Stolen

2

Two weeks had passed and I hadn't seen Ronnie since the first day. I could only assume it had been that long by what I could overhear the guards saying. There were no windows and they always kept the hall outside of my cage very dimly lit. Every few days someone would come in to care for my leg and force some kind of medication down my throat. 

"Pain killers," they told me. I had no way of knowing if that were true or not, but whatever it was helped me to sleep through the pain.

I spent a few minutes each time they fed me exercising my leg to try to keep the muscles alive. The food they gave me was something like oatmeal, but tasted like burned toast and had the consistency of water. It was always served cold and twice a day with half a glass of water. It was one of the few ways I had to tell time in this space. 

Several different men would come every few days and just tease me while I sat in my cage. They would give offers of food for obscene favors and if I refused they would threaten to take the favors anyway. Some of them seemed to only come in to make sure I felt ashamed. They tore my clothes and stole the coat I had been given. I was covered in bruises from being yanked around my cage and paraded around for the other men like an animal in the carnival. Still, I was thankful none of them had followed through on their threats to take more than just my pride.

I kept praying for strength and for someone to find me. I was barely holding on and there was no word of anyone searching for me. Faith is a hard thing to keep a grasp on in a place like this.

...

I heard the door open down the hall and thought I might cry again. I didn't know if I could handle much more of this. I felt so weak and tired. It hurt to move and my constant fear of what these men may do to me made it hard to sleep without the pills they fed me.

I heard a clang against the bars and then saw what looked like a pile of colorful blankets walking into my cell. They fell to the ground in a fluffy pile and a shocked looking Ronnie stood staring at me. He grabbed one of the blankets and wrapped it around my shaking form.

"Are you okay? What happened? Who did this?" He started questioning my appearance. I cuddled into the soft blanket and my exhausted eyes tried to close.

"It doesn't matter," I whispered, too exhausted to keep this up anymore. "This blanket is amazing."

"It's yours. They all are. Who did this?"

"They took your jacket. I'm sorry." I said finally looking up at him again. Part of me was afraid he might be angry, but at the same time I felt like I was safe with him. As safe as I was going to be for a while.

"I don't care. I need to know who did this."

"A bunch of people," I said eyeing the fluffy blankets. Without unwrapping myself, I scooted towards the pile and fell sideways onto it. I was quickly warming up in the comfy pile of at least ten blankets.

"I didn't know they would do that," he said sounding remorseful. "There has never been a girl down here. This is usually just for people who cross one of the bosses. I didn't think that they would dare touch one of the girls meant for him."

"Well, they probably realize he'll never know," I said yawning. I watched him grind his teeth as I stretched as far as I could. I felt like a cat laying on someone's fresh laundry and I inhaled the scent of fresh dryer sheets.

"Oh, he will. I'll make sure."

"Don't get yourself into trouble over me. It's not worth it if I'm just gonna die in a few months anyway." I shrugged with another yawn.

"What?" He froze and studied my face as if I were about to tell him I was joking or lying.

"I'm escaping first chance I get. So you'll have to kill me. I'm sorry, Ronnie."

"Don't apologize! You can't apologize for someone killing you!" He sounded almost horrified.

"You don't want to. I'm gonna be the reason you have to." I explained. "If I purposely make you do something you don't want to, that warrants an apology."

"In that same theory, shouldn't I apologize for killing you when you wanted to live?" He challenged.

"I don't remember mentioning that I wanted to live." He glared at me and I almost laughed. It may have been morbid, but it felt good to just make a joke for a moment. I closed my eyes and snuggled further into my blanket pile. "I was just joking, Ronnie."

"I'll go so you can sleep," he said after a moment of silence. "We gotta get you out of this cage. It's messing with your head or something."

"Please don't go," I said without even bothering to try to open my heavy eyes. "I don't think they would come back with you here."

He didn't say a word and I was about to look for him when I felt myself being lifted from the ground and put in a sitting position against the wall. I opened my eyes and saw that he was making a bed out of the blankets.

He piled most of them into a fluffy stack before rolling one up to make a long pillow. He came back and picked me up before placing me on the fluffy pile. He kept a blanket for himself and I was still wrapped up in mine. Putting me closer to the wall, he laid beside me, facing the door. We both went to sleep after talking for a few minutes. All I learned was that he had a wife once.