Gone: A Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys Mystery

8. Frank

I slide my foot alongside the wall, playing my flashlight across the way.

"Four doors on the left, on on the right," George whispers.

I feel the wall beside me. Hard, cold stone, like it, should be. Then it turns soft and velvety. A curtain?

"Do you think anyone is down here?" George asks in a quiet voice.

"I don't know," I respond while giving the rest of my attention to the wall. I play my flashlight across what I thought was a curtain and see the dark blue fabric hanging from the ceiling. I reach out to move it when I hear a scuffling down the dark hallway. George quickly opens the nearest door and darts inside. I open the next door and fumble inside. I partially close the door and turn to assess the room. I was in a bedroom, a nice purple bedroom. I shine the light onto a bed and a dresser before I hear the scuffling again. I had to do something before someone comes in here. I kneel down and peer under the bed. Dirt and cobwebs invite me into my hiding place. I roll underneath and pray that no one looks in the cheesiest hiding place ever. I hold my breath as the noise gets closer. The door to the room beside me, the one George is hiding in, opens with a squeak. George, please have hidden well, I silently plead. A masculine voice growls to life in the room and it is as if the entire complex quiets at his breath. I hear footfalls dragging something behind them and they grow quieter as they leave George's hiding place and descend down the hall. The door across the hall opens and after a pause closes again. I creep out from underneath the bed and peer into the hall. Nothing has moved and the hall sits in a noiseless hush. George opens the door of her room and quakes into the hallway. Her face is pale and she is quivering tremendously in the fear and anger that plays in her eyes.

"What's wrong?" I ask. "What happened?"

"They have Nancy and they are hurting her," she cries, not even attempting to be quiet. I didn't hush her. She leans her head on my shoulder and shudders into a sob.

"A man came in and...he has Nancy. She was struggling weakly to get away. The man dragged her in and slapped her face so hard I could see his fingers imprinted on her cheek. He growled that after this she would never forget it. Then he brought up his fist and he struck Nancy on the head. She fell in a heap and he grabbed a pocket knife off the dresser and dragged her out like she was a sack, not a human."

The emotions of the last few days had caught up to George but she managed to pull herself to together and in a minute her red eyes were the only indicator of her emotional breakdown. She sniffled and stood up straight. "We have to get her."

As angry as I was at this man and as badly as I wanted to knock him around, I held myself and George back. "We aren't going in there. We can't."

George yanks her arm out of my grip. "That dude needs some sense knocked into her skull," she growls. Her face was flushed and her fingers were wound into a fist.

My eyes look at the top of George's head and I get a glance of that curtain. I walk a few paces away and tug it back a little. A huge room sat below. George follows me and I move over so she can poke her head in the window. The room was barren, almost resembling a stone gymnasium, except for the congregation on the far side. A dark-haired girl lay on a medical bed and the machines, carts, and tables surrounding her reminded me of an operating room at a hospital. Nancy stood over the girl, her hand on the girl's wrist. A man in a suit was screaming at Nancy or the girl, whom I am guessing is Esti. We couldn't hear him thanks to the stone walls and thick glass, but I could imagine his voice by his gestures. He waves his hand to the close side of the room and my attention is drawn to a young man dragging an unconscious Nancy Drew. I look back to the woman standing over Esti and realize that it must be Stella. The young man sets Nancy in a black chair against the wall. She slumps over, unable to sit in her state. The suited man yells at the young man and then turns and yells at Stella. Stella shakes her head and looks hopeless as she plays with Esti's bedding.