Captured

"What do you want? Leave me alone!" I screamed. "You are mine forever!" David yelled back. He tried to grab me, I slipped from his grasp. I ran outside into the dark night. A car was following me. "No leave me alone!" I shouted into the wind. I sent a silent prayer to God, if he exited. Suddenly I tripped on a vine. “No!” Hands grasped me from behind, and covered my mouth. When I tried to bit them, they hit me in the mouth. “Shhh, babe, it’ll be okay, just relax. Relax Rashel. Go to sleep baby,” David said. I felt something prick my skin. Then I blacked out. I had that nightmare, for over a year. Everyday. Ever since I met David. I was once in love with him, and he was obsessed with me. But things happened and...never mind. Just thinking about him made my head hurt. Well today was my lucky day though. It was time to convince my ever so wonderful father to let me go to Cuba with my friends. I slowly crept down the stairs. “Dad?” I called out. It was early in the morning, but no doubt he would be up. I wandered around the kitchen and the living room. I eventually found him in the basement. What he was doing there, I didn’t even care. “What do you want?” he asked in a rough voice. Just to make it clear, my dearest daddy is an abuser, so I was careful not to anger him. “Umm, well you see my friends are going to Cuba, for the summer. I was wondering if I could join them because they asked me to.” I winced, waiting for something to happen. After a moment of silence, nothing. “No,” he said shortly. “But why!!!” I whined. “Do not question me!” he yelled at me. Then I didn’t even see it happen, but he hit me with full forced on my cheek. “I will go!” I cried out, “ and you cannot stop me.” I worked up the courage to say that to him. For once standing up to him. Well not such a smart idea. He came over and grabbed my hair and pulled it back. Then he grasped one of my arms, and bent it so far back, that he would have broke it if I didn’t kick him in the soft spot right there and then. The kick only made him angrier. He came over to me once more and punched my ribs, then kicked my legs so I fell on the floor. He told me to get up, and I was no quitter, so I did. He put his arms around my throat, and lifted me against the wall. I was about to loose consciousness when he said. “You will not go, and that is an order.” He let go and I fell to the floor. “what would your mother think of you?” he asked me disgusted. We both knew my mother didn’t care. My dad beat me on a daily basis, and she did nothing about it. “Let’s go, I’ll take you to your room,” he told me. Yeah, you might think that he would carry me or that he had multiple personality disorders, but that’s not the case. He took a hold of one of my legs and dragged me up the stairs; and that’s all I remember because with my head hitting the steps so hard, I did black out. It was dead of night. and here I was. Trying to sleep. I did go to Cuba, I escaped during the night. When I made that decision, I knew I could go back home. So now I didn’t have a home unless I wanted to get killed my daddy dearest. That’s alright though, it wasn’t much of a home. I checked my watch, it was two in the morning, everyone was asleep. Maybe I'll go look at the moon I thought. I stood up and got dressed in a short, white, cotton dress. It had spaghetti straps and fit my curves perfectly. I look at myself in the mirror. At sixteen, I was pretty hot. My straight black hair came up to my waist, long slender legs, and c-cup breasts were filled out pretty good. At school all the guys wanted me, yet I didn't want them. I'm always looking for adventure. I've only been kissed twice and that was a dare, otherwise I don't really care. I have never met someone that I wanted yet. I opened the balcony door and went outside. I had the beach only a couple of meters away from my bedroom door. I was originally from Prince Edward Island in Canada. The sand felt nice and cool in between my toes. I sat down and stared at

