LANEY
I woke up, in an unfamiliar place. I was cold, and realized the only thing I had on was a sports bra and a pair of shorts. I moved my hand down my leg, feeling a burning sensation. I tried to sit up, but I was unable to. My hands were free to move, but the rest of body was not. I could barely move. It was as if my body was in a trance. My muscles were tight and I was in a haze. I tried looking around, but I couldn’t see much. It was dark and my eyes were blurry. I wanted to freak out, scream, throw myself around, try to get someone’s attention. But my body would not allow it. I began to open my mouth, to try and speak.. Try and make a noise. Maybe someone would hear me, but when I tried to squeal or even speak… nothing came out. I was scared, I was terrified. Where the hell was I? Why am I here? How the hell did I even get here?
A light flickered to the left and down the hallway. My sight was blurry, but I saw a dark figure walking towards me. Footsteps approached the room and her heart dropped. The figure came closer to the room and turned on the fluorescent light above. It was bright, very bright. But it was still blurry, so I just closed my eyes.
A metal sounding bar, hit the floor making a loud clank. I jumped, still laying on the bed.
I slightly opened my eyes, staring into the ceiling lights. They were too bright, but I wanted to try and see what had been going on.
The figure began walking over to the right side of me. I turned my head to look where he had been walking. I squinted my eyes, trying to get a better look as to what was going on.
There had been another bed, not quite far from the one I had been laying on. When I squinted my eyes I saw another figure laying on the bed.
Another female, at that. She seemed to be tied down on the bed just like me. The main walked over to her, and ripped the duct tape off of her stomach. The sight had still been blurry but, I tried my best to see what I could.
After ripping the duct tape off of her stomach, she began to try to set up and move her ankles, but they couldn’t go far because they were shackled to the bed.
Why had the girl had duct tape on her stomach? Do I have it on mine too? I looked down, but saw nothing. My ankles were attached to the bed too.
He began walking over to me, metal bar in one hand, and something else that I couldn’t make part of in the other.
He tapped my shin with the bar and then placed his hand on my side. My heart raced.
“You are so pretty, Laney.” He said to me in such a creepy voice.
Why does he know my name.. I mean, obviously he has to know something about me since I’m here… in this creepy basement.
He grabbed my thigh, and I tried jerking away but I couldn’t.
“DON’T. Don’t you dare pull away from me like that.” He said in a vicious tone.
I laid there still. I didn’t want to move, I didn’t want to do anything to make him talk to me like that. That was scary. My heart pounded, and my palms began sweating.
He then proceeded to grab my thigh again, but this time, I didn’t move a single hair on my body.. I just let him do his thing.
He took his hand off of my thigh and bent down to pick something off of the ground. My eyes were still blurry so I couldn’t manage to see what he had picked up, but moments later I felt a burning sensation on the back of my head, following with dizziness and slight churn in my stomach.

CURTIS
I hit her in the head.. The back of the head with the long metal bar? Why did I do it? She shouldn’t have jerked away from me like that. Maybe she’ll learn next time.
I walked towards the end of the hallway, where I flipped off the lightswitch and headed up towards the stairs.
“EHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” a female voice came about from the bottom of the stairs.
I hit the door with my hand and made a huge noise.
“Shut up, mut.” I said, yelling back down the stairway.
I turned around slamming the door after making it all the way up the stairs.
I walked towards the stove reaching into the cabinet for my pills. I grabbed my three bottles and then walked over to the sink, grabbing a glass and filling it with water. I took my bottles and my glass over to the chair, where I plopped down on and turned on the TV.
I opened my bottles, grabbing 2 pills out of each bottle. One bottle being, Prozac, for my horrible depression. I had been taking this for a good while now. A really good while. I was only 14 when I was diagnosed with depression. Growing up in an abusive home, with an abusive, alcoholic father, did not help much with my mental illness.
The second bottle was Risperdal®, an “antipsychotic” medicine that kept my mood swings under control. I’ve only been taking this for about 8 years or so. At first, I believed I did not even need this medication. That it was just a waste of my money and time, but throughout the years now, I now understand why I have been put on this. I’m crazy. But medicine’s don’t change me, they only stabilize me.
