Chapter three

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As soon as I get to my house I head up to my room, I step inside and look around. Everything was exactly as I had left it.
As if nothing happened.
Walking to my bathroom I strip down and turn the hot water on desperately needing a shower.
***
Standing in the shower as the water runs over my skin I look down at myself ashamed. Scared. And most of all. Tired.
The fresh cuts, old scars, fading bruises, and permanent memories taint my skin.
I was so tired. So scared. But I was home.
All I wanted was to go home for those three years.
And I'm finally home.

It all seemed to good to be true.

__________

As I go through my clothes I try to put a bra and thong on but they don't fit, the bra more than the thong. I sigh and slip on a t shirt and walk out of my room heading down the stairs.
I see my family sitting in the living room talking, my mom looks up at me " hey sweetheart, how are you feeling?" She asks and I nod " I'm good mom. I'm really good. Do you think we could go shopping? None of my clothes fit anymore" I ask and she nods smiling " yes of course. Why don't you and your friends go tomorrow, once you've had a night home and gotten some rest. This has to be a lot" she replies and I nod " yeah okay. I'm gonna go get some sleep. Call me for dinner?" I ask and she nods " of course, I love you sweetheart" she replies and I smile " I love you too ma" I reply and turn around heading up the stairs.
******

As soon as I hit my bed my eyes close and I sigh in relief. I can't remember the last time I slept in a real bed. And actually slept.

*******

I wake up in a cold sweat, my heart beating rapidly as memories run through my mind, tears rushing from my eyes.

Sitting up I turn and stand up walking over to my bathroom I turn the sink on and splash cold water on my face, cooling down and waking myself up more.

Sighing I look into the mirror and stare at my reflection. I don't look how I remembered. I don't feel like it either.

I hear someone yelling my name and sigh, turning the sink off I leave my bathroom and make my way down the hall.
*******
As we sit everyone talks about their lives as if I've been here, as if nothing happened. Like they are all scared to mention that I was missing for 3 years. And they have no clue where I was or what happened.

Out of nowhere Zeus slams his glass down and turns to me, everyone stops talking and I sigh, out of all of them I knew he would be the one to ask first.
" what happened to you Tina? Where did you go?" He asks nervously, his voice breaking.
I take a deep breath and push down all of the vile memories and flashbacks trying to fight their way into my head.
" Sterling and I were taken" I say softly and hope they won't ask for more details.
" what do you mean you were taken? Who the fuck took you?!" He asks angrily, I sigh " It was more than one person. But the leader, his name was Abel. Or at least that's what he called himself." I answer vaguely and he continues pushing as everyone else stays silent, I knew they all desperately wanted to know, they deserved it too. But I didn't want to tell them. I couldn't.
" the leader of what Tina? You have to tell us what happened to you. I mean three years went by T! Three fucking years where we all thought you were dead, three years where we missed birthdays, holidays. Three years of heartbreak and wishing that you would come home every day. And now you're home and believe me I'm so fucking happy, but I can't just pretend nothing happened. I can't just pretend that you've been here the whole time, some messed up shit happened to you and I need to know what happened, I need to know where my baby sister went for all those years" Zeus yells as tears build up in his eyes and his voice breaks.
I nod and rub my eyes " We..sterling met this guy online. He was a senior, she really liked him. I was weary about the whole thing but she was so happy so I let it happen, then he wanted to meet. Both of us. And I couldn't let sterling go alone even though I didn't want to, even though I was scared. So I went. And then this van pulled up and the guy claimed to be his older brother, came up with some stupid lie and Sterling believed it. I guess I wanted to too, she was so excited so I just went with it. I wanted her to be happy. But when we got in the car, the guy was being all weird, saying creepy things. And then next thing I knew I passed out and woke up in a cell. And that's when I met Abel. He was the leader of it all. I don't remember most of it, but there was so many other girls there. And he would take us out every day, and he would do our makeup and hair, take a picture of us. And someone would bid on us, we would be brought to them and then after some time we would go back and the whole process was started again. For three years that went on. Until Abel was bringing me somewhere when the police got him" I answer, it was half the truth.
Then Dev speaks up, " what did they do to you Val?" She asks softly and I bite my lip " I don't remember all of it, I think they would just hurt us.." I trail off and stand up " I think I'm gonna go back to sleep, I'm still pretty tired. I'll text the girls in the group chat so we can go tomorrow" I say softly and Dev nods " yeah, okay" she replies and I nod and smile, walking towards the stairs.

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