Threemonthsago.
Everly watched as the waves rolled against the shoreline. Somehow her friends had convinced her to come with them to Brazil. Those same friends had ditched her and one other girl to go hang out with some locals. Everly squinted her eyes as she scanned the cerulean waters.
“Hey, Ever.” Carla stretched and stood. “I need to use the bathroom. Be right back.”
“Okay.”
Everly watched as Carla trudged her way up the beach to a small outhouse. The resort they were staying at had outhouses all along the beach for their guests to use. It was so much better than making the hike back to their rooms, even if they were a little public. She thought back to her last day of work before thetrip. Her boss had brought her into the office and explained he had been losing business and needed to let her go. If she hadn’t already paid for this trip, she would have bailed. She’d be jobless and most likely homeless if she didn’t find a new job soon. Using this money for survival would have been smarter.
Everly picked up her phone and glanced at the screen. Carla had been gone a long time. Everly pushed up from the sand and dusted off. The nosey side of her personality had her curious about where her friend had run off to. Had she found a hot Brazilian man and ditched her? Or maybe the sun and alcohol had gotten to her, and she was passed out. As Everly got closer to the outhouse, she realized something was very wrong. The door was ajar, and Carla’s phone was lying on the ground. She peeked inside to find the shack empty.
“Carla?” Everly glanced at the people mulling around. No one seemed too concerned with the out-of-place door or cellphone. Everly walked around the wall and down the path, abandoning her and Carla’s things at the water's edge. She could always go back for them later once she knew Carla was ok.
Her nerves were firing with unease and confusion. It wasn’t like Carla to just walk off without her phone. Normally, she would’ve texted someone if she wasn’t feeling well.
Everly approached one of the hotel staff members. “Um.” She smiled, unsure if they even spoke English. “Have you seen a girl come through here? Tall, dark hair, skinny? She was in a pink bikini.”
“Yes. She that way with a man.” The woman nodded toward the path leading toward staff quarters. Weird.
“Okay. Thank you.” Everly hurried down the cobblestone pathway in search of her friend. “Carla,” she called out, really baffled over why she would go with a stranger alone.
Rounding the corner, she stopped dead in her tracks. A large man had Carla draped over his shoulder. He was opening the back of a van and getting ready to push her inside.
“Hey!” Everly yelled out. “What the fuck are you doing to her?” She hurried toward them, only to be grabbed from behind. “Let me go!” She kicked her feet, trying to free herself from the man's meaty clutches. His hand wound in her hair, yanking her head back as he covered her mouth with his free hand.
“Shut your mouth, Bitch.”
Everly’s eyes widened in fear. She struggled against him as he carried her toward her friend, who laid unconscious inside the van.
“We’ll take her too. Boss will be happy we got two.”
“Wait!” she cried out as the door slammed in her face. Crawling toward the door, she tried the handle. “Fuck.” It was locked. Everly scooted next to her friend. “Carla, can you hear me?” She leaned down and listened for her friend’s breath. Relieved to find her breathing, Everly pulled her into her lap. “What the fuck have we gotten into, Carla?” She patted her friend's hair. Everlytensed as the two men crawled into the front seats of the van. She held the man's eyes as he let his gaze roam her body.
“You’ll do nicely. We were only going to grab your friend, but you made this too easy.”
“What are you going to do with us? Kill us?” Everly feared they were taking them to rape them somewhere.
“Kill you? No.” His voice was tinged with an accent she couldn’t place. “You will bring top dollar to the man in charge.”
“Top dollar?” Everly’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Wait. You’re going to sell us?”
The gravity of her situation settled deep in her gut. Bile burned in her throat as she fought to keep it down. She had landed herself right in the middle of a human trafficking ring. They were trapped and being carted off to God knows where. In her haste to find Carla, she had left her phone and shoes on their towel. And when the man grabbed her, she had dropped Carla’s phone on the pavement. There was nothing to let her other friends know what happened. Everly squeezed her eyes closed. The reality was women who went missing were never found. She read enough to know what was about to happen. They would be sold to the highest bidder. Everly could only hope they wouldn’t drug or rape them first.
The van ride took what felt like forever until it finally stopped moving. She watched in horror as the two men exited the van and left them locked inside. Everly could hear the commotionoutside, but their words were muffled. The sound of metal screeching made her jump as the van doors were ripped open.
“Get out.”
Everly scooted out from under her friend, who was still unconscious, and eased out of the van. Her feet ached from the rocky terrain she was standing on. “Please don’t hurt us.”
“Shut up.” He shoved her, causing her to fall to her knees. The rocks burrowed into her flesh, making her wince with pain. Tiny pebbles dug into her skin as the blood trickled down her knees. She watched over her shoulder as Carla was pulled from the van and tossed into the back of the awaiting SUV. “Grab her.”
She was hurled up to her feet and pushed into the SUV. Everly’s sobs went unheard as they tied her hands and gagged her mouth.
Never in her life had Everly been this afraid. She believed this was the end of her twenty-five years, and that left her paralyzed with trepidation.
Would her parents look for her?
What about her other friends? What would they do when they found her and Carla missing?