The third bottle was Xanax®, to control my anxiety. To control my nerves, to keep me from having my blood boil from the amount of craziness around me in this not-so-stable life.
I took all 6 pills, and threw them in the back of my throat, chasing it back with a huge gulp of water.
I turned on channel 21, “Investigation Discovery,” my favorite channel. The channel of many murder cases and suspicion shows. Sometimes I thought to myself that I should be on this channel, to show everyone how crazy I actually am. But then I think to myself, that I’m actually not that crazy. I may be crazy, but I know how to cover it up.
45 minutes probably passed before I finally felt the pills kick into my system. I felt quite sleepy, closing the footrest on my chair and walking back into the kitchen, placing my glass in the sink and looking at the clock on the stove, reading 9:32.
“BOOM.”
A loud noise came from the basement, but I was too tired to try and manage what had just happened. I was too zoned out, the room began to spin so I just took myself into my room, shutting the door behind me.

LANEY
“Are you ok?” I asked the other female in the bed next to me after she attempted to unchain her ankles from the bottom of the bed.
She didn’t answer, and I mean I don’t blame her for not answering. I probably wouldn’t have answered if some strange person was trying to talk to me too.. But I wanted her to respond. Especially since we were both in the same position.
“Sorry if you feel uncomfortable talking to me. I wouldn’t want to talk to someone I didn’t know either, especially since we’re both in a weird f****** basement and have no idea what’s going on,” I said to the unanswered girl.
“How the hell did I even get here. How the hell did WE get here? Do you know where we are?” She says while groaning, moving her ankles around and flailing her arms. “I don’t… I don’t understand!”
“Hey.. hey, HEY now.. You need to chill out.. I know this isn’t the best time to try and ‘chill out’ but you’re gonna have to try. If he hears you trying to get out, he’s gonna come back down and punish you.” I said while raising my hand to the back of my head, where I felt a warm, moist spot.
The basement was still dark, so I couldn’t see what was on my hand, but I knew it was blood.
“Who are you to tell me what to do?” She asked back with attitude within her voice.
“Look, I know you don’t know me, and I don’t know you… But if you would like to survive, then I would think it would be best for you to keep your mouth shut and stop trying to escape the chains.. Because obviously it’s not working.” I repeated back, attentively.
She said nothing back, just moaned again.
“I’m Anya by the way. Sorry for my outbursts and attitude… I’m just scared. Scared out of my f****** mind. I’m too young for this, too young to be gone from my family, too young to have my life end now.” Anya said, tears in her eyes, choking back tears.
“Hi Anya, I’m Laney.” I introduced myself, only talking since I could not see her face. “I know you’re scared. Hell, we’re both scared. How old are you?”
“19.” Anya replied back.
“Me too. I’m actually a student at Florida State University… which is why I don’t understand how I got here. Do you go to school?”
“Yeah, I actually go to University of South Florida. Was it your spring break?” Anya asked.
“The last thing I remember was being at a huge rager… Probably not the smartest idea since I know what can happen and what goes on. But I just remember… there was a bunch of people. Like a s*** ton of people. Probably mostly people I’ve never even seen before. Lots of people, lots of alcohol, lots of drugs. And then the next thing I remember, I woke up here on this “bed” thing, ankles cuffed and everything.” I said explaining myself to Anya. “Honestly, this guy probably made his way into the party just looking for some girl to drug and take home… And well, he got what he wanted.”
“I wasn’t out at a huge rager like you explained, but I was at a small party. But I don’t understand how the same guy got the both of us. We go to two different schools, in two different parts of Florida. Have you been here longer than I have?” Anya asks, making me wonder.
Have I been here longer than she has? Or have we both been here about the same amount of time? Thinking hurts my head, pounding actually. Whatever I got hit with, and whatever happened to the back of my head, hurts bad. Real bad.
“I can’t really think straight. Before he went upstairs he hit me with something in the back of my head for moving my leg when he placed his hand on my thigh. I should’ve thought before I did it, but it was just an automatic move.” I said, with a whiny tone. “Can I tell you a secret? I know we have only been talking for this short amount of time, but since we’re the only people in here, I guess we might as well make the best of it… right?”
