a light peeking through. I guess this meant food time was over. I stuffed the rest of the mashed potatoes in my mouth and slid the plate to the hatch. A hand with a black glove grabbed the plate and closed the small door behind immediately. As I sat facing the door, I heard a tiny voice, as if someone was talking in the next room over. It was a woman’s voice but it sounds as if it was miles away, only the faintest “hello” came from behind the brick wall that separated us. I moved closer to the wall, inching furthest away from the door was the best idea I had anyways. I pressed my ear against the cold bricks, hearing for any movement, nothing.

  As my eyes tightened from exhaustion, the door’s padlock became undone and in walked a man holding what looked to be handcuffs.

  “Get up, the boss will see you now.”

  My body was frozen in fear as the man before me stood six foot seven and had muscles the size of a watermelon on both arms. I wasn’t ready to put up a fight nor did I have the energy so I complied. I picked myself up off the ground slowly, using the wall to stabilize myself. The man then moved closer to me, I flinched and threw my hands over my head in fear. He let out a sincere laugh and mumbled, ‘woman’, under his breath. He pulled my feet out from underneath my body and untied the feet and wrist restraints and replaced them with handcuffs.

  I was slow to start walking, the floor seemed to move beneath my feet and the room was fuzzy. He grabbed my shoulder and pushed me forward, signaling me to walk. I made it slowly to the front of my door and stopped before the first exit I saw since yesterday. I watched two young girls be pushed in front of me, dressed exactly like me in baggy shirts and underwear. The handcuffs began to tighten against my wrists as my anxiety began to grow with every short breathe I took.

  I trailed behind the two girls who seemed to be much younger than I was, about 3, maybe 4. Their hair was tangled and you could see the visible pain that their bruises on their legs and arms showed. One of the girls had both handcuffs and leg chains on as I thought to be a way to keep her from trying to run.

  We walked down a flight of stairs and down a narrow hallway with multiple doors on each side until we got to the main room. It looked as if it was a ballroom, properly dressed with table skirts and fancy seating, swept and dusted, nothing like the rooms above.

  “Thank you for finally joining us ladies,” said the leader. He looked different from when I last saw him the night before, he was wearing a blue dress shirt with his collar peaked with his hands in his black dress pants and handkerchief hanging out of his back pocket.

  I and the other two girls were seated in front of him on the floor, in front of a large table where we sat on one side and six men were seated on the other. The leader smiled at us intensely.

  “I would like you gentlemen to meet our newest arrivals, all new and ready for your services.” chirped the leader in a cocky voice as he walked around the table. He then sat in the middle of the table between the two groups on both sides, hands folded on the table with a brown bag in front of him.

  “Would anyone like to pick first?” he asked the older men.

  “Where are they from?” asked one of them.

  “How do we know their legal?” asked another. The rest of the men started arguing back and forth, guessing our cultures and ages.

  “One second!” yelled the leader. “I will tell you about them myself to make things shorter for everyone,”

  He walked slowly towards myself and the other two girls and placed his hand on the shoulder of a blonde, greeneyed girl. She held back tears as her face became red and she began to shake.

  “This is Estelle, she is seven and from Europe. She may be young but she packs a hard punch, reason for the ankle-chains.” both the leader and the other men began to laugh.

  “She is a fine choice.” he moved the next one. “This is Brenn, she is nine and is from Australia. She has the cutest accent and I can promise you she is very easily taught, if you get my drift.” he said with a wink. The leader then looked at me, peering from across the table.

  “Lastly, we have our prize. She is from our homeland, Russia and is one of our most beautiful girls. Her name is Rose.”

  The men looked back and forth at each other and then back at us, analyzing their options. The two girls that sat next to me had tears rolling down their cheeks, whimpering under their breath.

  “I’ll take Estelle, eight thousand.” said one man, standing as he held a brown bag. He shook hands with the leader and walked over to her and grabbed the top of her shoulder. He then bent down and smelt her hair.

  “Perfect.” he smiled.

  The other men stood, before Brenn and I. With nothing said, the leader then snapped his fingers and with a nod, we were both standing up and walking back to our rooms.

  “Some prize” the men mumbled before we left the room.

  As we walked back to the room, I couldn’t help but think about Estelle and where she was going. I wished that she wasn’t leaving, I knew what was going on and I just sat there and let the man claim her death.

  Once back at the room, the handcuffs were removed and only my wrists were tied. I was given a sheet, a small pillow and a plastic cup of water. I didn’t want to show that I was weak but I needed to keep up my strength, besides if they wanted me to be the prize, that’s what I was going to be. But no prize is given, it has to be won.

  CHAPTER 12

  JOYCE

  After a long hour walk through the forest as I laid fullweight on Pablo’s shoulder, silence crept over the forest. Not one bird, not one car heard in the distance. Brandon was getting reckless and destroying every loose branch that hung within 10 feet of him.

  “Dude, calm the fuck down.” yelled Pablo.

  “How can I? You’re carrying a dead body man!” an anxious Brando
n responded. Without another word, Pablo understood why Brandon was so paranoid. He was carrying my dead body, a lifeless human dangling behind his back like a rag doll.

  “Hey, where is the car?” said Brandon. “It was parked right here, Iremember because we used that ‘Y’ looking tree and that well over there.”

  Realization popped into both of their heads, even I knew where the car was and the truth was, it wasn’t here.

  “You don’t think he would just leave us out here, do you?” said an angry Pablo as he re-positioned me over his shoulder. Both of them stood in silence for a couple minutes, obviously not knowing what to do or how they were going to get back through a town to the base, carrying a dead woman's body. My eyes tighten from the pain in my stomach as my ribs felt like they were stabbing into my lungs with every silent breath. I had never been so sore in this area before by it wasn’t the worst I’ve been through, that's for sure.

  “Leave her here and I don’t know, we will think of an excuse.” said Brandon, pacing in circles around Pablo.

  “What the hell would we tell Davis? Oh, the dead body just ran away?”

  “I’m just trying to save our asses man, my guess is as good as yours at this point. Maybe we can just leave her, hide her behind something and then go back and get a truck to come get her.” said Brandon.

  “That’s a two day walk Brandon, are you sure nobody’s going to just stumble upon her? We would lose everything, including our lives.”

  “It’s worth a try, we have to bring her back somehow but we can’t carry her forever, she’s starting to smell and I can’t stand to see her so limp, it’s more disgusting than what’s back at camp.” I didn’t think I smelt that bad but what can you expect from a corpse, right? I hadn’t had a proper cleaning in years but that was the least of my concern as I was hiding away from these bastards.