Taking A Chance

01| Nightmares

Crawling backwards, a frightened Mercedes shook her head repeatedly while he approached her. Her hair was all over her head and her eyes were stained red with tears glistening around in her eyelids. All day she'd went without being bathed, fed, or let out of the cold room she was kept in 24 hours out of the day. Mercedes was scared like always because she knew what was about to happen.

"Didn't I tell you not to knock on that door ever?" He gritted. "You just don't listen!""

Mercedes steps were halted when she backed up into his feet. Her captors son. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." She yelled while frantically looking back and forth between the two. "Please don't hurt me again."

Mercedes was ignored and snatched up by Kevin. Her screams started to feel the room as he dragged her over to the bed and threw her on it. Instantly, she crawled backwards until she hit the headboard and bought her knees up to her chest as she cried.

"I left some money on the counter for you. Head out for a couple hours." He told Kevin while he kept his eyes trained on Mercedes. Something about seeing her frightened and scared sparked something in him.

Kevin didn't respond before he was rushing out the room. Leaving Mercedes there staring at him. It wasn't until he approached her that she knew what was about to happen. She didn't bother screaming or yelling because it was pointless. The room they had her in was soundproof and all the windows were boarded shut. She had no way of getting help so she did the thing she normally did whenever it was time. She slowly crawled to the middle of the bed and started to strip out of her clothing.

At the age of 6 she was being tortured and held as if she was a slave. Mercedes was a wreck and she could only blame herself for what was about to happen. If only she'd listened and not started to bang on the door, she would've been left alone for the night.

Hearing her alarm go off, Mercedes jumped out of her sleep quickly. Her breaths were quick and her shirt was stained with sweat. Another bad dream had flooded her dreams for the third time this week. The only difference was that this time she'd been woken up before anything actually happened.

Sighing to herself, she flipped her cover back and stood up before heading into the bathroom. She flicked the light on and went to look at herself in the mirror. Something she did every morning. Dried tears stained her cheeks and a long, red scratch was starting to become visible on her face causing her to frown. Having nightmares always made her cry in her sleep and sometimes she found herself scratching herself from fighting herself. Something she did when she felt like she couldn't wake up to escape the bad things that were happening to her. Mercedes felt stuck. Stuck because recently she'd stopped going to therapy and had received another letter from him. Her captor James Delgado.

Turning herself away from the mirror, she headed over to her shower to turn it on. Today was Monday which meant it was a work day. Owning her own skincare shop was what kept her going each day. Mercedes was an esthetician who specialized in skincare. She sold everything from face washes to face scrubs, and face mask. Her clients loved her because they knew whenever they needed a consultation to find out what was going on with their skin or if they needed a facial, they could always come to her shop and they'd be in the best hands with either her or the people that worked for her.

From the age of 17, she had worked on perfecting her craft to make sure everything was perfect before putting it out. Excellent products that helped was what she strived for. Mercedes was never one to half ass doing anything so she spent 3 years getting every detail together for her line before eventually launching it May 17th, 2016 on her 20th birthday. For 3 years now she'd been going up in sales everyday and had even started to do lashes as another hustle. Mercedes had a goal and had accomplished it with the help of her adoptive parents who gave her anything she wanted. She had the plan all along but all she needed was to believe in herself and she did. That was why her business had made her successful at the age of 23. Something she never saw for herself considering the background she came from.