She nodded. “Good for you guys, out and proud.”
I wrinkled my nose and opened my mouth to speak, but she put her hand up.
“Shh. Listen,” she whispered.”
Heavy footfalls ricocheted above our heads, creaking the floorboards and sending dust falling toward our faces. I dropped my head, wiping my face off and wondering whether or not I could get away with stomaching the smell of the floor water long enough to wash it off my skin.
Until a blood-curdling scream jolted my entire body.
“Leave my sister alone!” the young woman bellowed.
She rushed past me in the blink of an eye, soaring up the steps before she banged her fists against the door. The screaming continued, as if the woman above us was being tortured. And as I rushed up behind the woman, the girl’s screams infested my mind.
“No! Please! I’ll do anything, just don’t. Please! I’m begging you! Take me!” the young woman shrieked as she continued banging on the door. “You can have me! Just let her go!”
She continued fighting against the door until a large, shadowed man ripped it open, sending her falling to the floor.
Before he put his boot in her motherfucking face and shoved her back down the stairs.
“Shut up, or you’re next,” the man said flatly.
I watched as the young woman scrambled to get to her feet. She charged the booted man like she thought she had the upper hand, but when I watched him pull something off his hip, I leapt in front of her. I spread my arms wide, watching as she thudded against my chest. And as she stumbled back down the stairs, the young woman’s yelps above my head backdropped the baton that came down against my back. Over, and over, and over again while the young woman continued to cry out for mercy above our heads.
And while I had no god damn clue what in the hell was going on, I knew one thing was for certain.
I sure as hell wasn’t gonna watch that baton-flinging asshole beat the tar out of some random woman.
2
JULIA
The blood dripping from the man’s cut along his eyebrow made me shake my head. I didn’t need anyone fighting my battles, most of all by some stranger who had a hero complex.
“Sssss, ha. Holy shit, that hurts,” he hissed.
I gripped his chin. “Stay still, I can’t help if you’re darting around everywhere.”
He shot me a look. “Maybe don’t try to wipe off the damned thing all at once, then.”
“What? You jumped in front of a beating that was meant for me, but you can’t handle some alcohol wipes?”
He grumbled to himself and while I didn’t catch what he said, he also relented. He leaned a bit toward me, and I continued my efforts to clean him up after he did one of the stupidest things I’d ever seen a man do in my life. Did he think I hadn’t already been beaten night after night in this place, trying to escape this hellhole so that I could get to my sister?
Their beatings were nothing but child’s play, at that point.
“No telling how old this first aid kit is,” I murmured to myself.
The man sitting at my feet shrugged. “If it works.”
After getting his eyebrow cleaned off, I had to use a butterfly band-aid in order to get it to close. Honestly, I wasn’t convinced that it didn’t need stitches. But what the hell were we going to do about that? Knock on the door and proclaim that someone needed a doctor?
For all I knew, that’d be their excuse to take us out back and shoot us like some poor, unsuspecting farm animal.
“Was that really your sister?”
The gruff man spoke, and his question brought tears to my eyes.
“Julia, please! What are they doing to me!?”
