Taco had me thrown into a room that was dark and dingy, just as much so as the one previous. Small slivers of light shined in through cracks in the curtains. I could tell that I wasn't alone. The room was full of sniffling and shuffles.

I looked around to see that there were about 10 other women in the room all sitting on the poorly maintained furniture. I stood up.

"Where am I?" I asked.

No one answered at first. A dirty, blonde girl, a few years younger than I was, took a step towards me. "How are you not black and blue yet?" she asked me in a shaky voice.

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "Did someone beat you?"

She nodded, pursing her lips to hold back tears. "Yes."

"Tell me."

"It's Taco. As soon as he deems you worthy to sell, he beats you so that you can't run away that easily."

"Then I suppose that Taco doesn't want to sell me."

Her light blue eyes glistened with tears as she looked up at me. "Then his purpose with you must be far darker than ours."

The words coursed through me like mercury, leaving me shivering. It seemed that wherever I turned, someone bad followed me. I had no hope. I had been kidnapped from my kidnappers. What were the odds that Gomez was going to come searching for me? I was out of his reach and no longer his problem, which is what he wanted in the first place, right? But what about Luther? Surely he would come looking for me. That is, if R.J. hadn't killed him when he shot his shoulder.

Either way, all that awaited me was torture. At least if I stayed here, I had people to connect to. I grabbed the girl's hand gently and led her to an empty sofa. I sat next to her and rested a hand on her boney shoulder.

"Tell me, what's your name, sweetheart?"

"My name is Sarah. What's yours?"

"My name is Ava. But, around here, I guess that they're going to call me The Ava Wave."

She rolled her swollen, bruised eyes. "Let me guess; R.J. came up with that one."

I looked down and smiled a bit at her passive aggressiveness despite the bleak circumstances. "Yeah, he did." I looked back up at her. "Sarah, how old are you?"

"I'm 14 years old. 15 next month."

It pained my heart to hear those words escape her lips. Pulled into human trafficking at the age of 14. What kind of a life is that? Not just for her, but for anyone? I looked around at the other women in the room, all huddled together, awaiting their doomed fates.

"How old are you?" she asked me.

"Me?" I asked, putting a hand on my chest. "I'm 17."

"So, you're almost an adult."

I nodded. "Yes. I'm still supposed to be in high school though." I pressed my lips together. I was supposed to be at class right then. I wandered how much the police were looking for me. Quite a bit, I supposed, from what Taco let on. But still. Gomez had driven an awfully long way away from home. But, if the police weren't such a threat, then why would Taco be taking the precautions not to traffic me right now? "I should really be there right now, in my English class."

"You definitely don't look like you're from around here," she commented. "How did R.J. and Sean find you?"

I reclined and set an arm on my knee. "Now that's a very long story."

Sarah looked around the room and let out a sigh. "I think we have time."

I smiled at her. She adjusted herself to make herself comfortable on the sofa. I took in a deep breath and began telling her everything that had happened in my life over the past two weeks.

"So it all began when I first moved into a new town in Idaho. On my first day of school, one of the girls who attended class there, had apparently died in a car crash the day before. It looked like an accident, but everyone at school believed that this boy named Luther was behind it all."

"Why?" she asked.

"I'm getting there." I let out a sigh and looked away, recalling the memory. "Luther was a very creepy looking boy. He wasn't goth or anything, he just wore black, had black hair and didn't eat, I guess. He was paler than a ghost. Well, it turns out, that girl who had died had been his partner for a project. Since he no longer had a partner, I was assigned to work with him. We went to his house after school that day. His house, was actually sort of like this one. Real dark, and dirty and creepy."

"What happened? Did he try to kill you?" she asked me intently.

I half-shook my head. "Well, not exactly. He chained me to his couch and I feel like he was going to molest me...but for some reason he didn't. He let me go, but threatened to kill me if I told anyone." I surprised myself with how nonchalantly I recalled the memory. It was as if that were almost normal to me now, his ever threatening presence. I had learned to just accept my fate rather than fight it. It was sad, really.