the water. No one was outside except me. In ways that would normally be scary but I felt so relaxed. I admired my long legs in the sand. We've only been in Cuba for a week and already they had a killer tan. My other friends, Brad, Eva, and Cory were no where near as tan as I was. I laughed softly to myself. Eva kept trying to hook me up with Cory, with Brad being her own boyfriend. I closed my eyes just listening to the ocean waves. I never felt so relaxed in my life. I rubbed my arms, and I saw the bruises on them. It made me want to retch because of how I got them. I wished I had a normal family. That’s nice to me and didn’t beat me. That's when I heard footsteps behind me. A hand wrapped around my mouth. I tried to scream. I gruff voice said, "Make any noise and I'll kill you." A gum was pressed into my back. I immediately tried to clam down after the threat. Who was this guy and what did they want? I was just an ordinary girl who is on vacation. I was thinking of something to do when I felt a blow to my head, and I slumped unconsciously. ***** I woke up, it was dark and whatever I was on was moving on bumps. I closed my eyes, so who ever was there would still think I was asleep, I did listen though. “What did you think you were doing?” a man exclaimed. I think it was the driver. “You told me to get her and I got her,” the passenger replied. Then I figured out I was in a van. I heard something move close to me. “You could have been more gentle. Last thing we want is for her to die, then the boss will kill us. You know he said this was the most important thing that he ever asked someone. And he had hundreds of workers working for him,” the driver argued. “Whatever , she’s alive, good enough for me,” the passenger said, “Hey Ash, how’s she doing?” the guy called back. A hand touched my forehead, I couldn’t help myself I moved my head to get away from his hand. Then opened my eyes. I saw dark brown eyes staring intently at me. He was quite handsome. Even in the dark I could see that. surprisingly he didn’t look so old. Maybe he was eighteen, or nineteen, I would even go out on limb and guess he was twenty. I stared at him back, right in the eyes. I was letting him know I wouldn’t go without a fight. “She’s awake,” Ash called back, his eyes not leaving my face. “Wonderful,” the driver chuckled. They fell into silence. I tried to get my hands out of the ropes they were tied in. My ankles were staring to burn from the ropes on them too. As I looked around, it was one of those vans that only have front seats, so that means maybe I could get away if I got through Ash. I looked at him. Ash was staring outside the window. I worked silently, loosing the knots on my wrists. I wasn’t even scared, and damn proud of myself for that too. Yes! The rope on my wrists gave away. Now my feet. I noticed I still had my flip-flops, I would have thought I’d loose them by now. Five minutes passes and no one even bothered to look at me, probably thinking I won’t try anything. Now the ropes on my ankles gave away too. I looked outside to be aware of my surroundings. We were on a one way road with no cars in sight. “Hey Ash you want something? We’re gonna go to Timmy’s and get a drink, maybe some doughnuts,” the driver called back. Ask looked as if he was thinking about this, “Nah I’m alright.” “K, be right back,” and the van stood still. Only Ash and I were left. I finally decided to speak up, “You know I don’t have any money.” Ash looked startled, “I know.” “So if I don’t have money, why would you want me?” “Stop talking,” he ordered. No one every tells me to do. “Sorry I don’t take orders from kidnappers. No offence or anything.” I liked playing with him. “Shut up,” Ash ordered again.

