by Sara Crest
“I promise you, you won’t need to use that.”
He looked at me in the eyes and after a few seconds it actually looked like he began to trust what I was saying, he put his gun back in his belt before motioning me to lead the way.
I walked up to the door to see the lock broken, I guess when I rushed out I had ran into the door harder than I thought. I was just so ready to get out of there, desperate, starved, I needed to.
I walked into the house and felt shivers up my spine, it was completely silent, a stark contrast to the yelling and screaming that normally went on while I was here. The place smelled like cat litter, Edgar didn’t even have a cat, I could only assume that he did it to mask whatever other smell came out of this house.
Axel walked in behind me looking around and making a face once the smell set in.
I walked past the broken glass and shattered pottery on the floor, Axel didn’t have any shoes for me to wear so unfortunately I was still barefoot. Just meant I had to be more careful.
I walked over to the basement door, although it was more than just a door to the basement, it was the door to the place I called home for 19 months. 19 long months, a year and a half of my life that I would get back, it was the real end of my childhood, and I knew that it would scar me forever.
“This… this is my proof.”
10
(Axel)
The girl was so tense, I could see it in her shoulders, the way she gripped her fists, her clenched jaw. In all honesty this was enough evidence for me that she wasn’t a part of the Scorched Satans or any other gang. But we had already come here and my interest was piqued, I wanted to see how deep all this was.
I didn’t know what her ties to this place was, there was damage and broken objects scattered all over the house and the more I analyzed this situation the more questions I had.
She grabbed my hand suddenly, squeezing it. It caught me off guard, just two hours ago I had this girl tied up to my bed so I could question her and now she was so afraid of this house that she felt more comfortable holding my hand.
I held her hand back, if she didn’t have any ties to any of our rival MCs then I could breathe a little easier.
Our fingers interlocked, it was the first relatively intimate contact I had with a woman in two years, with a girl this pretty I wasn’t complaining. Some guys break down after a few months in jail, practically crying out at night just to feel a woman, a lot of them resorted to using whoever was unlucky enough to be in the shower alone or whoever fell asleep in their cell first. I never swung that way, and nobody ever tried that shit on me, they knew if they messed with me they would regret it in a matter of moments.
“I can’t… I can’t open the door.”
I looked down at her confused as she stared at the basement door.
I reached for the doorknob and felt her hand squeeze mine even harder.
“Before you open it, promise you’ll protect me from whatever is down there.”
I paused for a few seconds, what was she so afraid of?
“Promise me!” she said with tears in her eyes.
I hated that promise, who was I to say I could protect anyone? After I watched my friend bleed out with a bullet in my own gut how could I look this girl in the eye and say I could protect her? I had to say it anyway, not just for her sake but to figure out what was going on.
“Ok, I promise.”
I pulled the handle and opened the door to immediately hear groaning come from the basement. Hannah put her hand over her mouth as she back behind me in cover. I slowly began to walk down the steps as she hesitantly followed behind me.
“H-hello? Who’s there?” I heard a male voice call out.
I stopped in my tracks but I heard Hannah whisper “keep going.”
Despite every part of my body yelling at me to leave this place behind and never speak of this again I pushed to keep going.
I made it to the bottom of the stairs, the basement was completely dark with only the light from the door shining in. I felt my head hit a string hanging down and I pulled on it, hearing the click of the bulb and lighting up the whole room.
I stood there in complete silence as I looked to see an overweight man, totally and completely naked, laying on the cement floor of the basement. He was chained by his right arm and leg to the wall and had a small knife stuck in his thigh. Next to him was some crude bedding, just a dirty bare mattress on the floor with a few blankets scattered around. Not even a pillow or a bathroom in sight although the basement was furnished with some pieces to make it look like a young girl's room.
Hannah squeezed my hand even harder as she tried to take shelter behind me but the man already noticed.
“You! You fucking slut! What was stabbing me and leaving me for dead not enough for you?”
I could feel Hannah begin to cry into my shirt behind me as the man continued throwing his insults.
“Is this the bastard that put you up to this? Did you sell my car, my pride and joy, to him?
“Hannah, what’s going on here? Did you do this?” I asked her. I barely knew this girl but I couldn’t believe that she would break into a man’s house, somehow get him into the basement, chain him up, and the drive off with his car. I still didn’t have the whole story.
She came out from behind me, tears streaming down her face.
“19 months ago, 19 long months ago-”
“Shut the fuck up!” the man screamed, interrupting her.
I walked over to him and took my gun out, putting it in his mouth. I could only assume that a man who had this done to him by a girl young enough to be his daughter was guilty in some way.
“Hannah, as you were saying.”
She took a deep breath and gulped before continuing.
“19 months ago this man, this disgusting man, he bought me. He bought me and he kept me chained up down here. He-”
She ran her fingers through her hair and stared at me, I was about to open my mouth and say she didn’t have to say anymore but she kept going.
