Blood Donor

by Karen Bass

Inside, my stomach seemed to be falling. Then my body followed.

  Everything went black.

  Chapter Seven

  When I woke, my mouth and lips felt dry. I was back on my cot in the basement. The beds were all put back together.

  A TV tray beside my cot held orange juice and a plate of cookies. I inched my way up to sit with my back against the wall. My stomach churned when I took the first sip of juice. When it calmed down, I took another. When the glass was half empty, I ate a cookie. It helped settle my stomach.

  Thorn walked in and sat on the end of my cot. “Why did they carry you in? What happened?”

  “I fainted, I think. But I have a feeling I was out for quite a while. Maybe they gave me something?” I ate half of the second cookie.

  “Really? What made you faint?”

  “I stood up too soon.”

  “You didn’t stay sitting for a bit like they told you?” One corner of Thorn’s mouth curled up in a half smile. “You are a special kind of stubborn.”

  I shrugged. “I’ve never given blood before. I didn’t know what to expect.” I rubbed my head. It was throbbing.

  “Banged it?” Thorn asked.

  “A headache.” I sipped more juice. “I think I need to have a nap.”

  Thorn nodded. “We usually do.” She stood. “Be warned. Red is pissed off.”

  I gave another shrug. I didn’t care even a little bit right now. All I wanted was to sleep.

  I had no idea how long I’d napped, but I felt better when I woke. I sat up and stretched, then moaned and hugged my arm against my stomach. My arm still hurt. I ripped off the tape and cotton. The hole was a black dot surrounded by a bruise. Was that female guard ever a nurse? If so, she was probably fired for being really bad at the whole needle and drawing-blood thing.

  Other than the bruise I felt okay. So maybe giving blood wasn’t as bad as I had thought. Being kept in a prison still sucked. But now I had a plan for where to search. Things were under control. A little, at least.

  I sniffed. Something smelled rank. I tilted my head to the side and sniffed again. The something was me. Showering was another thing I could control. My BO always made me think of sour milk. So gross. Where were the towels? Maybe in the cupboards under the two sinks.

  As I walked into the living area, I asked, “Did I miss lunch?”

  Red stood up from the table and took three long steps forward. She stood with feet apart and knees slightly bent, like she was ready to take on a grizzly. She looked angry enough to. “Fucking right you missed lunch. Even if you’d been awake, you wouldn’t have gotten any.”

  “Whoa. Calm down.” Those words seemed to make Red quiver, not from fear but from rising fury that deepened her sneer. I realized I’d made a mistake. Couldn’t back down now. “Why wouldn’t I have gotten any?”

  Skip answered like she was Red’s assistant. “They brought us smaller rations and only enough for four. They said to straighten you out so you don’t fight them next time.”

  “Or?” I lifted my shoulders to stress the question. There was always an or.

  Priss replied, “Or next time we all go on extra-small rations for three days.” She ran her fingers through her green streak. “I wish you wouldn’t cause trouble, Jo.”

  “Wish all you want. We aren’t going to get out of here by playing by their rules.” A memory sideswiped me of Emily saying, “Sometimes I think you do things on purpose to get your dad angry. You like to cause explosions.” It was true. I’d get fed up with the tiptoeing, and I’d start to say small things I knew would piss Dad off.

  A blur on the edge of my vision. I sidestepped just as Red reached for me. The bigger girl charged past but wheeled around like a basketball pro. She barely slowed. Rammed into me.

  We crashed against the wall. I gasped and slid to the floor. Red bounced up and began kicking me. I shielded my head and yelled for Red to stop. When she didn’t, I grabbed her leg in mid-swing and yanked.

  Red fell with a loud thud. We rolled and hit and struggled. The other girls yelled at us to stop. Finally I was able to push away and get to my feet before Red could grab me again. My wrestling coach would have been ashamed of me.

  I stood, fists raised, ready to keep fighting if Red wanted to. My whole body hurt. I wanted to cry but kept an angry mask in place.

