Page 3 of Fractured Future

Pushing my shoulder, he roughly shoves me to the hard cage floor. I have to bite down on my tongue to hold a cry inside, the sudden movement jolting my new injuries.

“You have two minutes, or I won’t hesitate to break your leg next.”

The lingerie lands on the floor before the cage door slams shut. The sound of the lock clicking rattles throughout the gloom, causing a chorus of whimpers and cries from the others held captive all around me.

“Two minutes,” Diego repeats over his retreating shoulder. “Pull yourself together, bitch.”

Can’t wait.

Letting my limbs go loose, I go limp on the floor. Frigid cold leaches into my bones, freezing my naked body. The pain in my face is so fierce, I have to pant for air through clenched teeth.

When I was studying for my license to qualify as a personal trainer, I took a self-defence class with an overzealous instructor. He was a misogynistic asshole who should’ve been sacked.

The pain of the broken nose I gained in an accident there didn’t hurt half as badly as this does. Nor did the hours-long screaming match that followed with my stupidly overprotective older brother, Tom.

Still, I’d take his worried ranting giving me a migraine over this hell any day. In fact, I’d give just about anything to see him one last time and accept one of his big hugs.

“You shouldn’t taunt them,” Gracie whispers to me. “You’re only making it worse.”

“I’ll taunt them until they cut my fucking tongue out,” I wheeze, testing how much I can move my mouth. “I’m not going to lay here and take their abuse.”

At sixteen years old, she’s blue-eyed, dark-haired and full of heartbreaking innocence. We were taken from the same vicinity. Gracie was tied up in the moving van when I woke up after being drugged.

Our shared horror when our tear-logged eyes met formed a deep trauma bond. I even held her close in the echoing metal prison we were thrown in, keeping her warm with my own body heat.

She follows their barked commands without a hint of hesitation. I understand why. Gracie can’t handle the daily terror or their leering stares. Her mind is shattering, and I don’t blame her.

Fighting back is the only thing keeping my sanity intact. The moment I give up, I know the widening fissures in my mind will grow into deep crevasses that will swallow me whole.

“They stole us from our lives,” I say through calming breaths. “Like we’re nothing more than cattle to be shipped from place to place. I refuse to make their jobs easier for them.”

I hear movement from inside her cage, the iron bars revealed by light emanating from ancient bulbs high above us.

“What about when you get killed? When they hit you too hard one day?” Her little voice trembles with terror. “Who will I have then?”

“That isn’t going to happen.”

“You can’t promise that. We were taken for a reason, Ember. They won’t keep us in these cages forever.”

She’s right.

I knew it the moment I woke up gagged and bound.

The man who arranged my kidnapping, Charles, was smart. We were far from the prying eyes of Liverpool’s city centre where we met for drinks. I never should’ve agreed to go back to his apartment.

But he had seemed so normal. Plain. Workaday. Perfect for a quick fuck followed by an easy goodbye—the only kind of relationship I have time or energy for. I knocked back my vodka martini and pretended to laugh at his jokes until he invited me back to his place.

The concrete-paved streets turned blurry before we reached his apartment. If that’s even where he was taking me. I can only assume that boring ‘Charles’ isn’t even his name.

He played a role. Providing a false construct while truly being a middleman with a dangerous secret. The kind who adorns his dates in handcuffs and gags before driving them to the coastline to be shipped off.

One spiked martini and the promise of an easy lay. That’s all it took to land me in the pages of a news story that you read over the safety of fresh coffee in the morning.

“Ember.” Debbie’s older voice emanates from behind me. “Just put it on.”

“You first,” I scoff.

“I’m not the one they’re prepping to ship off.” She coughs wetly, the sound rough and guttural. “You’ve caused them too much trouble.”