This made me smile, “Make me,” I simply said. He stared at me with his brown eyes. Then he raised a hand as if to strike me. It came down fast, aiming for my face. However it stopped a centimetre away from my cheek. This didn’t stop me from cringing back. He looked at me again, and his eyes said, I told you so. I decided a different tactic. “You know you shouldn’t leave that knife lying around here.” “What knife?” “The one right there,” I nodded to a corner on the other side of the van. He went over there to explore. This was my chance. I ran and opened the door. When I was on the ground I ran like the wind towards the beach. My flip-flops were slowing me down so I lost them behind me. I normally didn’t run, but when I ran, I could run. If I wanted to I could run like the wind. One thing about running, was when my bare feet hitting the cement made me think of freedom. I loved that feeling. I could hear faint footsteps behind me. I ran faster. I made it to the beach and ran on the sand near the water, where it was harder. my black hair was flowing wildly behind me. My baby blue eyes were looking for ways to escape. Many people were yelling at me to stop running, I ignored them. After a while of running I slowed down to see if anyone was following me. No one was, I grinned to myself. I walked fast pace still. I went towards a forest of trees. Maybe I could escape there. I walked a couple of metres into the forest until I couldn’t find see my way back. When I took another step a hand snaked around my mouth again. “Think you can get away that easily?” Ash asked and took his hand from my mouth to only grab my arm. “I did get away didn’t I?” I pointed out. Ash squeezed my arm tighter. “You got a smart mouth, when I could just kill you.” “Tear tear, you honestly think I’m scared?” I turned to face him. “You should be, because I could kill you and get in trouble, but instead I also could make a few scars on you that would last forever,” he threatened. I shivered when I thought of scars. “What now?” I softly asked. I thought of my friends who I would be leaving. My baby blue eyes stare at him. I still wasn’t afraid but I couldn’t let him know that. Ash stared right back into my eyes. “We go back.” “To those idiotic men?” I asked, not even thinking of what I was saying. Ask took a knife from his belt and lightly skinned my arm. It was so gentle that it didn’t break my skin, a warning I thought. “Yes, let’s go," he replied. He took my arm even more rougher and started to drag me. I knew how to handle abuse from my father, he always beat me, so I couldn't stand it from Ash though. I took my arm roughly from his reach and he stopped walking. "Don't touch me again," I said through clenched teeth. "Listen, I don't care whatever your name is-" "Rashel, my name is Rashel; and no you listen, don't ever touch me again," I ordered him. Since I suffered years of abuse from my dad, I was not going to take it from Ash. I had bruises all over my body, I had hopped the tan would have covered them but most were still visible. The arm Ash had grabbed was- literallyblack and blue circles everywhere from his punches, and hand prints from his grabs. When I said that to Ash he looked at my arm, taking in all the bruises I had on my arm. Then carefully studies my legs and other arm. All were the same, black and blue. I could see curiosity in his dark eyes, as he met mine. Then he looked at my neck, there too were bruises from the time my dad had tried to strangle me, when I told him I was going to Cuba. Again Ash met my eyes and stared. "Fine, then. Just walk," he finally said. I smiled a sweet smile, "No problem." "I mean it, if you run I will catch you, and there will be pain," Ash warned. "I said fine didn't I?" That was good enough and we started walking back,

after ten minutes of walking I wanted to start a conversation, "Why does your boss want me?" Ash looked at me with a serious look, "I don't know." "Okay then, what will I be doing in the future?" "Your staying on a yacht that we own in California and that’s all I know.” I had a feeling he was lying, but I didn’t say anything. "Great I feel like an experiment," I saw Ash's lips twitch a little. Now that I studied him, he was around six foot three, and had short dark, brown hair, same colour as his eyes. his legs were long like a models. I felt short compared to him, and I was five foot nine. I didn't know what to do. Obviously I couldn't get away from him, and her would most gladly kill me if I tried. So we walked back to where the van was side by side. The driver came around and grabbed me by my arm, just as Ash did before. "You think you could get away you little