Stolen

Chapter Three

àKATERIß

I could hear them shouting and hooting upstairs. They were busy, doing whatever.

But so was I.

I was using my manicured green fingernails to desperately cut through the rope that tied my hands together. I could feel the skin on my fingers getting chaffed and knew they were raw and red, but I kept trying. I wanted to scream and shout in agony, but I couldn’t attract their attention.

I could make out some words upstairs. I heard the word ‘google’ and I heard my own name butchered from their accents a couple of times. Somebody was angry upstairs, but then they were laughed at.

I don’t know how long they were up there, but it soon became quiet except for the occasional shouts of protest or excitement. Were they playing a game or something? I didn’t hear any feminine shouts, so I assumed the others weren’t involved.

There was a gnawing pain in my stomach and I realized that I was hungry. More like starving. I wasn’t sure how many hours – or days – it had been since the bus raid, but I could tell it had been long enough.

I ignored my hunger, knowing it wasn’t safe to eat anything the men upstairs gave me. I suddenly jumped up and down and bit my lip when I felt a searing pain at my wrist. A blister must have popped. That’s when I gave up and curled into myself, letting the tears fall.

Stay strong. I kept telling myself, but my body wouldn’t listen and I shivered with dread.

Sometime later, I heard the metal door to the basement open and foots clamber down the steps that followed. I sat up straight, wiping the drying tears off my face with my scratched up knee. I composed myself to look brave, fearless.

The boy with the perfect English came down with a huge smile on his face. He was followed by a man with a cigarette hanging from his mouth.

They exchanged some words in some foreign language, and the man with the cigarette clapped English major on the back.

“Go get her, Farid.” He said in decent English while he tossed something at him. Farid smiled and watched his buddy climb back up the stairs and shut the door.

Then English major – Farid - frowned. He looked at the object in his hands and I tried to get a look at what it was. It was something small and black.

Farid caught me looking and the edge of his mouth twitched upward in a slightly humored smile. Then he held out the object for me to see.

It opened like an accordion, and I knew what they were the moment I saw them. I was disgusted and felt my face flush in both fear and humility.

They were condoms.

Farid tore one of them off and threw the rest towards the floor. They slid under the broken wooden bench, hiding in the shadows. For once, I wished that I were down there with them.

He walked over away from the stairs, closer towards me. He stopped to lean against the staircase.

“You know what these are?” he asked me, as he tore open the tiny packaging. He seemed to be enjoying himself, taunting me like this.

My heart was beating at a thousand beats a minute I used my anger to cover up the fear. “You better fuckin’not even think about it.” I snapped.

He paused, holding the condom between his fingers.

Then he surprised me.

“Okay.” He said, and tossed the condom into a trashcan. “We won’t use it, then.”

I felt my heart skip a beat. I wanted to run, far away. Away from him and away from here. I wanted to be home, that was all I wanted. I didn’t belong here – I still didn’t feel like all of this was real.

 My heart was pounding in my ears as he stepped in my general direction. I wanted to scream and run, and I could feel my fear trying to come out through my skin. I had to turn away from his look – he couldn’t see me like this; scared and afraid. It would only turn him on, so my women’s self-defense class had said.

I dreaded waiting for his touch. I sat there, curled up, hiding my face.

Then I heard his footsteps come closer, and in the next second they were past me as he kept walking. I heard a loud thump and a creak, and I turned to see that he had walked right past me and fallen onto the bed. He stretched himself out and turned away from me, as if he was preparing to sleep.

I didn’t trust him.

I waited there for many minutes, my fear subsiding. Still, I was edgy as I waited for him to change his mind and turn around and come at me. My heart froze when he moved and I braced myself, but all he did was tumble to his other side. The next second he was snoring, and I realized that he was asleep.

It was strange, seeing him sleep there. His eyes were closed and he looked like a young child just then, curled up on the straw-filled mattress.

I looked away. Whatever he was doing, I wasn’t going to fall for it. Even though I was starting to feel tired, the pains from my torn wrists were keeping me up. I felt myself doze off for a second and then jump in fear, realizing that I had fallen asleep, unguarded. Farid was still in his bed, so I relaxed and without meaning to, fell asleep.

I could hear loud thumping when I woke up. I opened my eyes and, not realizing where I was, began freaking out. Slivers of pain shot up my arms from my wrists and that’s when I realized where I was.

I was tied up. In a basement. Somewhere in Egypt. Alone.

People were shouting upstairs, and I wondered if that was a danger. I looked towards the bed, and Farid was still lying there, asleep.

“Hey!” I whispered loudly, to get his attention. “Hey!” I said again.

This caused him to stir.

“Wake up!” I said. “Your friends have been…shouting for a while now…?” I was now doubting myself for waking him up. He looked at me, dazed and confused. I nodded my head upwards and as if on cue, I heard a loud foreign word that sounded like a curse from someone upstairs. Then I heard Farid’s name.

He must have heard it too, because he quickly stood up. Before I knew what he was doing he had pulled his t-shirt off and had thrown it across the floor. He kicked off his shoes and his socks, and then began working at his belt.

“What the hell-.”

That’s when he ran over to me. “Take your shirt off.” He said. It was a strict order, but I could hear a hitch in his voice.

“Wha- no!” I shouted, kicking him because he was way to close. My fear returned as a swift pounding in my chest. “Get away from me!”

            He growled. “I’m trying to help you!” he said, and in a quick motion grabbed my paisley shirt and tore it right open. The buttons flew off, revealing my thin camisole underneath.

“You perv – let go!” I shouted, not trusting him. He tossed my now ruined shirt to the ground and I managed to claw him with my nails in the face. He winced and I think he sweared. That’s when he grabbed me, his strength unbelievable. He pinned me against the wall by my shoulders, and grabbed my chin with his other hand, forcing me to meet his eyes.

“Play along.” He growled. With that he grabbed the hair tie that was already failing to hold together my brown hair and threw it across the room. My hair swooshed around my face and I watched as he shuffled through his hair as well.

The metal door to the basement and I could hear a voice shout. Farid ran back to the bed, finishing loosing up his belt. That’s when I realized what he was doing. He was helping me. I wasn’t sure how to play along, but I knew I was supposed to look devastated and weak. I curled up into a ball where I was, letting my choppy hair blanket my face.

I could do this.