“Yeah, go ahead. I’m sorry about earlier by the way. Jumping the gun, getting an attitude with you… I really didn’t mean to.” Anya said, apologetically.
“It’s okay, I understand. You were frustrated and scared. Anyway, this has happened to me before. Not the same place, or the same man… But this happened to me, my junior year of highschool. I was drugged at a party, kidnapped, raped, all of it. And being here… being here just brings back so many memories that I thought I would never have to witness again. I actually hate it. But one thing I did learn from first time’s experience is to not fight what’s happening. The more you fight, the more complicated and violent things get. As much as you don’t want these things to happen to you, if you wanna make it out alive, you’re gonna have to let them happen…” I say, holding back the tears in my eyes.
“That’s not even fair… why do things like this, happen to people like us? Like I just don’t get it. What did us girls, do in this world in order to deserve this? Absolutely f****** nothing. And this is why everyone in the world has trust issues. Because you never know what could happen.” Anya replies to me, hearing the anger in her voice. “I swear just last week, I was sitting in my dorm room watching shows about these types of things… and now look at where I’m at. It’s like lifes worst nightmares coming true.”
The horror in her voice was at an all time high. I wanted to unlock my ankles from the bed and comfort her. Hold her and tell her that everything is gonna be okay. I wanted to do everything in my good power to help her from having a mental breakdown… but myself was gonna have one too.
“I hate to end this conversation on one of the worst points possible, but my head is pounding… and well, since I’m not going to be able to take anything to make it feel better, I’m gonna try and sleep… I want you to try your best to sleep too. Your body needs it and it will appreciate it for what I have planned for us within the next couple of days. Anya, we’re getting out of here. Safe and alive. I promise.” I say, in the most reassuring voice that could possibly come out at this point.
“What do you mean, for what you have planned? Tha-” I cut her off.
“Trust me, please. Please, please just trust me. I know you barely know me, and you don’t even know what I look like… but just trust me on this. Get some sleep, you’ll need it.”

4 DAYS LATER

CURTIS
I woke up with a pounding headache, and an eerie feeling in my gut. I pulled the comforter off of me and rolled out of bed. I slipped on my moccasins and grabbed a jacket. I headed for the kitchen cabinets where the medicines had been stored. This headache was strong, and tylenol was not going to do the job.
I grabbed some codeine, and walked over to the fridge, opening the freezer.
Jack, Captain or Crown… hmmmmm… Captain it is. I grabbed the bottle and made my way over to my recliner, where I grabbed the remote and turned on the TV.
I popped the pills in my mouth and washed them down with a mouthful of Captain.
Alcohol seemed to be an everyday type of thing nowadays. I couldn’t function without it, and maybe that had been what had started my anger issues… But giving up alcohol was going to be the last thing I did. Nobody was going to tell me what to do or how I’m going to live my life.
All this thinking lead to another drink… and another… and another. Until the headache went away, and my brain was in a daze.
I loved it… it was my escape… my escape from reality.
Drinking made my nerves bounce like crazy. Moods changing every other second. Fine one minute, screaming of anger the next minute. But that didn’t stop me.
I opened the basement door and turned on the light.
I made my way down the stairs, blurred vision making me miss the last step, tripping and hitting the bookcase.
“FU**. DUMB*** bookshelf.” I screamed.
Screaming so loud, startling the two young girls I somewhat forgot I still had.
“DID I SCARE YOU LADIES??”
Checking out the one on the left, reminiscing her name… Laney I think.
“LANEY… WOW Laney, you’re so pretty,” I say walking up to her. Touching her hair, caressing her face, placing my right hand on her thigh.
This time she doesn’t move, she just lets me do it.
“Oh, so you learned, huh? You learned not to move, because when you move, you get hurt. And I don’t think you want that do you? Nope, you don’t. And that’s why you’re going to be a good girl, and listen to what I have to say.”
I turned to face the other female… not being able to remember her name. I tripped on the cord in the middle of the two beds, falling flat on my knees.
The two sat in silence.
I stood up and took a whip to the left female's side.
“What’s your name again, mut?” I asked her, waiting for a response.
She sat in silence.