slut?" What an ass. I wanted to tell him that. Before I could though, Ask took me from him. "Tom, stop," he ordered the driver, whose name was now Tom. Then Ash opened the van door and threw me in. Then he climbed in too. I cringed to the farthest corner away from all of them, and shut my eyes. I could hear the door slam and the van started moving. I didn't know what I felt anymore. I was a little scared, although I tried not to show it. However I'm sure my eyes gave it away. I wrapped myself into a small, tight ball, and tried to go to sleep. I couldn't so I kept my eyes open, staring at the ground. The music was playing so loud, it must have been over five hours now and I was so exhausted. Especially since it was breaking dawn and I haven't got any sleep the night before. I looked around my eyes met Ash’s. He was staring at me intensely. Since the other’s couldn’t hear us I decided to speak up. “What?” I asked. “Why do you have all those bruises?” I knew the question was going to come up. “My dad,” I told him quietly. “Did you tell anyone?” I shook my head. “What do you do to get him angry?” Ash asked. I scoffed. “Not washing the dishes how he wants them washed, not going to school early enough, disturbing his silence by walking around him, closing doors too loud, opening windows without his permission. Do I need to go on?” “No,” then Ash looked away. However before he looked away I could tell I caught a glimpse of pity in his eyes. Maybe he wasn’t as bad as I thought. “Where are we going now?” “An airport, to get to California,” he replied still not looking at me. I closed my eyes and fell fast asleep. ***** “Rashel wake up,” Ash was shaking me awake. “We’re at the airport, act natural or else we will kill you on the spot.” So much for his kindness. I walked out of the car. I found my flip-flops where I had lost them and put them on. We all walked through the front doors, Tom, Ash, the passenger guy, and me, the victim. The airport was okay, it was nothing big. We stood in line for an hour, not saying anything to get Ash’s, Tom’s and passenger guy’s luggage checked in. I didn’t have any cloths with me. I felt naked. I still only had a cotton, strap dress on. I wondered how they were going to guns on board. but then again they looked professional. So they probably managed. We finally got to the stage where we get on the plane. I had a window seat and Ash was sitting beside me. Tom and the other guy were sitting two rows in front of us. “What’s the passenger’s guy’s name?” I asked because I can’t keep calling him passenger guy. “Rudy,” Ash answered. The plane finally took off and again I closed my eyes. I thought of everything that happened. I got kidnapped, abused, threatened, lost

all my items, and I’m sitting on a plane with a hot looking guy and two idiots name Rudy, and Tom. I smiled at the thought. “What are you smiling about?” asked Ash, noticing my smile. “Everything,” I simply said and fell asleep. When I woke up an hour later, we were almost in California, and I was sleeping on Ash’s shoulder. Woops, that was embarrassing. “Sorry,” I apologized. Ash didn’t reply, just kept looking forward. I looked out the window. All I saw were clouds and clouds. It’s was actually getting quite chilly in the plane and I shivered. Ash noticed and finally said something. “Do you want my sweater?” Then I noticed he was wearing a zip up sweater that looked really expensive. It was baby blue, just like my eyes. “Sure, thanks,” I replied. When he took off the sweater I admired his muscular arms and the way he could possible inflict damage with a flick of his wrist. I put the sweater on and he was again staring at me. “Do you wear contacts?” he asked suddenly. “No, my eyes are just baby blue.” Ash looked at my eyes again and turned away. I sighed and looked back at the window. Still an hour until we land. I decided going to the bathroom would pass the time. "I'm going to the bathroom." "I'm coming with you." "No," I countered, "do you know how bad that would look if a guy came with a girl to the bathroom?" Ash thought about this, "Fine just hurry up." I smiled, went past him and headed for the bathrooms. I didn't actually had to go, so when I came in I looked at myself in the mirror. My face looked weary and tiered. So I splashes some water onto it. It looked a little better. I combed my hair with my fingers, and put some water on it too so it wouldn't stand up filled with static. When I came out of the bathroom, I notice there were soccer players sitting in a row, they were smoking hot. Yet I didn’t want any of them. When I walked by a couple wolf whistled. One of the soccer players, the hottest stood up and