Chapter 15

Scratch. Scratch. Nails on chalk board. No... Alessandra's mind was slowly speeding up. Not nails on chalk board…a knife on wood. Aless bolted awake. She had fallen asleep. Damn. She had tried to stay awake, but, at some point, she had drifted off.

Aless looked at the door and felt her body tense. Was the crazy couple back for them? Was it Jᴔnsa? There was a loud crack sound and the front door of the shed split in two. A stream of light pointed straight at Aless and she had to cover her face.

Looking through the space between her fingers, Aless saw that it was a flashlight. Outside there was the sound of crickets and she could only see the outline of two people.

"Jesus?" Aless asked.

Leaning towards the shadow holding the flashlight, Aless tried to see its holder.

"Jes, Aless."

"What are you doing here?"

"We followed you. We knew you might need our help."

"Thank you, but you must be crazy! You might get caught."

"Not if you would move! We must hurry."

Nodding, Aless shook Kayla while Jesus whispered to Rafit.

Finally, Jesus looked back at Aless and forced a smile. Kay was awake, groggily looking around.

"Come on…"

Scrambling, Aless headed out the doorway followed by a suddenly awake Kayla. Following Jesus, and Rafita, the two girls made their way across the hard ground past the sleeping houses. Kayla kept whimpering and whispering, "They are going to catch us!" Aless finally struck her upside the head and told her to shut up. After that they made their way quietly to the edge of the fields and through it. It took them twenty minutes to reach the woods on the other side and everyone was breathing heavily.

"We must keep moving," Jesus said

"I have questions though!" Aless protested.

"We can answer them as we walk."

"Okay."

They headed off, setting a fast pace. Jesus wanted to get away from store as fast as possible. None of them knew what Gertrude or her husband would do when they found Aless and Kay missing. After an hour and half of walking, Jesus finally started talking.

"How did you find us?" Aless asked.

She wiped her slick brow with her forearm.

"We followed your tracks. It was Rafita's idea. I would have left. She said that we all needed each other."

"She is a smart kid."

"Very."

They paused for a moment watching Rafita chase a butterfly and Kayla running behind her. Aless and Jesus were carrying the bags.

"We actually caught up to pretty quickly, but you were already talking to that woman. We didn't know what to do so we watched the store all day. Then at one point we saw a delivery truck come in and that woman came out. We thought everything was okay until we saw then unload the truck."

"What did they unload?" Aless asked, instantly knowing it was bad.

"People. Mostly women and children. They took them inside with chains on their wrists and ankles. Rafita and I knew you had to be in trouble. So we waited to see if you ever came out. Then about three hours ago, we saw that woman dragging you to the shed. She looked pissed!"

Rubbing her cheek, Aless nodded. Gertrude had been pissed.

"Anyways after she threw you in there, I knew it wouldn't be safe to break you out right away. And I was right. The woman kept coming to the back door and just staring at the shed like every ten minutes. She must crazy because she always seemed like she was going to cry. After about two hours, she stopped appearing and the lights in the store turned off. We waited another hour to be safe. Of course then we ran into another problem. I didn't know how to break the pad lock, so I started looking through the pack. It was just by luck that there was a knife in there. Then Rafita and I took turned carving into the door. It took while because we didn't want to wake anyone up."

"I appreciate it. I mean we appreciate it. Kay will never apologize unless I make her, but she is sorry."

"It's cool."

"It isn't though. There is no excuse for our behavior and you still helped us. I mean I barely understood your request before but…."

Aless stopped. She had just realized that Jesus was talking perfect Mᴔjin. His accent was still heavy, yet he wasn't missing vocabulary as before.

"You…"

Jesus blushed.

"Yeah, I speak Mᴔjin pretty well. In fact, I speak four languages, Mᴔjin, Sᴔm, and two dialects of Sӕloun. I'm sorry about before. I had to see what kind of person you were. It is this thing Rafita and I do to be able to pass off like we don't know things or to see how people act. It can make things easier at times."

"I can understand that but…I don't know…I'm too tired to think."

"It has been long day days. We are behind too, and the hunters will be out soon."

"I know…this sucks. I do appreciate the help though."

"You can repay us one day."

"You can count on it."