“I ASKED YOU WHAT YOUR NAME WAS, DO YOU NOT KNOW HOW TO SPEAK?” Raising my voice, startling her, hoping she would eventually tell me her name.
“A-A-Anya.” She spoke under her breath.
“Finally, you spoke. I thought I was gonna have to give you a reason not to speak. Don’t ever do that again. If I’m speaking to you, you respond. Understood?” I said, as she nodded. “Good, I’m glad you understand. Are you girls hungry?”
They both shook their heads, excitedly expecting to get food.
“Well too bad, I don’t have any food here. I have to go to the store.” I told them.
I grabbed my bottle of Captain off of the floor, not realizing it had even been there.
“I’ll be back in a little bit then muts. With some food for the both of you.”
I made my way back up the stairs, shutting the light off and closing the door.

LANEY
“Hey.. are you ok?” I asked suspiciously, knowing Anya was scared out of her mind. I mean, I’m not gonna lie, I was pretty scared too… But I just went with had been going on. She didn’t answer. “I know you were scared, but you should’ve just answered him when he was talking to you.”
I heard the truck start and the garage close. The road must’ve been gravel, because I could hear him pull out of it… and it was quite loud.
I sat up and tried moving my ankles. The cuff on my left ankle fell loosely and hit the floor. I sat there confused. Very confused. How had the cuff fallen off just now but not any other time? Then I remembered when the man fell after tripping, he hit it and might’ve knocked it loose.
“What was that?” Anya questioned the noise.
“Are you referring to the sound outside or the sound of my cuff just hitting the floor?” I replied back to her.
“Wait what? The cuff on your ankle just came off?” She said, in a shocking, yet surprised voice.
I moved my left leg over, sitting up and trying to loosen the cuff on my right ankle. I wiggled it a bit, and pulling on it. Nothing happened.
“I don’t think this one is going to come off.” I say, yanking my ankle from the cuff. It flew off my ankle and hit the wall behind me.
I sat there in complete shock. Nothing had been tying me down to the bed anymore, and I could freely move my legs.
The light from the basement window had been creeping in, giving us a little bit of light to see.
“Anya… I don’t know if you’re ready for this, but we’re getting out of here.” I jumped off of my bed, stumbling over to hers, grabbing the cuffs on her ankles and trying to free them from her.
“Wh-Wh-What if he comes back? What are we going to do?” Anya asks.
With determination in my voice, I reply back “Don’t think of the negatives. He just left, I heard his truck pull out. He should be gone for at least 45 minutes… if not longer. Try moving your ankles, I know it hurts, but the cuffs he has aren’t the strongest… Which would probably explain why mine came off so easily.”
While she flailed her ankles, I used my hands to try and break apart the locks on the cuffs. We probably sat there for only 5 minutes trying to get the stupid cuffs off, but it felt like 10 years.
After yanking, pulling and grabbing the cuff, the left one had finally came off.
“OHMYGOSH, you did it!!” Anya screamed with excitement.
“We still have one left to go… I know it hurts to yank it, but just try your hardest. As hard as you can, with all your strength, just pull it.” I tell her, trying to sound enthusiastic. Adrenaline was pumping through my blood, through my veins. I could hear and feel my heartbeat racing.
She yanked her ankle, the cuff hitting the legs of the bed, but still nothing. I used my hands, trying to pull the cuffs apart. Trying my hardest, using all the adrenaline I had in me, to rip these stupid cuffs off.
“AHG. OWWWWWWWW.” Anya screeched in pain.
She yanked one more time, sending the cuff off of her ankle, and hitting the wall. She sprung up from the bed, falling on top of me. She struggled getting back up, but I sat her back on her bed.
“Woah, listen here. Listen to me. I’m going to go up the stairs and see if that door is locked, if it isn’t I’m going to call your name and your gonna run up here. If it’s not, we’re going to have to find a way out through somewhere down here. I know there is some way.” I explained, panting in my voice.
I ran up the stairs, turning the nob. Locked.
“F***!” I screamed.
I ran back down the stairs, trying my best to keep my adrenaline under control.
“The door is locked.” I say angrily.
I rushed over to the window, where the light had been coming through, climbing on top of the chair and bookshelves in front of it. Anya followed me, securing the chair and holding the bookshelf.