  Red stood slowly and leaned against the wall. Then she crossed her arms and relaxed. She said, “Promise you won’t cause trouble. If you do, you’ll have to watch your back every second.”

  I pressed my lips together. At least maybe Red knew now that I wasn’t an easy mark. “Tell you what. I’ll go quietly next time they come for me. But in return you let me keep looking for a way out. You stay out of my way, and I’ll play the good patient.”

  “Why should I make a deal with you when I can beat the shit out of you?”

  “Because you can’t. And you know it. I’m weak today. But next time you’ll have an even harder fight on your hands. And I don’t care if they cut our rations. So if you don’t make this deal, it will be your fault that everyone has less food.”

  Red tensed. Her nostrils flared as she frowned at me. Then she said, “Deal. But screw us over, and you won’t be able to walk ten feet without help.”

  I wanted to be able to sleep at night without worrying about being jumped. I nodded. “Understood.”

  I limped to the shower. Found towels under a sink. My shower was long and hot. I turned the water off and wrapped the towel around me.

  Then I heard a strange banging sound. From under my feet. I went down on my knees. The sound was coming from the drain.

  I cupped my hands and called down the drain, “Hello?”

  A voice answered.

  Chapter Eight

  The voice coming from the drain was hard to hear. “Who are you?” it asked. It was male.

  I cupped my hands around my mouth and answered loudly, “Jo. Who are you?” I turned my head so my ear was near the drain.

  “Dylan. Are you being held captive?”

  “Yes. You too?”

  “Yeah. There are three guys here.”

  “I’m the newest of five girls. Why can I hear you?”

  “The showers share the same drainpipe. I’m on the other side of the wall.”

  Bang. Bang. Bang. He hit the wall near my head. I hit it too.

  “Listen,” Dylan said. “We’re going to try to escape.”

  My heart sped up. “How?”

  “Whoever gets taken today is going to fight free upstairs and escape through the blood-room window.”

  My heart kept pounding like a drum. “Can that work?”

  “We figure if he springs into the room and locks it, he’ll have a few seconds to break the window and jump out.”

  “I hope it works.”

  “Me too. I don’t think it will be me taken though. I just went a few days ago. I’ll report back same time tomorrow.”

  “Okay.”

  Silence. He had gone. I jumped up and dried myself off. Dressed. Ran my fingers through my hair. My heart thundered.

  There had to be a camera in the hall above the outer door. I forced myself to walk back to the main room. I closed the door and leaned against it. How could I see what was going on outside? I had to see.

  Thorn walked up. “You look spooked,” she said to me.

  “I just spoke to one of the guys who is also a prisoner.”

  A quiet gasp. “How?”

  “Shower drain.” I scanned the room. Noted again that the windows had mesh screens blocking off deep window wells. The glass was frosted. I whispered, “One of them is going to try to escape today. We need to see outside.”

  Thorn’s eyes went wide. She only shrugged.

  I looked at the long benches on either side of the table, then at the two grubby sofas. I had never noticed that there were no chairs in here. Nothing that could be used as a tool. Not even forks or knives. Meals were mostly things that could be eaten with fingers. Fast-food burgers and fries.
Pizza. Breakfast sandwiches. Sometimes fruit. Juice, milk and water were all single servings. In plastic or cardboard.

  I needed a tool. A way to break through a window. I had to know if the guys’ plan was successful. It was a way to hang on to hope. If someone escaped, then maybe we would all get away.

  I ran into the bedroom and flipped over one of the cots. I tried to wiggle one of the legs, but it was solid. I returned to the main room. As usual, the other three girls were parked on the sofas, watching a movie. I stood by the end of one sofa.

  “What’s your problem?” Red asked.

  I ignored her. “Priss? Could you get up for a minute?”

  She stood, then yelped when I flipped the sofa onto its back.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Red’s voice had risen.

  I said, “Looking for a tool.” I began twisting the sofa’s stubby leg. It was the size of a can of tuna. The sofa in our basement was similar to this one. I’d often had to vacuum under it by lifting it. Thankfully, the guards hadn’t thought to remove the legs. I took off two legs at one end, then turned the sofa back over. It was barely crooked.