Smiling, Aless looked at Jesus and she realized he looked nothing like Danny or anyone she knew. He was a blank canvas to her. He wasn't unattractive, but his features were too round and boyish for her taste. Jesus was defiantly not Danny.

"So what happened with that woman?" Jesus asked after a few minutes of walking in silence.

"I don't want to talk about," Aless said.

Aless felt incredibly guilty leaving behind those poor people in the basement. She had promised to get them help, but instead she was running. Even worse, part of her felt bad for hurting Gertrude's feelings. She knew all too well what it was like to lose someone you love. Yet Aless couldn't and would never be that woman's child. Jesus nodded, though he looked a little worried. She knew horrible images and ideas were playing around in his mind. Aless wasn't in the mood to straighten them out.

"So how did you all get involved in this slave thing?"

"I don't know. We were living in our hometown with my mom. Everything was fine. We both were in school. I was supposed to graduate this year and go to Central University."

"Central U? Wow! That is a great school."

"Yeah, I have worked hard to be the first in my family to go to college. I don't think we can afford it, but I figured I'd work it out, so my mom doesn't have to pay. She needs to take care of my sister."

"That is a lot of pressure on you."

"I'm used to it. I have been helping support my family and going to school since my dad walked out when I was seven. Mom was pregnant with Rafita."

"Oh…I know how that is…my mom died when I was seven."

"I'm sorry."

Aless shrugged it off.

"Yeah…anyways, everything was fine. I mean some weird stuff happened right before, but nothing that I can connect to us being taken. It was my cousin's dolae party. We were outside for the party when Rafita and my mom got in a fight. I don't know about what. It was some silly argument. Rafita ran off to the front yard. It was dark, and the street lights weren't on so after about ten minutes my mom asked me to go get Rafita.

"I did as she asked and went to look for her. Yet when I got to the front yard she wasn't there. I called her name. She didn't reply. I started to get worried. I didn't know if she was hiding, had wandered off or if something had happened to her."

"That is understandable."

"I started walking down the street calling her name. For long time I didn't get a reply then I heard her voice calling me. 'Jesus! Help me!' I became really worried and ran towards her voice. As I got close I heard her yell run! Then she screamed, and I did run, in the wrong direction. Someone grabbed me, and I fought like hell to get them off me. Then a voice said 'Stop moving or we'll shoot the girl. She isn't worth as much, so we don't mind doing it.' So, I stopped. They covered my mouth with a thick cloth and I don't remember anything after that.

"When I woke up we were in a truck and my mouth tasted like cotton balls. Rafita was there, scared, but unharmed. That Celso guy told me some of what was happening and told me what would happen if I didn't behave. And so, I behaved."

"Oh..."

"How about you?"

"Pretty similar story."

"Then why were you chained up like a rabid dog?"

"I didn't behave."

Laughing, they both shifted the packs on the shoulders. They had been walking for over five hours.

"Come one…I told you our story."

"Okay…"

Aless launched into the story of how she and Kay about the night they were taken. Jesus listened wide eyed as he heard about how she had called Danny and been shot with the tranquilizer bullets. By the end, Jesus shook his head solemnly.

"Remind me never to attack you. I can't believe you broke two guys' noses."

"They were touching me!"

Jesus laughed heartily.

"Yeah, I'm not saying they didn't deserve it, but wow. I must admit that's kind of hot."

Grinning, Aless hit Jesus on the shoulder as he chuckled and tried to dodge the blow.

"The first time I saw you, you were being violent then too. You must just be a violent girl. A lot of pent-up anger."

"I hear that a lot…. when was the first time you saw me?"

"When you bit that Dúcái guy. You know the one in charge of this whole thing."

"Dominic."

"Is that his name?"

"Yeah."

"Well, when you bit him. It was sick. Swear to god I thought I wet myself when I saw that evil look on your face, licking the blood off your lips. It was creepy. I think I had nightmares about it."

"It wasn't that bad."

"You didn't see yourself. You were covered in bruises and heavy iron chains with blood on your lips and your eyes looking really intense. Like two Sǐwáng Moons. The other slaves were petrified. Only Rafita wasn't scared. She thought you were awesome. She told me so right then. She said, 'Jesus, I like her. She is awesome.'"

Embarrassed, Aless looked at the little girl and, as if she felt Aless's eyes, Rafita looked back and smiled. Aless decided she really liked that little girl. Rafita was her type of kid.