I toss my leather jacket over my shoulders, look at the guys and nod, then we start our walk across the lot. This side of town is literally abandoned and has been for years. Hardly any cops or anyone comes to check in. So, it makes sense that they put the ring in this area. We cross the street to a line of run-down houses, most of which have their windows boarded up.
“It’s that one over there,” Chad whispers, pointing at a blue-colored looking house. Me and Raiden both nod and follow behind.
This is exactly what I needed. I haven’t done a trafficking raid in a hot minute. As we close in on the house, there’s two guys standing guard up front. I pull a dagger from my leg holster and pick up my pace, ready to feel my blade slice this motherfucker's throat. Raiden picks up pace coming up right beside me. He taps my arm and points to the smallest guy in front of us, gesturing for me to take that guy on, and points at himself and the huge burly looking man that he’s going to tackle.Seems fair, and today I’m not even arguing.If I go home all fucked up again, I’ll never be able to get out of the guys' grasp.
We watch and wait as they walk back and forth in front of the house, doing normal patrolling. When they pause to turn around and face the house, we sneak up behind them. I pounce on the guy like a feral cat. Wrapping my legs around his waist, I bring my arm around his neck and quickly slide the blade across his throat. Giving him no time to react or call for help, I dig the blade in deeper just as I drag it across the bottom of his neck, reveling in the way his blood feels between my fingers. I jumpdown off the man as his body falls slack to the ground. The only noise coming from him is the gurgling of his own blood. Chad walks up the stairs, and I look over in Raiden’s direction. He’s got two blades shoved into the underside of the guy's jaw. I give him an ‘I’m impressed’ look and follow Chad into the house.We’re out for blood, and tonight, we’re painting the streets.
The smell inside is awful. It’s the scent of death, piss, and terrible body odor. We creep through the front part of the house, checking each and every room to make sure it’s clear. Surely they didn’t have only those two outside patrolling the top half. If so, they are starting to slack. Maybe because no one has messed with them in a while?
“I was expecting more guys up here,” Chad says, turning to look at us as we step into the kitchen. I shrug just as the basement door starts to slowly creek open. We quietly move and push our bodies against the wall, waiting for them to come all the way out before we spring into action. No need to alert whoever is down there yet. The man walks through the door and closes it as he’s ending a phone call. I go to move but Raiden grabs the man as soon as he puts his phone in his pocket and snaps his neck. The bone crunching sound sends chills up my spine and makes my stomach turn.That’s one thing you don’t see every day.
“Nice, but also brutal.” I grin wickedly and move towards the basement door. Chad slides in front of me, putting himself first.
“How chivalrous,” I whisper and roll my eyes behind his back.
We move quietly through the door and down the stairs, as we get further down I can hear voices. Multiple men talking and small whimpers. I’m so focused on the crying and whimpers coming, that it scares me when Chad throws his hand out, stopping us in our tracks as voices grow closer. We try to hide our bodies against the cold concrete wall and watch as theshadows grow closer. Two guards walk by going to the opposite side.
The air is chilling down here, and the vibes I get are just fueling me to hurry, save who I need to, and get the fuck out. I never had to endure this, the trafficking part — but it brings enough bad memories up from my past.The basement, laying on the table cold and bare. Chained down, waiting for whatever cruel things Brock had planned. Sweetness. The one name I’ll never be able to forget, yet makes me want to throw my guts up every time I think about it. It’s like I can feel him slicing my body all over again. My body is shaking, like I’m shaking with anxiety.
“Raven. Raven,” Raiden says, shaking me, and then he slaps me across the face. Not hard, but enough to snap me the fuck out of the memory. “No time for that, you got it? Lock the demons away, these people need us now. Release your demons on the sick fucks who did this,” he whisper-shouts in my face, and all I can do is nod in response. He’s right.Lock this shit down, Raven. Now is not the time for a mental breakdown!
“Let’s go. We need to try to get a guess of how many people we’re walking out of here with. So time to split up,” I say and take off to the right. The basement down here doesn’t look like a normal one. It’s expanded almost like a hallway of nothing but cages. It’s like one long concrete hallway that runs left and right. I slowly walk deeper down this hellhole, and all that’s in the cages is chains and a bucket to piss in. They are treating them like animals, and it sickens me. I pass the first few sets of cages and nothing, no one is in them. Just old dried up blood, it looks like, and I have to turn away. Coming up on the next few, I see a girl in one, beaten and bruised up, curled in on herself. Across from her is another one, and she looks the same.
I’ve got to be halfway down this side and finally see a guard in one of the cages through the bars of the ones I’m next to and canhear his voice, but can’t quite make out what he’s saying. As soon as I walk a little closer and can see what he’s actually doing, I see red. He’s got some little girl laid out on the floor. Her lifeless eyes connect with mine, and that’s when I know she’s checked out. She doesn’t care what happens to her anymore. I’ve been there; I’ve worn that look. I sneak up behind him and push the door open a little further, his grunts and his degrading words to her covering up any noise the gate makes. I bring my finger up to my lips so she doesn’t scream, because what I’m about to do to him may scar them just as much as all the abuse.
I grab my dagger and squat down behind him, bringing the blade up to his throat, and he immediately stops thrusting inside of the girl.
“What the fuck?” he chokes out and reaches for his gun as I press the blade harder against the lump in his throat. He swallows against my knife, and I press even deeper, cutting through the skin.
“How many more guards are down here?” I grit out, and he starts to laugh sinisterly.
“More than one lousy girl can take on,” he snarls, and I slowly dig the blade deeper and deeper. The girl underneath me looks at him, then over to me.
“It’ll be okay. I promise,” I tell her, and she just watches. Unmoving. Uncaring.
“You going to answer the question or die?” I grin even though he can’t see, because he’s going to die either way.
“There’s six down here plus the ones I’m sure you met upstairs.” He swallows and tries to turn and look back at me. “We’re all armed, plus there’s an alarm we can push if there’s trouble,” he finishes, and who knew I could get him to sing like a canary.
“I get to live now, right?” he asks, and I don’t even respond. Digging the blade in even further, I drag it across his throat andgrin as the blood seeps through my fingers. Standing, I grab him under his arms and pull him off the poor girl who’s still laying under him. As soon as his weight is off, she scrambles to the corner and tries to throw her gown back on. Meanwhile, I grab the limp noodle between his legs and make deep slices until it’s barely hanging on.Sick fucker.
“It’s okay, me and my friends are going to get ya’ll out of here. Is that okay?” I ask the girl who’s looking at me with the most frightening look on her face.
“Y-yes.” she stammers, and that’s the only response I get. I nod, because that’s all I need. For them to know they will be safe, are safe.
Chapter 29
Raven
After searching the lousy guard, I found a set of keys in his pocket, now let’s just hope they unlock all these chains. That way we can start moving everyone out of here as quickly as possible so we won’t raise any red flags for the guards not answering their phones or radios.The last thing I need is all of that bullshit to show up when we don’t have enough backup with us. Slowly, I approach the girl I’m in the cage with and reach for the cuffs on her hands to unlock them. Once they are off, she begins to rub her wrists, and I pull out my phone.
Me-
Took out a guard, there’s like 5 girls down this way.
Chad-
We took out a couple of guards too and found some kids.