cornered me against a seat. “Hey,” he said. “Hello.” “My name’s Curtis. What’s yours baby?” “Rashel,” I curtly responded. “Nice name. Rashel. So, how about me and you in the bathroom, right now?” I stood staring at him, what an inappropriate question. He mistaken my silence and leaned in closer to me. I searched for a place to run. When his lips were an inch away from mine I was planning to hit him. Except that Curtis pinned my arms to the seat. Then a hand came on my shoulder. “Hey baby, I was wondering where you were,” a voice spoke. Oh my God it was Ash. I decided to play along. “Sorry, something held me up,” I said, staring at Curtis. Curtis looked Ash over and over again, judging whether he could beat him in a fight. Finally he gave up. “Sorry man, didn’t know she was taken,” Curtis apologized. “No hard feelings,” Ash responded and took my hand. He lead me to our seats and let go. “I didn’t know you liked soccer so much,” Ash said when we were seated. “I didn’t know you cared,” I countered. “It’s my job to look after you, and you make it difficult when your making out with other guys.” “Fuck off,” I muttered. Hopefully he didn’t hear me. It looked like he didn’t. ***** I didn't do anything until we landed. When we walked, I just followed blindly. We finally got into a car, that Tom started driving. Eventually we made

it to a beach and Rudy was arguing with Tom about who I'll room with. "No she can room with me," Tom said. "No, with me," Rudy argued. "She'll room with me," Ash said sternly. With the seriousness of his voice no said anything back to him. "Um... don't I have a say in this?" I spoke up. "No," Ash quickly replied. It looked like they weren’t telling the whole truth, so I decided to test their lying skills. Maybe they would lie or not. “Why did you guys kidnap me?” “Boss said so,” Rudy answered. “Why?” I curiously asked. “Boss said your special, and we gotta get you," Tom added. "Why am I special again?" They all looked at me like I was stupid. Then they turned around and ignored me when I kept asking why. After a while on the road, we came to a stop in front of Starbucks. "Okay who wants what?" Rudy asked. I wanted to stretch my legs so I volunteered to go get the coffees. "No," Rudy, Tom, and Ash said at the same time. "Come on guys," I whined, "I really need to stretch my legs. They are unbelievably cramped. Please, please, please, please, plea-" "Fine!" Tom cut in. "Ash go with her." "N-" "Yes," Rudy cut in. "Fine," Ash grumbled. I got out of the car, closely followed behind Ash. When we went in a lot of people stared at us. Probably because I was dirty and had the same cloths on for over 24 hours now, and Ash was the same. When stood in the line. I was looking at all the people when one came up to me. "Hey Rashel, looking good," a deep voice said. I looked up, startled, and didn't know what to say. It was Quinn, the quarterback of our little high school. I knew he was the most sought out guy by the girls, and if you were with him once, then you were a star. Only you had to be with him, with him. As in sleep with him. He kept flirting with me after school, but then I went to Cuba so I didn't talk to him. Quinn was cute in a way. He had black shaggy hair, and green eyes. He was tall, about six foot five, with long muscular legs. I had no clue what he was doing here. I mean, we all lived on P.E.I. "Hey Quinn," I finally stammered. I glanced nervously at Ash who was staring at the guy. "I haven't seen you in a while. I miss you babe. Why don't you come with me and my friends back to our hotel?" Quinn asked while staring at Ash. "Umm....actually I am already here with someone," and then I felt Ash's hand wrap around my waist. "So ditch'em,"Quinn rudely stated. "Can't sorry," and I turned my back on him. Quinn roughly grabbed my arm and started dragging me back to the washroom stalls. "Let. Go. Of. Me." "No, come' on it'll be fun," then he pressed me against the wall and stuck him tongue down my throat. I pushed against him, but him being a quarterback and me being a fragile little girl, I didn't know what to do. Then someone turned Quinn away from me and punched him in the face. Ash. Quinn fell down to the floor, unconscious. “Thanks.” “Come’ on. Let’s just go before his posse comes and kills me.” “Fine with me,” I agreed. We went to the car and got in. “What no Starbucks?” Rudy and Tom complained. “Go around to the drive through,” I told them. They did as I told them. When we got there, Rudy and Tom said they didn’t know what to say. So I volunteered. I got up and stared yelling through the window. “Two Grande coffee, one Grande vanilla bean frappaccino, and...” I looked over at Ash.