“He didn’t touch me, in that way, but… but every day he would make me dress up for him. He would have me dress up in these outfits that he had for me, to live this fantasy that he had for us. I screamed and I screamed but he padded the basement with everything he could to block out the noise. He told me every day about how he couldn’t wait to finally use me, to unwrap me like the gift I was to him. Every single day, he never told me when it would happen, but the build up and the anticipation. Just waiting for it to happen… I couldn’t take it anymore!”
“She’s lying!” he was able to shout through the gun in his mouth.
I rammed the barrel harder down his throat causing him to gag, making sure he couldn’t say another word.
“So when he came down last night to bring my food” she continued “and he said about how he was going to have his way with me I snapped. I snapped and I rammed my dinner knife in his leg. When he fell to the ground I took the key from his pocked and freed myself, then I put him in his own chains to make sure he didn’t follow me…”
I turned to her to see her crying, now I felt like a piece of shit for ever doubting this girl. Could you blame me though? When someone comes in pointing a gun at me, right after I’ve been released from jail, I just had to assume that she was sent here by someone. I guess my senses must have been rusty from the time I did, this girl has been through hell and back.
I stood up, pulling the gun out of the man’s mouth as I walked over to Hannah. She came up to me and hugged me, pulling me in and embracing the first real human contact she had in a year and a half. In reality it was the first real human contact both of us have had in years. I ran my hand up and down her back as I felt her pull me in closer and closer, resting her head on my chest right where my heart was.
I guess her and I were similar, we were both freshly freed prisoners, now stuck in a world that had somehow changed so much since we left it. While our situations were similar I’d be lying if I said I would p
refer to be locked in this sick fuck’s basement. Give me a regular jail over this any day.
I felt anger build up inside of me I wanted to turn around and put a bullet in this man, Hannah said so herself he had padded the basement to block out noise. I could unload a whole magazine into his fat hairy gut and nobody would hear.
“You’ll both be dead, you think you’re going to get away with this? You think I don’t have my connections? She doesn’t even have anywhere to go, I know her story, it’s why I picked her out in the first place.”
I turned to Hannah and she looked up at me. “What does he mean?”
“He means I have nowhere else to go, I don’t have any family… Only my father is alive, at least I assume he is, and he’s the bastard that sold me off in the first place.”
I held her firmly by the shoulders and looked her in the eyes. “You do have somewhere to go, now you do. I’ll help you get back on your feet, I promise you.”
I did sincerely want to help her but part of me felt as if I had somewhat selfish intentions when I told her this. With everything that I had going on it would be nice to have a woman’s touch in my life, if I helped her out along the way then I wouldn’t feel as guilty about taking her in.
She nodded her head and I led her upstairs, holding her hand the entire way. I led her over to a couch and sat her down, I figured she needed some time to think about the offer I just gave her and make sure it was really what she wanted.
I walked around the guy’s living room, other than the things that I assumed Hannah broke the house looked like any old run of the mil cul-de-sac. It was hard to believe that he kept Hannah here for so long.
I started looking through his framed photographs, the guy was a fucking father. I looked at a picture of him with a girl that couldn’t have been 5 years older than Hannah, made me sick to my stomach.
I glanced over at one picture and did a double take before snatching it up and scanning it.
“No… it can’t be…”
11
(Hannah)
I started to feel myself calm down, I watched Axel analyzing the man’s stuff, seemingly trying to decide what to do with him.
I just wanted to leave this place, I wanted to go back to Axel’s apartment and curl up into a little ball and just forget the last year of my life. Now that I had cleared my name with him Axel seemed like a far more gentler man but still just as strong and determined as he was before. Even with the tattoos on his body and the obvious gang affiliation he was the only person I had now, he was willing to take me into his home and help me get back on my feet. Although I knew it would be hard for me to trust him initially after everything that I’ve been through I knew that if Axel was the man I thought he was that I’d be able to trust him.
I needed someone I could trust, I was willing to open myself up to one person, after what I’ve just been through I would need someone I could rely on no matter what. Maybe Axel could be that someone.
I saw him standing there, looking at one of the photographs. I couldn’t believe that the bastard Edgar had a family, a family and friends. He used to put something over my mouth when his family was over so that they wouldn’t hear the remnants of my screams through the padding he had on the basement walls. Sometimes he would bring his friends over and they’d taunt me together, his friends would beg for a turn with my but Edgar was always saying how he was waiting for a “special occasion” to have his way with me. I had to wonder what that special occasion was.
Axel turned to me, holding one of the framed pictures in his hand.
He walked up to me and sat next to me, showing me the picture of Edgar and one of his asshole friends. They were at a gun range and both had their arms wrapped around each other’s shoulder, grinning from ear to ear as they pointed their guns in the air. To anyone else it would have just looked like two middle aged men having a good time on a saturday afternoon with guns expensive enough to pay for a year of college. I knew the truth about them though, what kind of men they were.
Axel put his finger on the friend, tapping it for a few seconds before asking the question: “Do you know who this is?”