  Red stepped up to me, a mean look on her face. “What are you doing with those?”

  “You said you’d stay out of my way. I want to see outside.”

  Red snorted. “Like those will help.”

  “We’ll see.” I circled around her and moved across the room. I sat on the bench closest to the windows and studied them.

  Red turned up the movie’s volume and plopped back down. “You’re a stupid bitch,” she called over her shoulder.

  I shook my head. She’d had the last word, shown the others she was boss. She should be fine now. Unless she was the kind to rat to the guards. I couldn’t worry about that now.

  Thorn sat beside me. “The mesh is pretty small. And hard. I don’t think you can pound a hole in it.”

  I stood. “These windows are the ones the leeches see when they come in. I don’t want to mess with them.” I marched into the bedroom. Thorn followed.

  We moved the closest cot under the window. We stood on it, feet on the edges so we didn’t bounce on the sagging springs. The sofa legs were too fat to use on the screen. I dropped them onto the cot. I tried to force my fingers through the wire mesh blocking the window. Pain squeezed my fingers. I ignored it and tried to push them in farther. It felt like someone was pounding on my fingers with rocks. I squeezed and pulled. Gritted my teeth and pulled again.

  Then I yanked my fingers free. “Shit, that hurts.” I shook my hands and rested against the wall while Thorn tried the same thing.

  When she pulled her hands free, tears ran down her cheeks. “I don’t think—”

  “Wait.” I ran my hands along the trim around the window well. The trim held the mesh in place. One corner was raised. I pressed my head against the wall and looked at that corner. “The screws are loose. I think the wall must be a bit rotten here.”

  Thorn sniffed. “So…we did something?”

  “I think so.” My fingers were still aching, but I pushed them into the crack between the trim and the wall. I pulled. The screw made a quiet creaking noise as it inched out from the soft spot. “Hell yes,” I whispered.

  I rubbed my fingers and tried again. The crack became wider. I pulled the trim. It snapped halfway along the top of the window, where another screw held tight.

  “Damn,” Thorn said.

  “No, I think it’s okay. We can do the same with the trim that goes down from that corner. The mesh will open like folding over a corner of paper, but it should be enough.”

  Thorn took a turn pulling the second piece of trim away. I was bigger and stronger, so I finished the job. The whole piece of trim squealed as it pulled away.

  “Woo-hoo!” I turned the trim over in my hands. One screw had torn a hole in it and was still in the wall. But on the other end, a screw stuck out two inches. A weapon. I dropped it on the bed.

  “Now what?” Thorn rubbed her fingers. She bent over and picked up the sofa legs. “Will these break the window?”

  I grunted as I folded back the metal screen. “I hope so.” I reached through the triangle-shaped opening and ran my fingers across the cool glass. “The frosted covering is on the outside. It might hold the glass together as I break it.”

  “Hey,” Priss said from behind us. “I brought you some water. Are you having any luck?”

  We stayed on the bed and drained the bottles of water. Handed back the empties. I said, “Maybe.”

  Priss nodded and stood there for a moment, looking like she wanted to help. I said, “There isn’t any room on the cot. Could you go stay with Red? Let me know if she says anything that sounds like trouble?”

  Priss smiled. “Sure thing.”

  I reached through the hole we’d made and started banging the glass with the sofa leg. It cracked. Pieces fell off, but most stuck to the frosted covering. When half the window was a spiderweb of cracks, I took the trim with the screw and drove it against the broken glass all along the frame. It buckled. Holes appeared.

  I stuck the trim through the biggest hole in the top corner. Wiggled it until the screw caught in the frosted plastic material. I pulled. When the corner folded in, I reached for it with one hand. The plastic film now protected my hand from the glass. I pulled more. The broken half of the window gave way.

  Beyond the glass, security bars fenced off the window.

  Chapter Nine

  I leaned against the wall with a sob. “Those assholes thought of everything.” I realized at that moment that I’d been counting on the window to escape.