“A coffee,” he mouthed. “Another coffee, same size,” “Thanks,” the lady said through the speakers. We drove to the little window and waited. When we got our orders, I got a lot of whipped cream. "Yum," and I dug in, starting drinking it like crazy. I missed these things. I love them so much. My favourite ever. I also was crazy hungry. I hadn't eaten since a day ago. When I looked up everyone was staring at me. "What? I haven't even anything for a day." They all burst in laughter. I frowned and went back to drinking my frappaccino. One we got back on the road, to where ever we were heading, Rudy spoke up. “Hey Rashel, why ain’t you running from us?” I thought about that question. I had a couple of answers. 1. Was that I had an abusive father and my mother doesn’t care about me. I raised myself when I was a kid. 2. They could probably catch me. 3. My friends weren’t really good friends. 4. I wouldn’t miss anyone at home, and technically I had no home, because I didn’t feel safe anywhere. I decided on my answer. “I have four good reasons, and only one to run away. So the four won,” I replied. The one good reason that I should run away was that they could kill me. Oh well I always wanted adventure. “What are those four good reasons?” Tom asked. “Not telling,” I said as I was staring at the bruises on my arms and legs. Without thinking I reached out and put my hand over the bruise on my leg that was a handprint. It was from when my father dragged me last week. Then he threw me down the stairs. I didn’t cry though. I gave up crying a long time ago. The handprint was larger than mine. I looked up and found Ash staring at my hand and the handprint. I took my hand away and folded my legs underneath me. Ash met my eyes, and gave me a long hard stare. He was looking as if he was trying to figure me out. Good luck. I was not giving up anything. Without a fight. An idea came to me. It was something I did when I was bored. “Hey do you guys have any piece of paper, and a pencil?” “Why?” Rudy asked. “I’m bored.” “Fine, just don’t stab us. Here you go,” he handed me a blank piece of paper and a pencil. So I started drawing. I love drawing. The funny thing is that the only thing I can draw are wolves. All kind of wolves. Nothing else. Once my pencil hit the paper, the van went into silence. And that’s the way it still until an hour and half later I was done. I drew a pretty wolf. Two mates actually. They were wild and furry. The whole page was filled with them. I shaded their fur and made a beautiful moon. In the moon I wrote: My territory, Fur glistening in sleek snow, I am the leader. I learned how to do Haiku in English at school. I stared at my picture. For once everything seemed so right. At home when I used to draw, everything was good but it was always wrong to me. I smiled to myself. “So what’s you draw?” Rudy yelled back to me. “Something,” not wanting to give away anything. “Let’s see!” whined Tom. Before I could respond, Ask snatched the paper out of my hand. “Hey! Give it back!” I felt like a little kid. I suddenly had a memory flash back. Once up on a time I had this friend, David. I was fourteen years old and he was seventeen years old. We met at the park once, when I was sitting on a bench at the park, with bruises everywhere because of my dad. I had tear stained cheeks, and my face was a bit swollen from the hitting. I also had a broken arm. He found

me sitting there and sat beside me. "Hey what's up?" he said. This stranger was way good looking, and I had no idea why he was talking to me. "Hello," I meekly replied. "What's wrong?" "Nothing." "Look at me," and he took my chin and turned it toward him. "You're hurt." "I guess I am, "I told him. Then he took me to the hospital, where he pretended to be my brother. I in fact did have a broken arm and a couple of bruised ribs. I told them that I had fallen down the stairs. The nurses believed that, but David didn't. Later on I told him the real reason, and he just held me and we sat like that. A year later David told me he was in love with me, and he wanted me to become his forever. As in sleep with and marriage. Or run away with him. I told him I couldn't and we got into a huge fight. I was yelling and he was yelling. Finally my mother came home and he had to leave. But before he left he said one thing to me. "You will be mine." I stopped feeling like a child since then, and I never had. Until Ash. "Rashel?" Ash