"What do you think made him change his mind?"

I shrugged. "I'm still not sure. But the worst part was, when we finally moved into our house, it was right across the street from Luther's."

She let out a sarcastic chuckle. "Well, that is luck at its best. Is it not?" I laughed in turn.

As I told on, more and more women had gathered to hear my story. Before I knew it, they all were listening to what I had to say. I have to admit, it was nice to finally talk to someone about this, even if it was someone I didn't know.

"He told me that he loved me. And yet for some reason, he wonders why I don't love him back!"

"You did mention that he was a psychopath, correct?" one of the women asked me. I nodded.

"And mildly autistic. Gomez says that he has the reasoning of a five year old."

"I don't think that a heartless killer has the reasoning of a five year old."

I let out a sigh. "You'd have to know him."

"Well, then what happened?" Sarah asked. The women all hushed up to listen.

"As I took a shower, he snuck in and he...he..." my voice trembled as it trailed off. The memory was too horrid to remember. I had tried so hard to push it from my mind.

"He what?" one of them asked.

"You know what!" another whispered to her.

"It's okay," Sarah assured, putting a hand on my arm. "You don't have to say it."

I nodded and took in a deep breath. "Then Gomez came in and caught him. He revealed that he didn't want Luther to do anything to me because he didn't want the authorities involved. For if Luther went to prison, Gomez would be his only reference. The police would bust him for the marijuana. That's what it all boiled down to. I asked what had happened to his parents, and Luther admitted to killing them."

That caused several gasps within the small crowd of women before me.

"He killed his own parents?"

"But why?"

"How sick!"

I nodded. "That was when I lost it." I proceeded to tell them all about how they had abducted me not once, but twice, then taken me here. "Then R.J. and Sean fooled us into giving them a ride here. Once we got here, they kidnapped me and shot Luther. I don't know if he is dead or alive."

"Are you worried about him?"

"Of course I am worried about him."

"But why?" Sarah asked. "He's caused you nothing but heartache and strife and anxiety."

I furrowed my brows and thought to myself. Why was I worried about him? He had raped me and threatened to kill me. He had made my life a living hell. He was clingy and told me he loved me. He was a psycho. And yet, I still feared for his life. But why?

I shook my head. "I...don't know why, to be honest."

"Do you think that you have feelings for him?" one of them asked me.

I lightly chuckled to myself. But, did I? The very thought of me and Luther together horrified me beyond belief. I could never trust him. He was a killer, a liar and a rapist, after all. Who can love that?

The door to the room was flung open, causing everyone in the room to scatter away from me. The perp, R.J., walked up to me and lifted me up by my hair. I let out a cry of pain.

"Can it, Princess!" he rasped. He began shoving me out of the room. He slammed the door behind us as he shoved me down a hallway and into a room. He closed the door and walked up to me.

"Taco says that once the police stop looking for you, you go into the system."

"What do you mean 'When the police stop looking for me'?" I asked.

"Oh, trust me. After about a year or two, they'll stop."

I let that sink in. They would have no reason to think that I was alive. My mother received no ransom note, no phone call from the abductors. No clue to my survival. I suppose that they would stop looking for me.

"But, until then, Taco says that you're all mine."

I sharply looked up. "What?"

He closed in on me and forced me down onto the bed. I struggled to get out from under him, but I knew that the effort was futile. He began to take off my tank top. I screamed at him as I tried to keep his hands off of me. As he began to kiss my neck, my muscles suddenly became weak, and I gave up as shivers shot down my spine.

"Luther..." I whispered as a Hail Mary, hoping perhaps I could somehow pray to him.

Someone suddenly burst into the room. R.J. growled and looked up. "WHAT?" he shouted. "Can't you see that I'm busy?"

"It's them," Sean began. "They came back for Ava."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sorry I haven't updated in a few days

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