It almost sounded rhetorical, but I assumed that he wouldn’t be asking me this question if he didn’t want an answer.
“It’s one of Edgar’s best friends. I don’t know his name but he brought him downstairs more than any other person to show me off.”
I hated it when they were together, he would have me dress in a police uniform and strut around for him, god just thinking about it made the bile rise in my stomach. Edgar’s friend was a tall and lanky man, he always buzzed his hair and wore sunglasses whenever he was over here, even in the darkness of the basement. I could only assume he had something to hide.
Axel squeezed the wooden picture frame until the glass shattered, he ripped the page from the now broken frame and looked at it.
“This man is the man that shot my best friend Ezekiel. My club brother… the man I considered my true blood brother...”
He stood up and marched towards the basement door, I didn’t know what to do so I quickly got up and followed him.
“He shot him? Are you sure it was him?” I said following behind him as we went down the stairs.
“I’ll never forget that face, that smug fucker is permanently burned into my brain, and I’m gonna get him back if it takes the rest of my life.”
He walked up to Edgar who was trying to get to his feet, struggling with the dinner knife still lodged in his leg, his leg was so fat that the knife was lodged deep in there and yet there was barely any blood. He was probably afraid to take it out for that very reason, I hated knowing that I had physically hurt someone but if I had to choose one person on Earth to get hurt it would be Edgar.
Axel walked up to him and wrapped his hand around his throat, slamming him hard into the wall and practically lifting him off of his feet.
He held up the photo to Edgar’s face.
“Who is this? This guy right here, who is he?”
“All I see is a handsome guy and your mom’s boyfriend” Edgar replied with a smirk.
Axel smashed his fish into Edgar’s face without hesitation, the loud slap rang throughout the room. I felt chills go up my spine as I imagined Axel hitting him for all the things that he did to me, even if that wasn’t what was really happening it somehow made me feel far more safe and even helped me cope a little bit
“Don’t you fucking test me Edgar!” Axel shouted out as he threw him onto the floor. He put his boot on the side of Edgar’s face, pushing him into the hard cement of the ground.
I ran up and pulled Axel away, grabbing his hand and bringing him towards me.
“Axel please, as much as I love to see this asshole gets what he deserves you’re not gonna get this out of him this way. You’re angry because you just found out he’s attached to the death of your friend. I know how good you are at interrogation, just your gaze and your touch was enough for me to give in and ask for a chance to prove I was who I was. Work the same magic on him that you worked on me.”
He started to calm down a bit as we looked into each other’s eyes.
“After everything he’s done to you… you had the strength inside of you to pull me away, why?”
“Because if you really want to honor your friend you’ll find the man who took his life, not his friend, not the sad bastard who ruined mine.”
He took my hand in his and looked at me. “You’re not ruined, I will help you turn everything around. I promise.”
As I looked into his eyes I fully believed he was telling the truth. Just a few hours ago he had me strapped to his bed and could have killed me without any hesitation, instead he gave me a chance to prove myself, and now he was giving me protection and a second chance at life. Already I was beginning to feel grateful.
He let go of my hand and ran his hand down my shoulder and the side of my arm as he continued to calm himself down. He looked down at the photo of the man who took the life of his friend
, I could see a fire in his eyes, a fire that I had never seen someone have before.
“I need to make a call” he said as he walked away from me, letting his hand slide down the back side of my arm. It sent shivers down my spine, but not the kind of shivers I got whenever Edgar would touch my face or my hand, it was a shiver that made me want more. I never thought I would ever want someone ever again after what Edgar did to me, who knows, maybe I was just confused.
He started walking up the stairs before stopping to look down at me.
“Are you coming?”
“Yeah, just give me a sec ok?”
“Take your time” he said as he headed upstairs, leaving the door open just in case Edgar tried something.
“You’re such a stupid little bitch you know that?” Edgar said as he spat out some blood on the floor and got onto his hands and knees.
“Say what you want Edgar, you might have taken away so much of my life but in the end I’m the one who’s standing here and you’re the one who’s chained. I have the rest of my life to live, the rest of my life to give love to this world to make up for what you took out of it, only god knows what’ll happen to you.”
“You think I give a fuck that your little boyfriend is gonna beat me up some more? I can’t wait for you both to realize you’re in over your heads with this thing. The rabbit hole is far deeper than you could ever imagine.”
“Talk all you want Edgar, in the end you’ll get what’s coming to you for keeping me down here.”
“Fuck off, you loved it, you couldn’t wait to bounce on this cock I could feel it.”
I clenched my fists, I wanted to hit him but I knew that’s what he wanted. Edgar was amazing at getting in my head, now I had the choice to leave rather than sit here and listen to the hate he spewed.
I started walking back up the stairs, turning around only to grab the string for the light and pull on it hard.
“How about you get a taste of what you put me through” I said as I walked back up the stairs and slammed the door behind me, leaving him in complete darkness.