was trying to get my attention. "What? Oh yeah. What?" I came back to earth. Ask looked at me weirdly. "Before we go, the boss ordered that we get you new cloths. So come' on and we'll go to the mall." "Great," I said sarcastically. I hate shopping. Absolutely loathed it. ***** One we were in the mall I never asked where are we going to get money. “What about money?” I asked Ash. “Unlimited budget. So buy whatever you want.” I looked into a window and saw my reflection. My silky, wonderful hair was all tangled up. My white cotton dress was turning a shade of brown, and my flip flops were messed. “Okay, first stop is the hair dressers.” I went to a salon, and got my hair trimmed a tiny bit, I always loved my long black hair. “Oh Ash? Are we going to stop at a hotel? I desperately need a shower.” “Yeah, tonight.” Since that was his answer, I bought shampoo and body wash, and a razor. Next we went to some clothing store, and I got two white tank-tops, a black and nude bra. Since I had a white one on, that too needed a wash. Buying bras was a little awkward, but Ash said he would stay outside the store So that was fine. I also bought more under wear. I got two dresses, one brown, and the other gold. They were light summer dresses. We went to Aldo, and I was stuck on the shoes. I didn’t want to get. I tried on some high black pumps. “What do you think?” I asked Ash. They were just normal black high heels with an open toe. “They’re okay.” “Fine don’t be enthusiastic.” Just to freak him out I came back with six inch black high heels, and they lace up my leg in an x shape. “What about these,” I said with a smile. Ash stared at them, “ I like those,” he said surprisingly. “Fine we’re getting them then.” I also got another pair of gold high heels, and three pairs of flip-flops. After we got my nails, manicure and pedicure done, Ash said, “The boss wants you to get one formal dress.” “Fine, we might as well.” then we went to Le Chateau. I tried on three different kinds of dress that I didn’t like. Finally when I found one I did like, I went out to show Ash. It was a deep red dress, strapless, and open at the bottom. The middle was lace that wrinkled down my rib cage. Then it had crystals on pieces of the lace.

The look on Ash’s face was priceless. He couldn’t speak. I could imagine what he saw. A tall slender girl, with a red dress, and black straight hair flowing down to her waist. I also put on those x black heels, just for fun. “How do I look?” I prompted. He shook his head. “You look fine, are you buying it?” That wasn’t the answer I wanted. I think my disappointment showed on my face. “Yes I’m buying it, let’s go already.” I just wanted to get out of there. When we were walking towards the car I saw an unexpected, and unwanted surprise. “Well, well, well, if it isn’t Rashel Youngblood. And who’s this? Another boy toy?” When my enemy, Sarah Flounder said that, it sound as if I have my own harem of men. I hated her so much. She was only mad at me because her boyfriend broke up with her because he was in love with me. She was also the most powerful, and popular girl I have ever known. “Hello Sarah. Nice seeing you here,” I put on a fake smile. “Hey babe!” someone called from the back, I think it was Miles, another guy who wanted me. “Shut up!” Sarah called back, “watch who you hook up with slut.” Oh no she did not. I got some dirt on her too. “Wait, wait, wait. You’re calling me the slut, when you sleep with the whole football team?” I learned that from one of her ex-boyfriends. Sarah audible gasped. “Bitch,” with that she walked by and didn’t look back. I started laughing, then I looked back at Ash, who was watching me intently. “What?” I asked. “What was that about?” I decided who cares and I told him the whole story. “She used to have a boyfriend, Miles, who dumped her for me. I flirted a bit and he told me she slept with the who football team. Then Sarah had a grudge against me ever since, and that was like a year ago.” “What happened with Miles?” “I never went out with him.” “Why not?” “I hardly dated. I only had one boyfriend, who I dumped after like a week. I prefer adventure than to boyfriends. Who cares about some stupid guy who makes puppy eyes after you all the time. I also dumped him cuz we went to a club and I was dancing with another guy. Then we had a huge argument, about how I was cheating on him with that guy. Eventually I told him