I used my arms to lift up the window… and surprisingly it opened. Part of me thought it was going to be a trap, since it was actually opened, but the other part of me just believed this guy was stupid and didn’t really know what he was doing.
I lifted my right leg onto the top of the bookshelf and pushed off the chair with my left leg, climbing out of the window.
“Hurry Anya, I don’t want him coming back,” I said, in an assertive voice hoping she could climb fast enough without falling.
I grabbed her hand while she climbed on top of the chair, using her other arm to grab the bookshelf and balance herself to climb onto the top of it. Her leg slipped off the chair, almost falling off, loosing her balance of the bookshelf. I held onto her arm without letting go, helping her keep her balance.
“C’mon girl, you got this.” I told her, embracing her courage to climb out the window.
She finally got to the top of the bookshelf, reaching her other arm out to me, grabbing both of them and pulling her out the window.
I heard wheels pull into the gravel driveway… and the noise of the truck being the same one that left earlier. He was back and my heart dropped.
I wasn’t getting caught, and I wasn’t going back into that basement. I refused.
So, we ran for it. We ran as fast as we could.
“W-We have- to find an- an empty road- or something.. Find a car- ge-get their attention-” I said to Anya, shortly running out of breath as we ran as fast as we possibly could.
On the side of the house by the window, there had been many trees, but back behind the house seemed to be a clear trail that looked to as if led to an open road… but we were just running with no hesitation, just trying to find something.
As soon as we took the run for it, I heard the truck door shut and footsteps coming after us.
“I don’t know where you guys think your running to! You’re not going to make it far, stupid muts!” I heard him yelling, running after us.
I looked back, Anya still behind me, but not too far.. And then the man, still running towards us. I knew he wouldn’t make it very far… eventually he would give up. Eventually we would keep running and we’ll lose him.
“Ke- keep up Anya, I know you know- know he’s behind us- just keep running- an-and we’ll lose him… he’s too fat to- to keep up… he’s going to give up soon.”
We kept running, running into trees, jumping over branches, but for the most part having a very clear runway.
I looked back to see if he had still been chasing us, but there was no sight of him… anywhere. I didn’t tell Anya, although she could look back and see for herself, but I didn’t want her to think it was okay for us to stop running. As much as I wanted to stop running, as tired as I was, I was not going to stop until I found a road… until I found someone that could help us get back safely… because I had no idea where we even were.
“A-A-Anya- you still there? Keep up girl, we got this,”  mumbling, out of breath, I said yelling therefore she could hear me.
“Y-yeah I’m still ba-back here.” She said, hearing the tiredness in her voice.
I could hear cars driving, so we had to be somewhat close to a road of somesort.
“I HEAR CARS” Anya yelled from behind me with such enthusiasm.
I began running faster, the sound of the cars becoming more distinct.
Running faster we ran into more trees and bushes, but eventually finding a road.
We both climbed through the trees and bushes, finding ourselves on the side of the road. I began waving my arms, yelling trying to get someone’s attention. We both tryed flagging down a car, waving our arms, yelling “HELP” but no one would stop. All they did was keep driving and honked at the both of us.
My heart began racing faster, still trying to get someone to stop.
A small, blue honda car began slowing down, stopping by us and asking what was wrong. It was an old woman in the driver’s seat, with curly gray hair.
“Are you girl’s ok? What’s going on?” She asked us from inside of the car.
“Can we please get in? Please take us somewhere. Somewhere safe and away from here,” I told her as the both of us climbed in the backseat.
Anya shut the door behind her after she climbed in after me, and we began telling the lady to just drive, drive somewhere far away from where we were and somewhere where we could talk to someone and figure out how to get back to where we belong.
A deep voice came from behind us, coughing… I then turned around to find the man who captured us, laying in the backseat of the car.
He sat up and grabbed Anya’s arms, making it hard for her to move out of his grip. If the car wouldn’t have been moving so fast, I would’ve jumped out, but I would’ve seriously injured myself if I would have done that.
“Silly girls… why’d you think you’d get away from me?” He said from the backseat of the car.
Tears streamed down my face, and the woman turned the car around, making her way back to where we had just escaped from…