I tried to think, to figure out how long I'd been here. How long after you stop taking the pill do you become fertile again? I had no idea, but I didn't think I'd been there that long. A week, maybe? Two?
My thoughts were cut off when I was hit with the cold water from the hose again. He rinsed my hair and body thoroughly and then left me shivering in the corner, my teeth chattering, as he wound it back up and left it near the front door. Then he stepped inside the house and came right back out with a dingy white towel in his hands. He gave it to me and I immediately wrapped it around my body, soaking up what moisture I could before I rubbed it briskly over the rest of me, drying my hair as best as I could.
When I was finished, he held his hand out for the towel, but I quickly wrapped it around myself again. "No," I told him with a shake of my head that made the world tilt around me. I was hungry. And thirsty. And I could feel the panic rising inside of me as the drugs wore off. The thought of walking back inside of that house without something covering me making me feel nauseous. "No," I said it again. I knew he understood that word. It was the same in both languages. Besides, he spoke some English.
He sighed heavily, looking at me like he was just so, so tired of dealing with people like me and our foolish demands. Between one blink of my eyes and the next, he was directly in front of me and the towel was ripped from my body. Stepping back, he gestured with his arm for me to go back into the house.
I stood there, swaying on my bare feet with my arms crossed over my front to cover myself, as I tried to remember why I didn't want to go back inside even though I was now fucking freezing. But my brain was still so foggy and I couldn't think. I just knew instinctively that I didn't want to go into that house.
And then I remembered, and the screams began to rise.
But before they could erupt, he cursed in Spanish and looked around real quick as he took my arm and dragged me back inside. Once the door was closed behind us, he pulled me around in front of him and held me tight against his chest as he started yelling orders at a short guy with a shaved head standing in the far corner of the room.
Hands reached out and touched me as he moved me across the room to the stairs, pinching my breasts and grabbing me between the legs as I fought to keep the panic under control. My companion kicked them away. "No dinero, no mujer!"
Apparently, they wouldn't be getting any free feels today.
I was back upstairs and in my room in no time at all. The short guy followed us in, a glass of water in one hand and a pill in the other. He shoved them at me and I took them gratefully, swallowing down the drug that would take me away from here. They stayed with me until I stopped shaking and my eyelids got heavy. Slowly, I drifted off into my own world. Even the throbbing pain in my wrist lessened. It didn't take long, probably because I'd barely eaten in days.
As I made my way over to the mattress, I hated the thought of lying on it now that I was somewhat clean, but to my surprise, it looked like it had been flipped over, and a blue bedsheet had been thrown across it. Tears filled my eyes when I saw it, and I gratefully sat down and pulled the sheet up around my shoulders. It smelled musty, but I didn't even care. Leaning back against the wall, I huddled under the thin sheet as I fell into the dream world of my mind.
I don't know how long I was asleep when I was suddenly jolted awake, but it must've been hours, for my hair felt dry and I was semi-aware of where I was, but not to the point where the screams would come. My eyelids were so heavy I could barely open them as I pushed myself up onto one elbow and waited. Then I heard it again.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
My heart began to pound. Was that gunshots? I tried to move, to get off the mattress, but I couldn't make my muscles respond to what I wanted them to do. Silent tears tracked down my cheeks. I wasn't sure if they were from fear or hope. Maybe a little bit of both. It could be anyone down there. A rival gang. A disgruntled customer. Or someone who'd come after one of the other girls. I knew the chances that it was someone my father had sent were few and far between. He didn't even know I was in Austin, so how would he have followed me here?
I heard shouts downstairs and more gunshots. Then a guttural scream that morphed into a wet, gurgling sound. In a rush of panic, I dragged myself off the mattress and over to the corner of the room. There was a spot I'd found there after my first "customer." A floorboard that was loose where two of them connected. Pulling it back as far as it would go, I fought to stay conscious as I squeezed my hand inside, my fingers searching for the items I'd stashed there. A ring. A watch. A money clip. Small items that I barely remembered taking while they were too distracted to notice or that were left in my room. I didn't take something from everyone who entered my room. Most of the time I was too out of it to even realize what was happening until later when I found the evidence on my body. Clutching everything in my fist, I made my way back over to the mattress and curled up under the sheet. I don't know why I felt like I needed to have these things on me, but I was either about to be rescued or killed, and for some reason, I felt it was important.
And then everything went eerily quiet. Cowering in the corner of the mattress, I tried to make myself as small as possible.
The floorboards outside my door creaked, and I heard the door across the hall open. I listened intently as the footsteps faded as the person outside my room made their way down the hall to the other rooms. Maybe it was one of the guys who ran the house, checking to make sure we were all still here now that'd they'd killed whoever had tried to interrupt their business. Or maybe they were all dead. Maybe one of the customers decided he didn't want to pay anymore. Hysterical laughter bubbled up inside of me and I slapped my hand over my mouth, trying to keep quiet.
The footsteps stopped outside my room. I tried to keep my eyes open as the doorknob turned and the door slowly creaked open. Hope flared inside of me, but I dashed it down. No one knew where I was. No one was looking for me…
A gun barrel appeared through the crack in the door and slowly swung around the room until it pointed directly at me. The door was pushed open a little more.
Oh, my god.
A violent sob burst from me before I could stop it.
He'd found me.