to go to hell, and broke up with him. He keeps following me around me, and trying to apologize. whereas he can’t get through his thick skull that I hate him.” I continued walking to the van. David was my other boyfriend, but I was never going to mention that. He threatened me and I would never have I’m again. True David loved me but he was too... well I don’t really know but anything he was just too something. Once we were in the van, I asked when we were going to get the hotel. Rudy said in an hour. So I sank down low on the floor in a corner, and tried to get some sleep. Eventually I gave up. However when I looked around me, I saw that Rudy and Ash were asleep. And Tom had earphones on listening to his iPod. Suddenly a phone started ringing. It was Ash’s. I didn’t want it to disturb him, so I crept over to it and picked it up. I saw that on the caller id it said BOSS. “Hello?” I answered. “Who is this?” a male voice said on the other line. “How about who is this?” I argued. “Rashel?” the voice asked, astonished. “Who the hell are you?” “Hahaha,” it laughed, “you’ll find out very soon, now I’ll be seeing you, my sweet.” With that he hung up. “My sweet? WTF?” I said to myself. I felt like I heard that voice a long time ago. Now I wanted answers. So I threw the phone and it hit Ash on the head. He stirred and opened his eyes. “Where the fuck are you taking me!?” I demanded. Ash looked confused, so he picked up his phone and looked through his call history. then he figured it out. “You weren’t supposed to pick up that,” he said

sternly. “Why what are you going to do? Hit me? Kill me? Why don’t you? Huh? Go ahead. Do it right now.” “Rashel, calm down.” “I will not calm the fuck down,” I tried to get up, and I managed. I headed toward the doors, and almost reached them, when something pinned me to the ground. It was Ash, he was lying on top of me. Holding my legs down with his, and my wrists were pinned above my head with both of his hands. I twisted, and tried to get out of his grasp. While Ash was just calmly eyeing me. “Are you done?” he asked. I relaxed my muscles, but didn’t give up. Yet. “No.” I gazed into his eyes. “Rashel, relax,” Ash said soothingly. With that he let go of one of my wrists, and brought his arm down to his face. I thought he was going to hurt me, and he saw the fear in my eyes. “Relax Rashel.” He stroked my cheek, and stroked the hair away from my face. Then he tucked it behind my ear. Slowly he released my other wrist and put his hand on the floor beside my face. I kept absolutely still while he just touched my face. For once in my life I felt...safe. It was such a foreign word to me. “Are you okay now?” I nodded. Ash rolled off me, and took his hand away from my face. I sat up, and he sat beside me. “Ash, why are you doing this? You can’t be more than twenty years old,” I said. “I am twenty years old. How old are you Rashel?” I thought about this. “What’s the date?” “It’s the tenth. Why?” “My birthday’s next week. I’ll be seventeen.” Ash looked at me. “Do you want to know a story Rashel?” I nodded. “Well last year I knew this girl. She was like you, didn’t care for boyfriends, wasn’t afraid to die, and she craved adventure. Well one day she decided to go out by herself to a bar. There were a lot of bad people in the bar. She knew that, but that didn’t stop her from going. Well she got drugged, and kidnapped. Later I found her, and she was in the sex trade. Her face was ruined, and she had scars everywhere. She belonged to this guy, and I challenged him. He said he would let her go if I worked for him. So I am. I was half in love with her.” “The boss is a sex trader?” “No it was his second in command. But the boss took pity on me, and decided to let her go free in exchange for my work. So here I am. Working off a dept.” “Did you ever hear from her again?” I asked. “No, never again.” That was a sad story, so I took his hand and squeezed it. He squeezed it back. “So you see Rashel. I swear to you, the boss won’t hurt you, but you have to go along with this.” I stared into his dark brown eyes. “Fine,” I whispered. “Thank you,” he whispered back. Later on he moved away to the other side of the van, but his eyes never leaving my face. Eventually I fell asleep. "Rashel, Rashel, get up," someone stirred me from my dreamless sleep. I slowly opened my eyes. I found myself staring into the face of Ash. "We're here, at the hotel. Come on."