  “What? The bars?” Thorn asked. “I wondered if there might be some. On brighter days you can sort of see shadows of them in the other windows. I guess it’s been cloudy since you came. This window never gets as bright.”

  “That’s because there’s a tree.” I stretched my neck to look out. “I can see part of the yard. A huge lawn. Trees at the far end. And a stone wall, I think.”

  “Sounds like one of those fancy places north of the city.”

  “Yes. Big old houses with fences and gates.”

  “That fits with where a fancy spa might be.”

  “And it’s a great place for spa owners who don’t want anyone to see what’s going on. By the looks of it, our windows face the back. Probably the spa customers are never allowed back here.”

  “What a fucking mess.” Red spoke from right behind us.

  I startled. Spun around and almost fell off the bed. I held the stick behind me. Red would take it for sure if she saw it. “I’ll figure out a way to block it off.”

  “And what did you find?”

  “Bars on the windows. But you can see the yard, if you want to look.”

  “What’s the fucking point?”

  Thorn said, “Jo talked to one of the guys through the shower drain. They’re going to try to escape. We want to be able to watch them.”

  “If that’s the way they go.”

  I wished Thorn hadn’t said that, but it didn’t matter now. I added, “We’re at the back of the building. Probably the blood room is too. That’s where one of the guys is going to try to get out. If he does, he will end up in the backyard.”

  “Stupid,” Red sneered. “Have fun watching. Fat fucking chance you’ll see anything.”

  I shrugged. “I’ll take my chances.”

  Priss was standing behind Red. She mouthed, Sorry.

  Red pushed past her and left the room. Priss walked to the cot under the window. “Can you really see out?”

  I nodded. “Not much to see, but yes. We should take turns watching.”

  “Us, or them as well?” Thorn waved at the other room.

  “Just us. Priss, do you want to help too?”

  She grinned. “Love to. I was the second one captured. Staring at green grass sounds better than watching any movie.”

  So Priss took the first turn. After I tucked my stick under my mattress, I spoke to Thorn. “If someone gets away,
we have to be prepared. In case the leeches decide to punish all of us. Or do something with us like you think they might. We’ll need to fight back.”

  She looked worried, but she nodded.

  We went and sat at the big wooden table. My fingers still hurt. I rubbed them as we whispered together.

  “I don’t get why someone would kidnap us to get our blood.” I sighed. “There must be legal ways to get it.”

  “Remember I sold blood to these guys when I was on the street? Legal blood donors have to be adults. That’s why they closed their store, I guess. Someone must have figured out their donors were too young.”

  “So taking our blood is illegal. Then why do it?”

  “They say that young blood makes old people feel and act younger, maybe even heals things. If so, then hell, they could charge more than we can even imagine. Some rich people would buy it.”

  “But kidnapping?”

  “Yeah. There are always people willing to break the rules to make money. And not having to pay for something you can sell lets you make even more money.”

  “You’ve thought about this a lot.”

  “I’ve had lots of time.”

  I lowered my voice even more. “What did this”—I waved my hand—“take you away from?”

  “Not much. Mom’s boyfriend wanted her but not kids. I bounced around. Eventually bounced here.”

  It seemed like an answer Thorn had practiced. I was disappointed. I’d thought we were sort of becoming friends.

  She gave me a weak smile. “You?”

  I shrugged. “Control-freak dad. The kind that wants a perfectly behaved, perfectly silent child.”

  “How does that work?”

  “Mostly by hiding. Staying out of his sight.”

  “That why you’re here?”

  “I was late getting home. Locked out.”

  “But you have a home out there.”

  My hands were a bit better, but I kept rubbing them. “Doesn’t feel like mine. I have a bedroom. A mom who does what she can for me.” Talking about her made sadness roll over me. And so did thinking about how much home had been like a prison. Dad was the guard. “Mom’s always afraid of everything. She has to be freaking out right now. Imagining the worst. She’s good at imagining the worst.”