I open my eyes then slam them shut, not wanting to believe what I’m seeing is real. My heartbeat thumps rapidly, and my breathing begins to increase, so much so that I know if I don’t calm down, I will pass out again. I take a moment, gathering courage, and when I open my eyes again, it takes a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. I look around, seeing I’m in a small room. The walls are pitched, which makes me believe I’m in an attic. The sound of dogs barking is so loud it’s almost deafening.

My eyes land on a small figure that is huddled in the corner. Her long brown hair is down, and her face is smudged with dirt, along with her clothes. I scoot closer to her and she begins to cower away.

“I won’t hurt you,” I whisper, going to her side, but not too close. “What’s your name?”

“El…Ellie. Wh-what’s yours?” she whispers in a hoarse tone after a long moment.

“July,” I whisper back. “Do you know where we are?” I ask while looking around the space, trying to see if there are any windows.

“No,” she whimpers, and I can hear the fear in her voice from that one single word.

“How did they get you?” I ask.

Her eyes close and she lowers her head as her body begins to shake, and I don’t think she’s going to answer, but then she says so low that I almost miss it, “My mom sold me to these guys.”

“What?” I hiss, completely caught off-guard.

“I know,” she whimpers, dropping my hand and wrapping her arms around her legs, resting her forehead on her bent knees. “She has my daughter. I need to get my daughter,” she cries, and her body begins to shake with silent tears.

I wrap my arms around her and whisper, “It will be okay,” even though I have no idea how I will make it okay. Not for her…not with this.

“You don’t understand. There was another girl here before me. They took her out, and when they brought her back, she was strung out on some kind of drug. She didn’t even remember her own name,” she tells me, and memories of what Wes told me about these guys flash through my head, making me vow that I will get us out of here before they can hurt us.

“Did you hear anything? See anything?” I ask.

“No, I was unconscious when they brought me here. When I woke up, Claire was with me. She said she was kidnapped from outside her house. Not long after I woke up, they came and got her.”

“What did they look like?”

“I don’t…I don’t know. They were big; one of them had a tattoo on his forehead of a spider,” she says, and a chill slides over me, knowing that was the same person who threatened Kayan at her apartment.

“We need to look around and see if we can find anything to use as a weapon to protect ourselves when they come back. My fiancé will be expecting me home soon, and when I don’t show, he’ll come looking for me,” I tell her, trying to comfort her and myself.

I just have no idea how long I was out, or how long it took for them to bring me here. I hate this. I can’t imagine what Wes is going to do when he realizes I’m not on my way home.

“Come on,” I whisper, and we begin crawling around on the floor, trying to be careful, because there seem to be some parts that are weak in the floor, like the structure is old. The floor is covered in a thick layer of dust, and my hand runs over a puddle of thick liquid, and when I lift my hand close to my face, my stomach turns as I see it’s actually blood. Someone was hurt here, hurt bad. It’s not a little blood; it’s a lot of it.

“Oh, God,” I whimper in fear as the weight of the situation crashes over me.

“I found something,” Ellie says from across the room, and I wipe my hand on my jeans and go towards her. When I make it to her side, I see she has a two-by-four with a thick rusty nail sticking out of one side.

“This is good,” I say, giving her a hug. At least we won’t be going down without a fight. “Let’s see if we can find anything else, and then we’ll come up with a plan.”

*

Wes

“Where’s July?” Mic asks, and I look from the TV to my phone and feel myself frown. I spoke with her fifteen minutes ago; she should be home by now. I put the phone to my ear and her phone rings and goes to voicemail.

“This is July. Leave a message…or not. Who leaves messages nowadays anyways?” She laughs, and a bad feeling settles in the bottom of my gut. I click off the phone then redial, and it rings then goes to voicemail again.

“What’s up?” Harlen asks as I step out onto the front porch, where he’s having a cigarette.

“Something’s off,” I tell him, waiting to see if her car comes around the corner. The store that we always go to is about ten minutes from the house, if that, and she was checking out when I hung up. “July’s not picking up her phone.”

“Maybe she can’t reach it,” he says, and I nod, but I know that’s not the case. Something’s definitely off.

“I’m giving her three more minutes, but then I’m taking off to look for her,” I tell him, putting my phone back to my ear and trying her again.

“I’ll ride with you,” he agrees, going into the house, coming back moments later with his jacket and handing me mine.

“What’s up?” Mic asks stepping out onto the front porch.”

“Gonna ride out with Wes to check on July. You stay here and have her call if she gets back,” Harlen tells him, and I pull on my jacket then try her number one more time.