The Underworld

chapter six

"Where am I?!" I heard one of the girls at the end of the hall ask. When no one answered, she began to pull against her chains. "What the hell? Let me out!"

"Stop," another girl told her. "They don't like it when we scream."

"Who's they?!"

No one answered and the sound of chains would be heard once again.

At that moment, I felt my stomach turn. While the only pain I felt was the numbness of my legs, I knew that if I didn't eat soon that the numbness wouldn't be the only pain I felt. I wondered when these men would realize that they'd have to feed us all to keep us alive. They probably knew, I thought, but they didn't care. They probably wanted to starve us. I rubbed my forehead against my knees and took a deep breath. I just wanted to get out of here.

"What's your name?"

I lifted my head up from my knees and locked gazes with the girl that was brought in earlier by the two men. "Alaina, yours?"

She didn't respond right away. It seemed as if she was thinking of what to answer. When she did answer, she gave me a toothless smile, "Keira."

While her smile seemed genuine, the rest of her told a different story. She looked exhausted and was malnourished. The was little to no color to her pale skin besides her light pink lips and the bags under her eyes. Her cheekbones and collarbone were significantly prominent. Her fingers looked like twigs that you could easily snap. She had dirt under the bitten ends of her nails. The rest of her was covered by her dirty and wrinkled clothes which consisted of black leggings and a black long sleeve shirt.

"You're new," Keira continued. "Haven't seen you or your friend around here before. What happened to you?" I shifted my gaze to Hayley, who was sleeping in a fetal position, and bit the inside of my cheek.

"Sorry. I'm sure you don't want to remember it, much less talk about it." Keira leaned her head back against the wall. "You were born here in Florida?"

Her words reassured me that we were still in the state. I didn't know where exactly this place was but somehow I hoped that someone would find us before anything else happened to us. I nodded, "you?"

Keira shook her head, "came here to study." Must've been from out of state or abroad, I thought.

She used her arms to slightly lift herself, trying to find a more comfortable position. Keira groaned in pain and placed a hand on the side of her rib cage. "I've been here about two years now. Not here but in and out of the system."

"System?" I frowned.

She brought her right hand and replaced her left hand, leaving it there as the rest of her arm draped over her stomach. Keira looked down at her lap, "human trafficking."

Instantly, my vision began to blur. "No," my voice cracked. I quickly looked back down at Hayley and back at Keira who was looking at me. Her eyebrows were slightly brought together and the corners of her lips hung down.

I opened my mouth but no words came out, so I shut it. I knew Hayley and I were in trouble when I realized what the sorority girls were doing. Somehow I knew we would end up here. This doesn't happen to people like me.

I did my best to surround myself with good people and ignore the negativity. I wasn't beautiful and skinny with curves like how most women wanted to be. I did my best to stay out of trouble, good in school, and stay safe. In reality, I never feared of getting kidnapped. My fear was allowing others to determine who I was and go back to starving myself. I knew that it was nothing compared to getting kidnapped and done who knows what by horrible people, but I never expected this would happen. Because again, this doesn't happen to people like me.